The need for Additional Voluntary Contribution -Odunze Reginald C

Donna Rosato in an article captioned “5 secrets to a happy retirement” observed that “No doubt about it: More money makes you happier. Once you amass a comfortable nest egg, though, the effect weakens, says financial planner Wes Moss. For his recent book, You Can Retire Sooner Than You Think: The 5 Money Secrets of the Happiest Retirees, Moss surveyed 1,400 retirees in 46 states. The happiest ones had the highest net worths, but Moss found that money’s power to boost your mood diminished after $550,000”

The idea of voluntary contribution will increase the pension pot and stems from the inability of the pension pot to take care of the pension’s expectations, expenditures, medical expenses and other issues arising from the pension contributions.

Most retirees often discover that their pension Pot is not enough to carry them through  and that bring us to the idea of voluntary contribution. Most retirees develop one problem or the other when they discovered that their pension pot is not enough to carry out coupled with the rising cost of living and the sudden realization that the money they saved will not be able to cater for their old age.

Old age is what people pray for  right from their upward age of 15 years and I wonder why people feel terrible uncomfortable on advancing old age. The result has been that bleak rather than happiness.

And according to Richard Evans in an article in the Telegraph Newspaper he noted that “more than a million people have started a self-invested personal pension or Sip since their introduction in 1989, although many run their Sipp with help from a financial adviser.
These plans offer a simple and tax-efficient means to save in a wide variety of investments, from shares and bonds to cash and even, for more sophisticated investors, assets such as commercial property.”

The pension Reform Act 2004 and the pension Reform Act 2014 was explicit on that and it states in section 9 subsection 5 , Any employee to which the act applies may in addition to the total contribution being made by him and his employer make voluntary contribution to his retirement savings account.

The need for voluntary contribution came as a result of the insufficiency of pension contribution and the inability of some private sectors to pay accrued pension rights. The need for accrued pension stems out of the desire of the Federal Government to cater for the period preceding 2004, where an employee have put in number of years to the organization. But a situation where the organization  refused to provide for such accrued right , what do the retiree do,  of course nothing , but if there is additional voluntary contribution , it can take of any shortfall in the expectation   of the retirees pension pot.

Retirees should make it as a duty to check their pension from their Pension Fund Administrators or they make use online pension calculator which has in built mechanism capable of calculating the contributor’s likely expected values and returns based on a projected interest rate and value.

In voluntary contribution, the amount is irrelevant, it is better to start small, so that you don’t feel unsafe especially when your salary is meager, and couldn’t carry you through.

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