SPONSORED CONTENT
Members don’t need to wait until the new year to sort out their finances. Here are four things members could do now to get their finances in the best possible shape for 2025 and beyond.
January 1 can often be full of “new year, new you” promises, when it feels like the pressure’s on to get life sorted on a single day. For finances in particular, it can be an expensive and stressful time, and members may be struggling to juggle festive spending and higher heating bills as it is.
Rather than leaving everything to New Year’s Day, a better approach could be for members to get started on sorting their finances now. And the weeks leading up to the new year could be the ideal time for them to reflect and look ahead.
With that in mind, here are four things members could do now to get their finances into the best possible shape for 2025:
✅ Get to know their finances better
A good place for members to start is for them to get to know their finances better and spend some time planning.
Indeed, planning makes a big difference to people’s financial wellbeing. According to our Retirement Voice 2024 report, people who say they do a great deal of planning are more than twice as likely to feel good about their money than those who do nothing (68% vs. 30%).
To help, your clients can signpost members to easy-to-digest financial education content that aims to simplify planning and boost knowledge. MoneyHelper, for instance, provides impartial guidance on a wide range of financial topics, including everyday spending, buying a house, and saving into a pension.
If your clients are with Standard Life for their workplace pension scheme, members can also get access to bitesize and jargon-free content from our financial wellbeing platform, Money Mindset. This gives members a whole library of content at their fingertips, including tips, tools, and videos.
✅ Make the most of end-of-year bonus season
If members get an end-of-year bonus, they could keep more of it by using salary sacrifice – or ‘bonus sacrifice’ – to put some or all of it into their pension plan.
Salary sacrifice means an employee agrees to reduce their salary – or in this case, their end-of-year bonus – in exchange for a pension contribution. And as their bonus payment is reduced, they’ll pay less in tax and National Insurance (NI). As a result, they get to keep more of bonus whilst still saving into their workplace pension scheme.
Following the recent Autumn Budget announcements using salary sacrifice could be a particularly attractive option for employers too. As a reminder, employer NI is set to rise to 15% from April 2025, and the threshold at which NI gets paid is also going down from £9,100 per year to £5,000. So by using salary sacrifice, employers can offset these additional costs.
Salary sacrifice might not be right for everyone, so it’s important for members to check. Read our article on bonus and salary sacrifice to learn more.
✅ Start budgeting for next year
We know that planning can go a long way to helping people feel better about their money. So it’s a good idea for your clients to encourage members to plan for the year ahead and start budgeting.
Your clients can help by pointing them towards tools and resources that make it easier for them to plan their day-to-day finances.
MoneyHelper, for instance, provides budgeting tools to help people break down and prioritise their spending, as well as savings calculators to help them work out how much money they could put away.
Standard Life workplace pension scheme members can also use Money Mindset to help them budget and plan ahead. Our platform allows members to view all their financial accounts in one place, making it easier to see where their money’s going and helping them form healthy habits. They can also use our Budget Planner to organise their everyday spending and budget for the future. Plus, our Emergency Cash Fund Builder enables members to set savings goals and set aside money for a rainy day.
✅ Bring pensions together
According to research by the Pensions Policy Institute (PPI), as of 2024 UK savers have misplaced 3.3 million pension pots – the equivalent of £31.1 billion in lost pension savings.
It’s likely that some members’ pension savings are lost or unclaimed, particularly those who’ve had a few jobs over years. So now could be a good time for members to find any missing pensions and bring them together into one pot.
Your clients can support members by signposting them to tools that help them locate lost pensions, such as the Government’s Pension Tracing Service. Standard Life workplace pension scheme members can also use our Pension Finder tool, available through Money Mindset. This scans their employment history on LinkedIn to automatically search the Pension Tracing Service – making it quick and easy to find old pensions.
Once members have found everything, they might want to consider transferring pensions into their Standard Life plan too. This could save them admin time and make it easier for them manage going forward.
Remember, transferring pensions isn’t right for everyone, and there’s no guarantee of a better income as a result of transferring.
For more insights on financial wellbeing, including resources on how you can help support your employees, visit our Financial Wellbeing hub and read our articles.
*Money Mindset is provided in partnership with Moneyhub Financial Technology Limited
Phoenix Life Limited, trading as Standard Life, is registered in England and Wales (1016269) at 1 Wythall Green Way, Wythall, Birmingham, B47 6WG.
Phoenix Life Limited is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority.
Phoenix Life Limited uses the Standard Life brand, name and logo, under licence from Phoenix Group Management Services Limited.
© 2024 Phoenix Group Management Services Limited. All rights reserved.
View more content from Standard Life at our dedicated content hub.