Jayson Churn says that as governments keep changing the rules around pensions, his retirement plan is to reap the rewards of compounding
In our Pension Diaries series, we speak to people of all ages in the UK to find out how much or how little they have saved for retirement and the realities of putting money aside for your future.
Today, we speak to Jayson Churn, 23, who lives in Southend, Essex and is a transport operations manager for his parents’ company CWD Plant and Haulage Ltd.
Jayson says many young people are reluctant to invest in pensions as they do not know what the rules will be by the time they get to retirement age. He has started investing in stocks and shares and believes putting money aside now will mean he can benefit from the power of compounding in the future.
Jayson Churn, 23, has started investing in a stocks and shares ISA, which is his plan for saving for retirement (Photo: Tom Lee/Cmot/ supplied by Ilk Agency)
What is your occupation and what was your route into it?
I left school with no qualifications despite trying really hard. I struggled with education and even though I put the work in for my GCSEs, when it came to results day, I discovered I had got Us and Ds.
My friends went on to do A-levels and went to university, but at first, I didn’t have a clue what I was going to do.
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After leaving school, I dreamt of being a truck mechanic, so I jumped on my bike and took my CV to different transport companies in the area.
I managed to get a job as a yard hand for a mechanic and I would wash lorries and sweep the yard. I would cycle four miles there and four miles back and was earning £3.30 an hour. But I was getting mechanics experience which was great.
I did that for a year and then fought to get an apprenticeship with truck manufacturing company DAF. When they asked me if I had any GCSEs, I told them I didn’t but promised to work hard and that I was willing to do whatever they needed.
The boss said he loved my attitude and gave me the job. As part of the apprenticeship, I had to do an aptitude test and failed horrendously. The director at the time called me into his office and asked if I was dyslexic. He and my line manager then asked me the test questions verbally and I scored 97 per cent. It was then found that I was dyslexic.
I ended up setting up my own logistics company and it started off really well. But then about a year ago, we had a sharp tail off and there was a big issue with trade. I realised that even though we had seen a rise in sales and turnover, we were suffering due to customs regulations abroad and manufacturers going to bigger companies who could offer cutthroat rates.
Jayson as a child with his dad Gary (Photo: supplied by Ilk Agency)
I made a decision to shut it down as I didn’t want to continue at the margins we were doing and I wanted my money under my own control rather than throwing it into a business that was losing money.
Rather than carrying on with freight, I decided I would go into waste transport, which is traditionally what my family did and I am now one of the transport operations managers for my mum and dad’s company.
How much do you earn and how many pension pots do you have?
My salary at the moment is around £25,000 a year. When I was an apprentice, I did have a company pension for my first and second job where I was paying a bit out of my wages into a pension. But I was earning so little, I honestly could not say how much I have in those two pots. It won’t be very much and I estimate it is less than £1,000 across the two pensions.
At the moment, rather than putting money into a private pension, I am investing in stocks and shares and my current plan is to keep doing that and use that money to retire on.
I only started doing it recently and am investing around £900 to £1,000 a month into stocks and shares. I have already got around £4,500 in stocks and shares and I want to keep doing that as investing from a young age means I will be able to benefit from the power of compounding.
What is your attitude to pensions and why?
I think a lot of young people feel they don’t need a pension, but you definitely do because by the time you get to 60 or 65, if you have got no back up plan, life will be very difficult. So it is very important to have a plan in place.
The problem is that when you are young, you have no idea what the rules will be by the time you get to retirement age. The Government keeps raising the retirement age. By the time I get to it, the state pension age will probably be 70 or 75.
Jayson Churn works as a transport manager for his mum and dad’s waste transport business
(Photo: Tom Lee/Cmot/supplied by Ilk Agency)
I feel the best way to counteract that is to invest in stocks and shares. I took this action as I decided I needed to think about my future and did some research.
No one knows what is going to happen in the future or what the rules will be on things like taxation.
What is your biggest barrier to saving into a pension?
I feel like education in school let me down massively. A lot of the things I have learnt about financial matters and money have come through running my own business and researching via audiobooks and YouTube.
They teach you the basics of compound interest at school, but they don’t teach you about things such as stocks and shares and ISAs and different investment accounts.
What is your biggest tip for saving for retirement?
My tip is to spend half and save half of what you earn. I know this isn’t always possible and I am lucky because at the moment, I am living at home with my parents so there are no barriers to saving.
But when I have my own place and have to pay rent or a mortgage and bills myself, it will be harder to save money, so I am making the most of the opportunity to do it now as it is the best time.
However, even though it is important to put some money away for a rainy day and retirement, it is also important to enjoy life now because you are only young once.
The Government is going to keep changing the rules when it comes to pensions so you have to be mindful of that and that is why I don’t want to throw everything into pensions. I feel everything in moderation is a good idea.
What age would you like to retire and what would be your dream retirement?
I would love to be done with work by the age of 50 or 55. If I then choose to do something because I want to, that is different from doing it out of necessity.
I’d like to have my own dream business in the future and then take a step back from it when it comes to retirement and cut down my hours or semi-retire.
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