{"id":537030,"date":"2026-07-12T00:21:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T00:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/537030\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T00:21:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T00:21:12","slug":"how-to-take-a-golden-gap-year-without-ruining-your-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/537030\/","title":{"rendered":"How to take a \u2018golden gap year\u2019 without ruining your retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Keep one eye on your return home<\/p>\n

In the run up to your trip, it will be easy to get completely immersed in the plans. But it\u2019s also important to think about the impact of your trip on your long-term finances and take the necessary steps to safeguard your future income.<\/p>\n

Ms Hope said: \u201cIf you\u2019re taking a pit stop in your career, then make sure you consider how this will affect your pension.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes, a simple switch like increasing your pension contributions by a percentage point or two can offset time taken away from work.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also why you should think twice about raiding your pension to fund your trip.<\/p>\n

Pension rules mean that as soon as you make a taxable withdrawal from your pension, the amount you can carry on paying into it will be reduced. This is because you\u2019ll have triggered the \u201cmoney purchase annual allowance<\/a>\u201d (MPAA), which means the maximum amount you can continue to pay into your pension reduces from 100pc of your income (up to \u00a360,000), to just \u00a310,000.<\/p>\n

The exception is if you are cashing in a pension worth less than \u00a310,000. Your withdrawal will still be taxed in the same way, but you won\u2019t trigger the MPAA.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s particularly important to avoid triggering the MPAA if you want to carry on pumping money into your pension and maintain your full allowance when you get home.<\/p>\n

But taking a year off work won\u2019t just affect your private pensions. It could also create a gap in your National Insurance record, which might affect your state pension and reduce the amount you\u2019ll eventually be able to claim.<\/p>\n

Ms Hope added: \u201cBefore you head off, it\u2019s recommended to check your official National Insurance Contributions (NICs) record using the free HMRC app. This allows you to view your contribution history, see your state pension forecast, and identify any potential gaps you may want to top up so your baseline retirement income remains protected.\u201d<\/p>\n

To qualify for the full state pension, you\u2019ll need 35 years of NICs. If you have less than this (but more than 10), you\u2019ll get a proportional payment.<\/p>\n

However, you can plug any gaps from the last six years by purchasing voluntary NICs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Keep one eye on your return home In the run up to your trip, it will be easy…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537031,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[240172,114,268,36225,85,46,2101,266,267,218772,688,2865],"class_list":["post-537030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-better-life-guide","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-financial-planning-for-retirement","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-money","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-private-pensions","tag-retirement","tag-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=537030"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537030\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}