James talks about how he manages his pension with the help for a professional advisor, and touches on the challenges involved in managing a pension as a self-employed individual. Produced in partnership with Steps to Investing.

My name is James Moore. I’m mid-50s. I run my own business, which is a marketing business and a technology business. We’ve been running this for 10 years with a business partner of mine.

My first pension really was a work-based pension when I started work at 21, contributing the minimum contributions on a monthly basis. When you’re employed, the employer takes care of the pension contributions for you, sets it up for you, and it becomes an almost invisible contribution. When you become self-employed, your priorities change with regards to generating your own money and making sure that you are capable of putting food on your own table. So, that does change your priorities and your perspectives around saving.

I think self-employed people are necessarily focused on what sits in front of them directly, in terms of their responsibilities to themselves and to their business and to their employees. And I think the responsibilities to longer term savings and pensions can sometimes be deprioritised. And finding the time, the inclination, and the motivation, I think as a self-employed person, to plan these things in a more structured environment does take a little bit more time than if you were employed. As a self-employed person, I view this more as a transition over time, rather than a hard stop. If you are employed, you have a hard stop.

As a self-employed person, I can make my own decisions and choices around when I loosen the chains, when I become more leisure-focused, and when I stop being entrepreneurial. When I’m thinking about buying and selling within the portfolios, I do take on advice, paid for advice and advice from family and peers. And I do actively act on this, in terms of me, whether the portfolio is managed or not, I would say, its part managed through an investment advisor and also working in collaboration with me.

I don’t make all the decisions, but I would certainly contribute to significant investments, where there is significant risk that was raised. If I was advising the James of 20 years ago or even 30 years ago, it would simply be, start early, start little, start regular, and keep it that way.