How Shareplan helped me save

Here at Health-on-Line we offer our employees a wide range of benefits – from local discounts to a focus on your health and wellbeing. It’s not only discounts with stores however that you can benefit from when you work with us, being part of the AXA Group also means you have the opportunity to invest in their sharesave scheme.

What is the Shareplan scheme with AXA?

Shareplan comes around once each year and gives AXA Group employees the opportunity to invest in an AXA Group employee share ownership fund, linked to the performance of AXA shares over the next five years, and potentially improve their situation.

How could it work in practise?

Our Sales Department Manager Tom, by his own admission was not good at saving, but knew he wanted to take steps to build his future – and shares proved the ideal way to do that.

“It was 2010, and having been historically poor at managing finances, I found myself running out of money at the end of each month without a penny saved – something which I got very frustrated at myself for.

“The Share Save Scheme gave me an opportunity to automatically save every month on the day I got paid. For me, this removed the temptation to spend, as the money literally left my account the day I got paid and I could no longer access it!

"Signing up on an annual basis also meant I committed to saving for a year, with the option to then sign into the next year if I wanted to. I could also track my savings on the Share Save Website.

“Every year I could see the money that I was building up in savings, which encouraged me to press on… were there months when I wished I hadn’t agreed to the tough commitment? Absolutely! Did I eat beans on toast in the build up to payday some months – absolutely! But you get through it and you click the button again the year after and watch your savings grow.

“I had never saved £6,000 in a year but the offer of a £5k interest-free loan and the 20% discount on the share price made saving for a house a reality.

"I had no experience of shares, I didn’t do huge amounts of research into share performance or the different schemes available, I just made the commitment for the maximum amount every year knowing that guaranteed me some savings.

“I was fortunate; the shares in 2010 were still recovering from the 2008 crash so buying them at the lower end of the market proved fruitful. The first years’ investment more than doubled!

“I was incredibly lucky that at this point the opportunity came for me to buy some land and build a property – one that I’ve now just completed!

"I’m fully aware however if it wasn’t for the Share Save scheme I’m not sure I would have developed the discipline to save, or have had the opportunity to be in the position that I am."

Shareplan is just one of the benefits that we can offer you at Health-on-Line. If you like the sound of getting involved with this share scheme then apply to join our team today.

Find out more about what roles we're currently recruiting for here.