Hey everyone,
I wanted to start a new thread because I am curious to know at what point did you start planning for retirement and what were the first steps you took to get going with that?
I’m hoping this can be a useful thread for others in the community to reference when they start thinking about retirement?
As a financial planner I help people retire early!
In summary, set good behaviours - save something as often as possible and diversify. Property/stocks/cash are all viable options. Only consider higher risk if you have the appetite and have a secure foundation. E.g. Too many people jump straight into crypto and get burned.
Once you have established healthy habits then use planning software - or speak with a financial planner to understand how much you need to save and what in (various products or assets have different levels of accessibility and tax treatment for example).
Personally I wouldn’t speak with a financial planner straightaway because you normally need assets or disposable income already available to do something with.
And start as early as possible. Many goals like retirement are intertwined with other goals, e.g. School fees or special holidays or luxury purchases.
I started planning for retirement at 21. I’m an actuary so love financial modelling. I developed a model of my DC pension accumulation and decumulation pathway with sensitivity analyses so I could understand a rough distribution of my retirement outcomes based on salary input into my pension
Amazing! This is all really valuable advice thanks for taking the time to share it with the community!
Wow 21 good for you! 
This is a very detailed approach I like it
That’s great with the DC pension modelling! I remind clients that a pension is just one type of retirement product. Some clients intend to retire before the minimum age this could be accessed at - he n3xy why diversification with products is important 
As soon as I started working I took out an offset mortgage that I could pay extra into. I paid half of what I had left each month into that and the other half topped up my work pension. I paid the mortgage off very early and then put everything into the pension. I was able to retire on a good pension in my mid-fifties.
That’s amazing and not something I’ve heard of before! Great insight for the community! I hope you are enjoying that early retirement! 
I give my kids 2 bits of advice.
Split every pay rise with your pension. You won’t miss what you didn’t have.
Be informed. Always understand what your retirement would look like based on your current actions, then you can choose if that is the retirement you want.
If you don’t know what your financial retirement future looks like go visit an IFA. A good IFA will tell you where you are and what options you have in a straightforward way. I think of my IFA as getting the car service. Your car might be looking and driving fine but you want to keep it that way.
I am retiring this year at 55.
I really like this! The visualisation aspect is so important in order to accurately save for the lifestyle you want for your retirement!
Congrats on your retirement this year!!