3. Peak
As you reach your earnings peak and steadily pass this, the reality that your career will not last forever has probably set in and you need to consider life beyond your sport. We need to start planning early to make sure you have a smooth transition. Adam Hughes, Independent Financial Adviser, explains what we can do for you during this stage:
During stage 3 of our 'four stage approach to regulated financial advice for sports professionals', we consider the following:
Protection
We will continue to review the protection you already have in place as well as looking towards the future, and the inevitable transition that lies ahead. With the likelihood at this stage of you having a family and a home, we will look at increasing your protection in these areas. This could be Income & Mortgage protection as well as reviewing the career ending insurance to make sure it is still suitable for you and any dependants you may have.
Savings & Investments
As we get closer to retirement we will review to make sure that your money is achieving the goals you have set, and is readily accessible for when you need it. It could be that you require the money to help you during your transition or would like to keep it invested if you are in a comfortable financial position.
Tax Relief
At this stage of your career you will either be at or beyond your earning peak, so it could be that you would still gain very favourable tax relief by continuing to invest in tax relief schemes. Again this will be reviewed to suit your own personal circumstances.
Pensions
With an ongoing review of how your pension is performing and the amount of disposable income you have available, we will look at pension providers on the market and the possibility of raising or lowering your pension contributions to suit you and your finances.