Get ahead of the game: start thinking about your common wealth
The next couple of weeks will see the media awash with inspirational athletes all striving for the chance to win gold, silver or bronze medals in the Commonwealth Games – a truly worthy way for those individuals to add their names to the history books and some precious metal to their medal cabinets.
But the idea of all that expensive hardware started me thinking . . . about wealth, the future and more specifically about saving and how we should be starting to think about our ‘common wealth’ in a much more holistic way.
If you start planning effectively now you could be looking forward to the ‘golden years’ in your retirement.
Life goals
We all aspire to reach certain milestones in our lives, and many (if not most) of these are intrinsically wrapped up in our finances. It may be aiming to buy your own home, get married or put your children through university – you may have big plans for when you eventually stop working, and all of these have a significant cost attached to them.
It’s worth taking some time to really think about your aspirations first, before you even consider how you’re going to afford them! Consider your timescales – these may be really vague and often dependent on reaching certain stages in your life before they are likely to become reality – but it’s a good idea to know what you’re aiming for.
Future plans
Once you’ve got some idea of what your goals are, look at your finances from a much broader and longer term perspective than you might ordinarily – particularly when considering your retirement goals.
Make sure you build a holistic picture of your retirement income – and if you are married or have a partner, it’s really important to factor in their retirement income too. Things to consider that might be a part of your ‘common wealth’ are:
- your current workplace pension
- pensions from previous employers
- what State Pension you might be entitled to (take a look at the State Pension calculator for an estimate)
- other sources of income
- your house and any other property you own (rental)
- inheritance
- shares/dividends/premium bonds
Going for gold
The trick is to really see the bigger money picture when you are thinking about your finances and to put plans in place early to save for and afford those long-term goals. You may not be aiming to add medals to your common wealth, but if you start planning effectively now you could be looking forward to the ‘golden years’ in your retirement.
