When you are looking to plan for the future, you need to be fully aware of your financial health. You might want to figure something out about your Teachers’ Pension and can use the calculators provided by the scheme. While these calculators are only for illustrative purposes, they can help you understand the impact of choices in life.
Here we look at the calculators available and why you might use them.
Retiring early
Working out your benefits if you choose early retirement is one of the most important calculations you can do. Your pension will be adjusted based on how early you choose to retire, and you can use this calculator to check if you can afford this choice.
Annual Allowance
Each year, you have an amount of money you can invest in your pension and benefit from tax relief. This annual allowance offers insight into the potential constraints and challenges when investing more money into your pension. It is important to keep on top of this if you are looking to maximise the pension benefits.
A flexibilities calculator also helps you explore how to invest more in your pension.
Earnings in retirement
Retiring from teaching doesn’t necessarily mean you stop working altogether. Teaching is a highly emotional and draining profession, and often teachers leave because they want an easier time at work. Using this calculator on the Teachers’ Pension website will allow you to calculate how much you can earn from working without your pension entitlement being impacted.
Lump sum
When you choose to retire, you can take up to 25% of your pension fund as a lump sum. This lump sum can be a significant amount and may pay off a mortgage or allow you to invest in life experiences. Understanding how much you can claim will help you plan for retirement effectively.
Final value
You can see an estimate of the final value of your pension, so you can see how comfortable you will be in retirement. This figure is important to understanding when you can retire and if you need to continue earning.
Summary
Keeping on top of your pension investment helps you make life decisions while being more informed. While these calculators cannot give you the final and definitive calculation, which will be performed by the Teachers’ Pension Scheme on application, they can give you some indication of your situation.
The content in this article was correct on 29th March 2022. You should not rely on this article to make important financial decisions. Teachers Financial Planning offers advice on pensions for teachers and non-teachers. Please use the contact form below to arrange an informal chat with an advisor and see how we can help you.