![\"Middle-aged](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Pensive-investor.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Image source: Getty Images<\/p>\n
It seems \u2013 to me anyway \u2013 that everyone thinks the Triple Lock that makes the State Pension rise every year is going to have to go sooner or later. So people like me need to take action.<\/p>\n
The Triple Lock isn\u2019t up to me directly. But I\u2019m looking to act now to try and reduce the effect any changes might have on my retirement when the time comes.<\/p>\n
Triple Lock<\/p>\n
The full State Pension right now is \u00a311,973 a year. And the Triple Lock means it increases each year by whichever\u2019s highest out of inflation, average wage increases, or 2.5%.\u00a0That\u2019s a pretty nice deal, but it\u2019s expensive. There\u2019s disagreement about why and what to do about it, but I\u2019m sensing a growing acceptance that it\u2019s becoming hard to sustain.<\/p>\n
If I\u2019m right, thinking about other sources of income in retirement has never been more important. And the stock market\u2019s top of my list.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s nothing quite like a government guarantee. But in the best cases, the income generated by owning shares in businesses can even outperform the Triple Lock.<\/p>\n
Pension maths<\/p>\n
Right now, I think an investor needs a portfolio worth around \u00a3299,325 to earn \u00a311,973 a year. That\u2019s based on a 4% average dividend yield<\/a>, which looks realistic in today\u2019s market.<\/p>\n Projecting ahead 30 years to when I retire, I think the State Pension could reach \u00a329,061 a year (if the Triple Lock stays in place). That\u2019s based on a 3% annual increase.\u00a0<\/p>\n Assuming a 4% dividend yield, someone looking to retire at the same time as me will need a portfolio worth \u00a3726,525 to have a realistic shot at this. And that might be achieveable.<\/p>\n Starting from scratch, someone who invests \u00a31,000 a month needs a 4.5% average annual return to reach \u00a3726,525 within 30 years. And that\u2019s well below the 6.8% FTSE 100 has produced over the long term.<\/p>\n A stock to consider<\/p>\n In terms of specific names, Informa\u2018s (LSE:INF<\/a>) stock I like a lot. The firm\u2019s a leader in the trade show industry and high intangible assets<\/a> mean these events have very attractive unit economics.<\/p>\n With one important exception, the firm\u2019s increased its dividend at a rate above the Triple Lock each year for the last 10 years. In other words, it\u2019s been a growing income stream for investors.<\/p>\n The exception is Covid-19. Remote working proved challenging for live events and this kind of disruption (though hopefully not this specifically again) is a risk for Informa\u2019s trade show business.<\/p>\n Every business however, goes through difficult times and the firm\u2019s rebounded strongly. In a lot of ways, this highlights the company\u2019s resilience, which is crucial for a long-term investment.<\/p>\n Independence<\/p>\n Ultimately, I \u2013 and others like me \u2013 have a choice when it comes to retirement. We can either hope for the best with the State Pension, or we can think about trying to build our own income streams.<\/p>\n Relying on the State Pension looks risky to me. It\u2019s expensive and decisions about it aren\u2019t in my hands, which is why I\u2019m looking at shares in companies like Informa..<\/p>\n The business made \u00a3800m a year in free cash last year with a market value of less than \u00a312bn. It\u2019s firmly on my radar at the moment, but it\u2019s not the only one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Image source: Getty Images It seems \u2013 to me anyway \u2013 that everyone thinks the Triple Lock that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[138,24429,24430,246,111,139,69,24432,24433,24434,24435,24436,12927,24437,244,245,59721],"class_list":{"0":"post-76528","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-category-investing","10":"tag-category-retirement","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-new-zealand","13":"tag-newzealand","14":"tag-nz","15":"tag-partner-feeds-dbc-media","16":"tag-partner-feeds-fineco","17":"tag-partner-feeds-flipboard","18":"tag-partner-feeds-msn","19":"tag-partner-feeds-pluto-invest","20":"tag-partner-feeds-sharesight","21":"tag-partner-feeds-yahoo-uk","22":"tag-personal-finance","23":"tag-personalfinance","24":"tag-tickers_global-lse-inf"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}