Self Employment Pensions

There are 5 main points to consider when you are setting up a pension and you are self-employed:

1. Which pension provider to use - each provider has different features and charges rolled into their offerings. You need to consider which one suits you best.
2. Which funds would be most suitable. Some funds are riskier than others and how you want your money to be invested depends on the risks you are willing to take. You may want funds that are more cautious, so your money is invested in less volatile assets. Or you may have an appetite for higher levels of risk.
3. How much can your business afford to put towards your pension. This is quite a big consideration for most business owners. The real positive here is that if you are self-employed you have the flexibility to decide how much and how ofter you pay into your pension. This could be a monthly payment, a biannual payment or a yearly payment. Your payments can be made to accommodate the cashflow of the business. 
4. Are you making the most of tax benefits or reliefs as part of your financial planning? If you're a higher rate tax payer pensions are a fantastic way to utilise tax efficiencies.
5. Can you afford not to make your pension a priority? This comes back to the idea that if you don't look after your future self, and you are self employed, no one else will. Your financial freedom in retirement is your responsibility. The biggest positive for self-employed pension planning is that you are entirely in the driving seat. No one else has a say!

Start at the end and work backwards. This may seem like a roundabout way to do things, but our advice would be to visualise your retirement first then we'll help you work out the figures with that picture in mind. Think about when you will retire, what you want to do in retirement, what sort of financial commitments you might have left, what you might want to pay for family etc. Once you have considered what life looks like in retirement, we help you work out the finances to achieve that life. As everyone is different, what that monthly figure looks like is very different from one individual to another. We have cashflow modelling experts who help you break down your goals and the steps you need to take to give you the best chance to make your retirement plans a reality. You will get a detailed report that sets out how your pension contributions now, will affect what you are paid when you start to take it in the future. But ultimately, there is no set answer for how much you "should" be paying in.... it all depends on what you want out!