A personal pension plan is independent from a State pension and is offered by various financial companies, from banks to insurance companies.
It’s limited to self-employed people or those who aren’t included in a company pension plan. It is fundamentally a tax-efficient savings fund set up by yourself to save towards your post-working days.
Starting a Personal Pension can be done with an investment of around €100 a month, however, you should consider some things before electing your monthly amount:
What’s your current age?
What age do you plan to retire at?
How much time is there left to your retirement?
What’s your current income?
Commonly, consensus recommends you should set your sights on retirement with two-thirds of your current wage – already including the State’s pension. Since a Personal Pension Plan is flexible, you may maintain your contributions at a consistent value, or you can reduce or increase them as time goes by, when suitable, with the aim of achieving your retirement fund goals. You can likewise increase your Private Pension Plan with a lump sum payment at any time.
A PPP is a highly tax-efficient method for saving towards your retirement. Monthly contributions to a Personal Pension are qualified for income tax relief and at the marginal tax rates. Let’s say you would pay 40% tax rate, then for every €1 you would put into your Personal Pension, there’s a 40 cent return in tax relief. On a larger simulation, to envision how much you could save per year: if you were to invest €1000 in Personal Pension contributions a year, it would only cost you a sixth of it, €600, with income tax relief.
| Age | Value eligible for tax relief |
|---|---|
| 30 | 15% of net relevant earnings |
| 30 to 39 | 20% |
| 40 to 49 | 25% |
| 50 to 54 | 30% |
| 55 to 59 | 35% |
| 60 plus | 40% |
It’s very much common to rely on a Personal Pension to deliver a significant flow of income for retirement years, but for that to happen it’s crucial to invest your pension wisely. Many options are available for this, such as low and high-risk investment funds in particular assets, or managed/mixed funds by investing in a portfolio of assets or self-directed funds – where you pick the assets or funds in which you choose to invest.
In the end, the Personal Pension investment that you go for should offer to you a varied range of investment possibilities that will meet your shifting situations over time. Any decision you take should be based on the investment risk levels that you are content with and should bear in mind your financial conditions and goals. It’s important to acknowledge that values of your Personal Pension can rise as well as it can fall, depending on the assets or funds you choose to invest in.
Personal Pension plans are designed to offer a fund, which is able to purchase benefits upon retirement. This offers flexibility in determining which format those benefits should take.
Warning
The value of your investment may go down as well as up. You may get back less than you invest.
Past performance is not a reliable guide to future performance.
These funds may be affected by changes in currency exchange rates.
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