Retirement

The easiest way to save for retirement is by way of vehicles specially designed for that purpose. The three most popular retirement vehicles available today are retirement annuities, pension funds and trust funds. The main objective of these retirement vehicles is to promote and enforce regular monthly contributions towards a retirement pension that will then be accessed at retirement time. All vehicles have investment objectives and guidelines which should be kept in mind before making the final decision on which vehicle(s) to invest in. Most funds have age limits, investment returns rates and maximum pay out amounts that are designed to provide a comfortable retirement for the person concerned.

When investing for retirement it is best to begin by looking at your personal circumstances. Do you have a regular monthly income? What are your life expectancy and total assets? How much money do you need for your retirement? If you have saved a good amount towards your retirement account you can easily give up your working lifestyle and work full time in your retirement. This will mean giving up your pension and it may not be possible for some people to give up their job.

People who work full time and contribute a good part of their annual income towards their retirement account stand a good chance of paying less tax during their lifetime than those people who contribute nothing. Those people who have investments outside their workplace stand a better chance of receiving a higher retirement annuity payout than people with unquoted pensions. Self-employed people stand a better chance of tax-free living in retirement if they are married. One reason why many self-employed people have investments outside their workplace is because they are aware of tax laws and the advantages of availing of retirement annuity schemes from registered funds and trust funds.