Making the most of your final working years

As retirement draws closer, many professionals find themselves at a crucial financial crossroads. The final five to ten years of your working life can play an outsized role in determining the quality and flexibility of your retirement.

With the right strategy, this period offers a valuable opportunity to consolidate gains, correct course, and lay strong foundations for the years ahead.

Maximise contributions and tax efficiency

At this stage, most individuals are at or near their peak earning potential — which means it’s the ideal time to boost savings and maximise contributions to pensions and other tax-efficient vehicles. Making full use of annual allowances across pensions, ISAs, and capital gains can help reduce your tax bill now and enhance your financial flexibility in the future.

Strategic use of carry forward rules, for example, can allow for larger pension contributions than the standard annual allowance, particularly useful for those looking to catch up.

Align investments with retirement goals

We work closely with Clients to ensure they’re not only using these allowances effectively but doing so in a way that aligns with their long-term retirement income goals. This includes reviewing and potentially adjusting investment portfolios to better reflect the timeline and lifestyle expectations for retirement.

Often, this stage of life is a good time to reassess risk tolerance: while growth is still important, protecting capital becomes increasingly significant as retirement nears.

Rebalance and simplify

Rebalancing portfolios — to ensure they remain in line with your risk profile and retirement objectives — is a key step. So too is pension consolidation. Over the course of a career, many individuals accumulate multiple pension pots, often with varying levels of performance and management fees.

Consolidating these pensions can improve visibility, reduce costs, and simplify planning, while making it easier to structure tax-efficient withdrawals in retirement. However, it is important that you and your financial planner undertake a full pension review prior to carrying out any consolidation.

Build flexibility into your retirement

Beyond the numbers, these years are also an opportunity to rethink what retirement actually looks like. Increasingly, retirement is no longer a fixed point but a phased transition. We help Clients explore more flexible approaches — from reducing hours, taking sabbaticals, or moving into consultancy roles — to support both financial sustainability and personal fulfilment.

Building flexibility into your retirement plan not only helps ease the shift in lifestyle but can also stretch savings further.

Take control of your future

Ultimately, the final working years offer a chance to take control — to streamline finances, eliminate unnecessary debt, and bring clarity to your retirement ambitions. With professional guidance, this period can be transformed from a financial countdown into a proactive and empowering phase of life.

If you’re within a decade of retirement and want to ensure you’re making the most of this vital time, we’re here to help you plan with confidence.

Articles on this website are offered only for general information and educational purposes. They are not offered as, and do not constitute, financial advice. You should not act or rely on any information contained in this website without first seeking advice from a professional.

Past performance is not a guide to future performance and may not be repeated. Capital is at risk; investments and the income from them can fall as well as rise and investors may not get back the amounts originally invested.

 Date written: 7^th August 2025

Approved by Evolution Wealth Network Ltd on 04/09/2025.