Whatever you want from retirement - travel, time with the family, starting the business you've always dreamed of - you'll need to have the money to do it. For lots of people, the state pension is a good place to start. But you might need more than that to afford the things you want as well as the things you need.
What you'll get from the state
If you look at the Department for Work and Pensions website
, you'll see that the full basic state pension is currently £107.45 a week (£5,587.40 a year). If you've made enough National Insurance contributions during your working life, you'll get the full basic state pension when you reach state pension age. At the moment, state pension age is 65 for men and 60 for women - but it's going up, and will be 66 for both men and women by 2020.
How we can help you get more
An HSBC workplace personal pension is one way to build up a separate pot of retirement savings, which you can use to give you an extra income when you stop working. The best bit is that you don't do it all by yourself - you will receive tax relief from the government and some employers will also make a contribution towards your pension.
The value of the tax benefits will depend on your individual circumstances and tax laws could change in the future.
Please remember that the value of pensions can fall as well rise and you may not get back the amount you invested. This can also happen as a result of changes in exchange rates where overseas shares in currencies other than sterling are held. Contributions to pensions are normally tied up until you take your pension benefits.
Have you thought about what will happen and where the money will come from when you finish work and retire?
The Long Weekend is a video that helps you understand how important it is to save for your future, and how your workplace pension scheme can help you do that. It's written and presented by Vincent Franklin from BBC's The Thick Of It and The Office.
The value of the tax benefits will depend on your individual circumstances
and tax laws could change in the future.
Please remember that the value of pensions can fall as well rise and
you
may not get back the amount you invested. This can also happen as a
result
of changes in exchange rates where overseas shares in currencies other
than sterling are held. Contributions to pensions are normally tied up until
you take your pension benefits.
The Long Weekend video is the property of the National Association of Pension Funds and provided to HSBC Life (UK) Limited under License.
