๐ 10 years from retirement? Your planning checklist
Published July 20, 2026 by Andrew Marker, Vanguard Europe's Head of Retail Pensions, this is a retirement-planning checklist for people roughly a decade from retiring. Key steps include opening a pension if you don't have one (contributions get topped up by government tax relief, e.g., ยฃ80 in becomes ยฃ100), tracking down and consolidating lost workplace pensions, and using Vanguard's pension calculator to check savings are on track. It highlights the 2026-27 auto-enrolment minimum of 8% and shows raising contributions to 7%/7% on a ยฃ50,000 salary could add roughly ยฃ3,000/year. It also covers shifting portfolio risk toward bonds/cash near retirement, income options like flexible drawdown and the ยฃ268,275 tax-free lump-sum cap, and tax-efficient sequencing across pensions, ISAs, and general investment accounts ahead of new ISA rules starting April 2027.
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