Plan ahead
There’s no better time than right now to plan for your retirement. Saving for retirement often gets put off as we deal with life’s more pressing demands – marriage, house, children – but each month you delay cuts significantly into the total savings you have when that day comes. Save early. Save often.

Planning
To get the most out of your retirement savings, you should figure out where you want to be and how you’re going to get there. Since people are living longer than ever, retirement savings need to last longer and work harder. It’s more important than ever to make smart financial decisions.

Decide on Your Strategy
If you are starting your retirement savings early, you can afford to be aggressive and put money into riskier funds. If your fund loses value, you have time to let it grow again. However, if you’re getting close to retirement and suddenly your investments lose 40% of their value, it will have a huge negative impact on your financial comfort in retirement.

Superannuation
The main source of funds in retirement for most people is their superannuation. If you earn a salary, it’s the law for your employer to contribute a certain portion of your income to your retirement fund.

Superannuation savings are money you can’t touch until you retire and for many of us, they will be our main income once we do finish work for the last time.

Aside from the compulsory super savings, there are also lots of things you can do to increase the money you have in retirement:

• As soon as you start work (for an employer who has a place of business in Fiji) and are within the age of 15 to 55, then you are eligible to become a compulsory Fiji National Provident Fund member. However, if you do not qualify to be a compulsory member i.e. currently working and FNPF contributions are not being deducted by your employer, then you can join the FNPF Voluntary Membership scheme. By law your employer is required to deduct a minimum of 8% from your salary each pay day and match this with a 10% contribution that is put towards your retirement savings account at FNPF.

If you’re some way from retiring, it’s easy to put superannuation to the back of your mind. But even contributing small additional amounts now can help you have a more comfortable retirement.

Below are some tips to help you accumulate sufficient funds for your retirement, you will need to:

• start on a saving and investment plan very earlier in your life;
• be disciplined enough to set-aside a regular amount constantly (either fortnightly, monthly, quarterly or annually) for a number of years before retirement;
• save and invest your money at higher interest rates, at-least higher than the inflation rate; and,
• reinvest the income/dividend earned back into the investment to allow compounding to work for you.