The high cost of living in modern Britain means it can be hard to save or invest for retirement. Especially for those who’ve little-to-nothing stashed away for your later years.
This is a whopping shame considering that citizens don’t have to invest vast sums to build a comfortable retirement with UK shares.
According to Lloyds, a third of Britons don’t regularly save any money for their retirement or for a rainy day. Those nearing or in retirement are the worst culprits when it comes to NOT managing their money too. Around one in five over-55s told the FTSE 100 bank they don’t plan their finances at all.
This is a particularly damaging situation, given the inadequacies of the State Pension. Pensioner poverty in the UK has ballooned over the past decade as benefits rises have failed to keep up with the soaring cost of social care. The rumoured scrapping of the ‘triple lock’ pension increase system following Covid-19 adds further reason for Britons to be concerned.
Protecting your retirement with UK shares
The scourge of pensioner poverty is a trap that many of us can avoid. Obviously, the earlier you grasp the nettle and begin retirement planning, the more time you have to build a handsome warchest. But the returns to by made by investing in UK shares means it’s never too late to begin.
Let’s say you’re 50 years of age with nothing in the way of savings or investments, and plan to buy and then hold your UK shares for a minimum of 10 years. By the time you reach the State Pension age of 67 you can expect, with an investment of £600 a month, to have built a hefty nest egg of between £251,788 and £305,071.
Buying after the stock market crash
Those figures are based on data showing that long-term investors enjoy an average yearly return of 8-10%. But those who buy UK shares today have a chance to make even mightier returns over the next decade.
This is because the 2020 stock market crash has left stacks of top-quality stocks trading at rock-bottom prices. These will rebound in price as the economic recovery really kicks in, corporate profits recover, and market confidence comes flooding back.
Becoming an ISA millionaire
This very tactic made hundreds (if not thousands) of Stocks and Shares ISA investors million-pound shares portfolios in the last decade. They bought cheap UK shares following the 2007-2008 financial crisis and watched them boom in value during the 2010s.
I’m not sitting on my hands and hoping the State Pension will support me in retirement. This is clearly a recipe of disaster as thousands of cash-strapped pensioners will attest. I’m carrying on buying UK shares in my ISA to get rich during the inevitable economic upturn.
And The Motley Fool and its huge library of exclusive reports should help me on my quest.