So what does that have to do with your pension?
You might want to forget Justin Bieber, but the 10th anniversary of his epic assault on the Top 10 illustrates an important point… some things that happened a long time ago still feel quite fresh.
Retirement might seem decades off, but years can pass in the blink of an eye. What you do — or do not do — now, could make a big impact on what you’ll get in the future.
How recent do these things feel?
2000: The Harry Potter books blew up, with people queuing overnight for The Goblet of Fire
2002: The Euro goes into circulation
2003: Pirates of the Caribbean takes the box office by storm
2006: We get to overshare on Twitter for the first time
2008: Obama wins the US election
2010: The Tories and Liberals form a coalition government, following the first Hung Parliament since the seventies
2012: The London Olympics takes place
2014: The Ice Bucket Challenge sweeps the world
2016: Pokémon Go brings augmented reality gaming to phones — and people start walking into things
2017: Trump’s first inauguration
2019: Greggs launch vegan sausage rolls
2020: Kanye West announced his intention to run for the US Presidency
Some of them probably feel like yesterday, right? That’s because time flies, the older we get, so all those things, like your pension, that you think you can put off for a bit, well… maybe, you should think about doing them sooner rather than later because time’s ticking faster than you might think.
Make January the month to give future you a boost
If you want a hand getting started, check this out:
1. Think about how much you will need in the future
Obviously, you’ll have lots of lifestyle goals and milestones, but retirement is a key one, so there’s no reason not to consider how much you might need in the future, using the Pensions UK retirement living standards.
2. Look at what you might get and when you want to retire
Use the Benefit Calculator in My USS to get a personalised projection of what your USS pension could be worth in the future and see how changing your retirement date could impact that.
3. Consider the impact of saving more
The Investment Builder, the defined contribution part of USS, gives you the option to save more and benefit from tax relief. The earlier you start saving, the more you’ll also benefit from potential investment growth and compound growth*. Saving a little early on, could have a big impact in the future, rather than leaving it until later in your life, when you’re likely to need to save a lot more to get the same result.
*The value of your Investment Builder pot depends on the contributions you make and how your investments perform — it can go up or down. Compound growth is growth based on investment growth. If your investments continue to grow and you keep reinvesting those returns, this repeats year after year. This is known as compounding returns. Over the long term, compounding can significantly increase the value of your investments.
Published: 13 January 2026