16 May 2026
Five key tax and savings policies a new prime minister could revisitAnyone stepping into the role of prime minister and entering Number 10 midway through a term will have some tough decisions on their plate. They will be eager to stamp their mark on their premiership, yet must balance this with the risk of reneging on key promises made to voters less than two years ago – and threaten to erode public trust in the...
12 May 2026
Gender pension gap: the big change that happens at age 28Read the full report from the AJ Bell Money Matters team
There is no hiding from the gender pension gap. But looking at how and when it starts could provide valuable insight into the best ways of working towards closing it.
New research from AJ Bell Money Matters shows that among retail investors, men and women’s pension contributions start taking...
5 May 2026
Returning to work after retiring? What you need to know for your pensionBy the time you’ve reached retirement age, you’ve likely learned that life often doesn’t go as planned. And in this case, it might mean returning to work after you thought you’d thrown in the towel for good.
You may have returned for a bit of extra cash, or just because you were missing the hustle and bustle. But if you weren’t accounting for the...
28 April 2026
Falling ill before state pension age: what are your options?There are no guarantees any of us will make it to state pension age in robust health, and in nine out of 10 areas of the UK, the average person doesn’t. It raises the question of what you’d do if you needed to fill the gap.
The problem is likely to get worse. Healthy life expectancy has fallen by two years in a decade, so if the trend continues...
27 April 2026
You might be closer to achieving your pension plan than you thinkWhen it comes time to hang up the boots, it’s common to face anxiety about our savings being enough for the retirement we imagined.
Preparing for retirement, we often think about how much we plan to spend, whether that’s continuing a similar lifestyle to your current one or abandoning the UK winters for sea-side sun. Depending on the plans, this...
24 April 2026
How much do you need to save in your pension?Setting yourself up for retirement is one of life's biggest goals, and one of the hardest to plan for.
It's impossible to know exactly how much you’ll need in retirement, because you can’t anticipate every life event or how inflation might change prices by the time you get there. However, having a number in mind can be a helpful goal to aim for...
23 April 2026
Saving for retirement when you’re self-employedWhen you work for yourself, you don’t have the luxury of auto-enrolment and a HR department to sort a pension for you. Competing pressures on your time and the fact income can be lumpier than a regular salary can mean that saving looks different for you.
But pensions are not just for employees and the powerful tax perks they come with can turn even...
21 April 2026
Pension annual allowance UK: AJ Bell guidePension annual allowance UK rules explained — and how much you can really pay into your pension. Understanding your contribution limit could make a big difference to your retirement planning. In this video, we break down how the pension annual allowance works in the UK, including what counts towards the £60,000 limit and when it might be lower. If...
21 April 2026
How to invest on a £30k salaryI started my first job in London on a salary of £30k. It wasn't the lowest salary among my friends, but every month still ended with dinners of a hodgepodge of pasta noodles from the back of my cupboard and sauce that was a few days past the best by date.
It didn’t feel very possible to set money aside for the future when it felt so necessary for...
14 April 2026
Inheritance tax and how to give from your pensionWhile you cannot directly gift your pension to another person, you can use withdrawals from your pension to fund gifts to loved ones. As pensions become included in estates for inheritance tax purposes from 6 April 2027, those facing a large inheritance tax bill, or worried about the income tax their beneficiaries may face after inheritance tax is...
13 April 2026
Investing in retirement - six things you need to knowAs you move into your 50s, 60s and beyond, your relationship with investing will naturally change. You may be thinking more about accessing your pension and generating an income or making sure you don’t outlive your pensions and other savings in later life.
While there’s plenty of change ahead - and hopefully some exciting plans - your investment...
9 April 2026
Five years from retirement: What you need to consider nowIt can be equally exciting and unnerving to think about your retirement day, but it is more of a process than a finish line.
After spending decades thinking about how to grow your pension pot, you reach a point where you might want to switch gears, instead putting more weight on preserving your wealth and generating income to support retirement...
9 April 2026
Where are under 50s investing for their retirement?A Self-invested personal pension – or SIPP for short – gives you lots of options over where to put your money.
You will need to juggle quite a few different factors to determine the best investment plan, but among the most important is your current age and the point at which you hope to retire.
Our data shows AJ Bell customers in their 30s and 40s...
31 March 2026
Creating a retirement income strategy: the different routes to considerWe all work hard during our career to put money away for later in life, with a key focus on growing wealth over time. Hitting retirement often calls for a shift to the investment strategy that might have been in places for decades.
It’s easy to say you move from growth to income, yet the way you pivot depends on your age, risk appetite, life...
11 March 2026
What the Iran conflict means for your retirement and spendingGiven the scale of the instability we are seeing in the Middle East – and specifically the knock-on impact on oil supplies and global confidence – it is inevitable there will be a short-term impact (at the very least) on people who are invested in global markets.
If you have a defined contribution (DC) pension – either set up through your employer...
19 February 2026
Should you be investing more in your pension or ISA?As much as we may want to invest, for most of us, there’s only so much money left over each month to put in the market. This means needing to pick and choose what we invest for, and how to make those investments. Fortunately, the UK offers two tax-efficient wrappers for investments through pensions and ISAs which can be a good starting point for...
11 February 2026
Will you be impacted by the state pension age increase?The state pension is the bedrock upon which millions of Brits build their retirement plans. However, the sands are shifting, with a long-trailed hike in the state pension age to 67 kicking off from April this year and completing in 2028.
In the short term, that is a recipe for confusion – many of those affected during the transition will inevitably...
2 February 2026
The most popular investments in AJ Bell ISAs and pensions in 2026It is natural for someone who shares an interest with their friends or family to want to know what relevant choices they make – whether that is the outfits they bought, the paperbacks on their bookshelf, or even the records in their music collection. The same applies to investments and where people have put their money.
We all have different tastes...
3 December 2025
What to do if you took your pension lump sum pre-BudgetIn the lead up to the Budget, many retirees opted to take a tax-free lump sum from their pension after a series of rumours that there would be cuts to the allowance.
But tax-free lump sums were not changed in the Budget, leaving some in an awkward position of now having a chunk of cash sitting in their accounts, with no need to spend it right away...
19 November 2025
How could changes to salary sacrifice affect you?Reports suggest reform of salary sacrifice pension schemes could be on the cards as the Chancellor chooses to dance around Labour’s manifesto promises to boost the public finances.
Although clamping down on salary sacrifice isn’t an explicit tax rise, many employees will see less in their pay packets and ultimately their pension pots too. And...
13 November 2025
The fate of tax-free cash in the BudgetA slash of tax-free cash is said to be off the table for this month’s Budget, according to a confirmation by treasury officials to the Telegraph.
Attacking tax-free cash at the Budget would have been a tough sell for the chancellor, raising little money and causing uproar from young and old alike.
It would also likely have led to further industrial...
10 November 2025
How much do I need to retire?Charlene Young, AJ Bell’s Senior Pensions and Savings Expert discusses how much you might need in your pension to fund the retirement you want.
9 November 2025
Pension drawdown – What you need to knowCharlene Young, Senior Pensions and Savings Expert, runs through how pension drawdown works, its advantages, risks, and tax implications.
8 November 2025
How can you access your pension at retirement? Your pension options explainedCharlene Young, Senior Pensions and Savings Expert, runs through the four mains ways that you can access the pensions savings from your SIPP.
6 November 2025
Find out why the Treasury response to AJ Bell’s pensions petition mattersMPs from the Petitions Committee have told the Treasury its response to an AJ Bell petition was not up to scratch after the Government refused to commit to current policies on pension tax-free cash or tax relief.
The Treasury’s response followed a petition raised by AJ Bell, which called for a commitment to pension tax stability. This primarily...
