In our Pension Diaries series, we speak to people of all ages in the UK to find out how much or how little they have saved for retirement and the realities of putting money aside for your future.
This week, we speak to Ross Williams, 40, who lives in Cornwall with his partner Leanne. Ross has worked as a primary school teacher for 15 years, but has handed in his notice and will be leaving teaching at the end of the summer holidays.
Despite leaving behind a“gold plated” teaching pension, Ross says he is not concerned as he is building an early retirement fund through investing and forecasts it will be worth £750,000 by the time he is 58.
What made you go into teaching?
I had always wanted to be a teacher as I was inspired by my grandfather, who was a headteacher. I have fond childhood memories of summer holidays running around massive school grounds when we had our holidays there.
I did my degree in teaching and have been a primary school teacher for the last 15 years. However, I started to fall out of love with the job over the last couple of years.
I handed my notice in May and I will be leaving teaching at the end of the summer holidays. I am currently looking at what is out there and have got a few months to think about what I want to do. I think I still want to work in education – just not be a teacher anymore.
How many pensions do you have and what is your estimated amount?
I only have the one pension and that is my teacher’s pension which I have paid into for 15 years.
Teachers’ pensions are often described as gold plated as it is a final salary pension. Even though my personal pension contribution from my salary was higher than most other jobs at 8.5 per cent, the contribution my employer paid in was higher too and I will get a guaranteed yearly pension amount when I retire.
From what I can gather, when I am 68, I will get a £10,500 teacher’s pension paid to me every year. And that is likely to go up as it is another 28 years away.
Ross, pictured with his partner Leanne, is looking for a new career after quitting teaching – though he wants to remain within the education sectorHow did you start investing and building an early retirement fund?
I have always been really interested and careful with money. My mum was a banker and I have lots of childhood memories of walking around the cashier counters and even being allowed in the safe of a bank. I don’t think that would be allowed today.
She passed away when I was 21 and we didn’t have lots of money growing up, so it was instilled in me to be careful with money.
I only started investing about three years ago after a friend introduced me to Plum’s money saving app. You attach it to your bank account and it uses AI to work out how you can save money.
New research from Plum shows that 25 per cent of people believe investing is reserved for wealthy or privileged people and 34 per cent of people have never considered investing.
Ross has always been careful with money and discovered investing three years ago. He is saving for his wedding to Leanne next yearI was among these until I started a new teaching job in September 2023 and at the same time, I decided to give the investment side of things on Plum a go. I started putting £100 a month in around pay day and invested it in a global tech fund.
I had just sold my own house and moved into my partner’s house so had quite a bit of cash available which I was saving for our next house deposit. My partner then sold her house and we have now bought a house together.
After the first year of investing, I had a return of £196. So I upped the amount I was investing to £150 a month and gradually increased my contributions. I am now saving around £600 to £700 a month.
My Plum investment account is currently up to £7,500 – and I only put in just under £5,000 myself. Investing is a long-term game and I know that in 15 to 20 years, I will have well over £500,000.
When do you plan to retire and how much do you think you’ll have saved by then?
I don’t want to keep working until I am 69 or 70. My dad has only just retired at 70 and is not in the best of health. I would ideally like to retire while I am still young enough and fit enough to do some nice things.
I am looking to potentially retire early at the age of 58 and if everything works out with investing, that should be achievable. When you add money to the Plum app, projections show that if I put in around £500 a month over the next 18 to 20 years, my investments could be worth around £750,000 by the time I’m 58.
And on top of this, I will get my teaching pension of £10,500 a year – and then the pension from whatever job I do next. I also have around £10,000 saved in ISAs.
What is your attitude to money?
Me and my partner Leanne, who works as a cognitive behaviour therapist, are getting married next May, so are saving towards that. We have a joint account for all our bills, but our own personal accounts too.
We have a rule that if we want to spend over £100, we discuss it with each other to see if it is worth it. I also have a rule that if I want to buy something, I don’t instantly buy it. I give myself a couple of weeks to think about it.
We are quite fortunate as we don’t have children and we don’t want to have children in the future. We are dog people and have a seven-year-old spaniel called Enzo. Children are expensive to bring up and we have close friends with children who have so many extra costs to pay.
Things are just so expensive at the moment, so we are trying to be careful about how we spend our money, while at the same time not being boring.
What are your dreams for retirement?
I would love to retire at 58 if I can – if not, around 60. Our goal is to buy a camper van or motor home and explore the UK and go to France and Spain as neither of us are the best fliers.
I am hoping the £750,000 investment projection will work out by age 58 – and if I can afford to save more, it might be even higher.
Would you like to be featured in Pension Diaries? E-mail: Aasma.day@theipaper.com
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