If you are not a member of your employer's retirement fund, you are self-employed or you need to increase your existing retirement savings, you can open a retirement annuity account.

A retirement annuity is a personal retirement plan which enables you to save on tax efficiently for retirement. You can start a retirement annuity through a monthly debit
order or a lump sum.

Most retirement annuities allow you to pick your own investments that can grow the money that you invest for your retirement.

The advantage of this is that it gives you control over how you grow your investment based on what you think is best for you.

Should you find this task intimidating, it is advisable to use a specialist such as a wealth manager or financial adviser.

Wealth managers have the expertise in choosing and creating an investment that suits your objectives and retirement goals.

A retirement annuity is not suitable for you if you wish to access your money before you reach the age of 55.

The only time you can make a withdrawal is if your investment value is less than R7 000 and you are no longer contributing, or you emigrate.

When you retire from a retirement annuity fund, you are allowed to take up to one-third of your retirement money in cash and transfer the balance to an annuity.

An annuity is a product that will provide you with an income during retirement.

Investing towards your retirement and building security for yourself for that period of your life when you are no longer working has its own benefits.

The government allows us to deduct contributions to these funds from taxable income up to 27.5% of all income generated.

This enables you to decrease the amount you owe the South African Revenue Service (SARS) simply because you have invested in a retirement fund.

The more that you invest in your retirement annuity each year, the higher the tax deduction will be.

The deduction will make a difference to your income tax compared to if you did not have a retirement
annuity.

This is an advantage that will be visible every year as you can get tax already paid back from Sars.

It is advisable to make the best of this opportunity as every year the tax benefit starts again.

Retirement annuities and provision for retirement plays a big role in terms of your holistic financial plan.

It is very important that you save and invest appropriately for when you do retire.

Investing in this manner allows you to have better control of your future and to make plans for other aspects of your financial plan.

When you plan and optimise the investment vehicles readily available, it is important to set objectives and come up with achievable plans to make them possible.