How much do I need to retire?

Holli Bennett, age 33, is self-employed and recently opened a HL Self-Invested Personal Pension to help her save towards retirement.

“I was employed for over 8 years, until the company I worked for went bust. I decided to take the plunge and become a self-employed contractor. I love my job and becoming a sole trader allowed me to stay in the field of work that I enjoy.

I manage the relationship between ticketing companies and events. I get to travel the world and go to some amazing places. I’ve worked at the Acura Grand Prix in California and Afro Nation festival in Puerto Rico.

There are so many great benefits to being self-employed but there are a few extra things that you must think about – one of them is saving into a pension.

I’ve always had a pension. But when I worked for a company, they did it all for me through PAYE. I wanted to continue saving into one as I know it’s important.

I’m a higher rate taxpayer so starting a pension was a tax efficient way for me to save for retirement. I get 20% tax relief back from the government and I can claim back even more through my tax return.

After doing some research, I decided to open an HL Self-Invested Personal Pension (SIPP). There are several reasons why I opened a SIPP with Hargreaves Lansdown.

Firstly, they’re a trusted company, and a few of my family members recommended them to me. The HL SIPP is also extremely flexible which suits me perfectly as a self-employed individual. My income isn’t regular. I don’t get paid the same day each month, so I needed a pension where I could make contributions whenever suited me.

I’m not forced into setting up a direct debit, so I don’t have to worry that I’ll miss a payment or get charged if I don’t have the funds to cover it.

It was easy to open my HL SIPP. I had a few old employer pensions with other providers, and I consolidated them into one to start my account. The company I worked with before went into administration, so the transfer wasn’t straightforward, but HL regularly chased my old provider on my behalf. They kept me in the loop by emailing and mailing me regular updates. I was kept up to date all the way through the process. Consolidating all my old pensions into the HL SIPP has made it much easier to manage my retirement savings.

One of the biggest challenges that I faced being self-employed and saving for retirement is managing everything myself, especially the investments. But that’s what I like about the HL SIPP, you have the option to be as hands on or hands off as you like. There are different investment solutions depending on how much you want to manage your account.

My top two tips for other self-employed people looking to save towards their future are:

1. Try and pay in regularly - No matter how much or little you can save and even if it’s not once a month it’s good to get into a saving habit of setting aside some money whenever you get paid.
2. Do your research - There’s lots of information out there and it can really help by taking some time out to learn and understand about saving for your future. I found lots of information on HL’s website and their articles are really helpful.