When planning for retirement, financial advisors will suggest you need to be able to replace 70% to 80% of your pre-retirement income. So for someone who is earning $100,000 per annum, that would require a retirement fund of $1 million to $1.5 million to maintain your standard of living post-retirement.
Now when discussing how much is necessary in order to retire we have to take into account multiple factors, such as life expectancy and expenditure, so everyone is different. However, there are practices everyone can employ in order to better plan for their retirement.
Now it’s easy to put away some money each month, whether that’s into a pension plan or a separate savings account, but the real winners are the people who accumulate their wealth over a long period of time via effective investment strategies.
The Hare and the tortoise
The hare and the tortoise, this simple analogy can be applied to long-term investing.
For example,
Client A (The Tortoise) is 21 years old, they invest 100 euros lump sum in an investment account that averages a return of 10% per annum (same as the S&P 500), every month Client A adds 200 euros to their portfolio until they are 60. Client B (The Hare) on the other hand decides to wait until the age of 31 to start investing.
Client B invests a larger sum of 1,000 euros and adds 400 euros each month, double the contribution of Client A. By the time that both Client A and B are 60 years old, Client B’s portfolio will be worth about 729,000 euros, where Client A’s will be worth around 967,000 euros.
So despite starting a with a much lower lump sum, and only contributing half the amount that Client B was able to invest, Client A accumulated a wealth worth 238,000 euros more than that of Clients B’s. What’s even more surprising to learn is Client A only invested 24,100 euros in those 10 years before Client B started investing, and in total, Client A invested almost 50,000 euros less than Client B.
As you can see from the story above, the sooner you start investing the more your wealth will accumulate during the investment period. Every year you put it off you’re quite literally costing yourself thousands that you could have during retirement.
It’s not all doom and gloom, my favorite quote has always been “The best time to plant a tree was a decade ago, the next best time is today”.
How to tailor your approach
An advisor will never recommend not having a pension, that is not the point of this blog. However, it is smart and effective to have a long term savings plan in addition to your pension. There are a few reasons for this, the first being flexibility.
Pensions are designed to be secure and low risk, but they restrict you from accessing funds. A long term investment account can be tailored to fit your own liquidity needs, if circumstances dictate you can withdraw your money (though this isn’t advisable).
An investment account is also flexible in other ways, for example contributions, there is no restriction on your contributions to an investment account, you can invest a lump sum, contribute monthly and withdraw without restriction. In addition to this, a portfolio can be tailored to fit your attitude to risk, investment size, and asset preferences. In order to tailor a portfolio to your preferences, it’s always wise to get help from a professional.
What structure is best?
Investment portfolios can be structured in such a way to improve one’s tax liability. Assurance policies provide investors with a number of advantages. The assurance policy is still managed by a licenced investment manager which means the funds can grow over the investment period whilst also being actively managed by a qualified professional.
Assurance plans are also highly tax efficient. For example an amount equalling the principle investment can be withdrawn tax free for the duration of the policy, so it’s an ideal product for individuals looking to invest a large lump sum. Furthermore, upon death of the policy holder, no inheritance tax is due on the beneficiaries.
Investing in a form of collective investment scheme is an effective way to access good management, and achieve effective diversification. To diversify an investment as a single investor is expensive and requires a high level of skill, however, becoming a portion of a large pot means the investor is given access to a wider range of assets, leading to more opportunity and lower cost.
How can Dollar cost averaging protect your funds
Contributions to a portfolio is more complex than one might think. The theory of dollar cost averaging is an effective way to mitigate against large negative fluctuations in the market. The principle of this theory is that instead of one large initial lump sum, an investor can contribute funds over a period of time when the market is at various prices. Over a long period of time, this protects the investor’s funds.
So how might one apply this? The most common practice would be to add to your portfolio monthly instead of one lump sum, couples can add a portion of their salary to their joint portfolio in order to achieve the same effect.
To summarise
The aim of this blog was to put across the value of having a tailored long term plan for your finances. As shown with the Hare and the Tortoise analogy, investing small amounts consistently over a long period of time is more effective than waiting until you can invest more in the future.
You don’t need to invest millions in order to achieve significant gains in the long run which can make retirement a lot more comfortable.
Getting started is the hard part, it’s always advisable to speak to a professional and seek guidance on
setting up your portfolio. With some careful planning it can made tax efficient and help you in achieving your mid-long term financial goals.