No. This pension plan is a great place to start, and one of (if not “the”) most important parts of your financial planning, just remember that you’re going to have financial needs in the short-term, as well as other financial needs in the medium and long-term. This pension plan is a medium-to-long term plan, specifically for making sure you have money when you’re older and retired (unless you choose to use it for a different purpose, which you can), so you’re going to need other solutions to meet other needs.
Another very important part of your overall financial planning is an emergency fund – unexpected things do happen, and whilst it’s impossible to accurately predict what unexpected expenses you might have in future, you can be 99% sure that one day, you’ll have to come up with some money to fix some unforeseen problem. Having an emergency fund, ideally worth the equivalent of three-to-six months of your expenses, held somewhere where you can quickly and easily access it in an emergency, is widely recommended by financial planning experts. Because you need this to be quickly available in an emergency, bank accounts and/or cash are ideal for this. Bank accounts and cash are a terrible long-term investment (because the interest rates are so low, or even non-existent), so don’t keep too much in this category – just enough to see you through an emergency. And if you ever need to take money out of your emergency fund, make topping it back up over the next few weeks and months a priority, so you’re always prepared for an emergency.
You’ll also want to find a good home for money which you’re saving up generally, which you can withdraw from when you want to make a large purchase, such as buy a house or car, get married, have a nice holiday etc. For this, you’ll want something which is a better investment than a bank account, but more flexible than a pension plan. A good solution is the savings product available at www.SavingsForNomads.com – it has most of the same structural benefits of this pension plan, but is much more flexible – for example you can choose shorter and longer durations, with more currency options, and you can self-manage your own investment portfolio with a wide selection of investment funds from top fund managers. Unlike the pension plan, you’ve also got the option to increase/decrease the amount you save each month, take payment holidays when you need to, and add one-off amounts to it. You can also make withdrawals whenever you need to and get a very high “loyalty bonus” if you don’t make any withdrawals.
In addition, you’ll benefit from building up a widely diversified portfolio of financial assets, for example some direct equities (stocks/shares/ownership) in specific companies you want to be a part-owner in, some cryptocurrency, and perhaps some precious metals such as gold. The more diversified your financial assets are, the more flexibility you will have overall, and the lower risk your overall portfolio will be. For regular knowledge and information on how to optimise your finances generally – not just your retirement planning – check out www.DestinyForNomads.com and stick your email address in the box in our footer.
Just don’t forget your pension plan – Future You needs Current You to start preparing now for your retirement; it’s not going to magically sort itself out, you need to act!