Six tips to refine for your future plans in 2025
The start of a new year is a good time to look ahead, and to make sure you’re on track for the life after work that you want.
Retirement is getting closer but you could still have time to think about whether any adjustments might be necessary and to put preparations in place.
Here’s some tips to help you check you’re on track:
1. Understand how much you need
Although you’re moving closer to retirement, there’s still time for you to check how your lifestyle after working life is coming together.
Understanding how much you’ll need for your retirement income can be key to knowing whether you might still need to make any further plans and adjustments for your future.
The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) has put together some retirement living standards, based on a range of incomes, to help you work out how much you’ll need.
2. Weigh up all of your options
There’s a range of ways you could retire, and it’s important to look at how each one could impact your retirement income.
For example, you might wish to retire before your Normal Pension Age (NPA) but it’ll mean your Retirement Income Builder benefits will be reduced as you’ll receive them for longer.
Or you might want to think about retiring a little later. If you don’t feel you’re on track to achieve the income you want, a later retirement could give you more time to build up your benefits.
Alternatively, flexibly retiring could enable you to keep building some benefits while winding down your working hours and receiving some of your pension. If you’ve already flexibly retired, you may have next steps to think about.
3. Stay up to speed on other income sources
Your USS benefits that both you and your employer are contributing towards may not give the full picture of how your retirement income is taking shape.
You could be eligible to receive a State Pension to support you in retirement, however it might not be enough on its own. Find out more about what you could receive, and when, on the government’s website.
You may also have built up pension savings elsewhere, and you can search for any lost savings with the government’s Pension Tracing Service.
Additionally, you might have other sources of income such as property or other investments.
4. Get to grips with the retirement process
Brushing up on the necessary steps involved in retiring, for when the time is right, can help you feel prepared.
It’s useful to understand the timeline to retirement, to manage your expectations about how long each step takes as well as any information you’ll need to provide.
It’s also worth factoring in time ahead of speaking to your employer about retirement to enable you to consider your options, seek any guidance and financial advice, and get ready for your future.
5. Use calculators and tools to help with plans and preparations
As you move closer to retirement, using our Benefit Calculator can provide you with a personalised projection of what you could get from USS.
Log in to My USS and the calculator will already be populated with some information such as your salary, and you can explore the outcome of different retirement options.
If you’re close enough to retirement to have a retirement quote, you can also use this information in the Benefit Calculator for a more detailed projection.
6. Think about your Investment Builder options
Your Investment Builder (defined contribution) pot not only gives you a choice of ways to flexibly access it, but you can choose how any remaining savings are invested.
You don’t need to take these savings at the same time as you retire with your Retirement Income Builder (defined benefit), but looking at all the options you have will help with your retirement planning.
If you have savings remaining in your pot, you can make decisions about how they’re invested in My USS.
You should also keep your Target Retirement Age (TRA) updated in My USS to tell us when you plan to access your savings. If you don’t, it’ll be set to your NPA.
If you’ve invested through the Do It For Me Option, our team will start moving your savings to lower risk funds ahead of your TRA. If you’ve chosen the Let Me Do It Option, you’ll be contacted about your savings and options.
Published: 21 January 2025