Planning for Retirement
- Thread starter randomshenans
- Start date
Associate
- Joined
- 8 Jul 2005
- Posts
- 1,575
Lockdown has given a taste of what it would be like and i intend to work as long as possible rather than spend 24/7 under each others feet
I did similar. I've always had a degree of caution as employment is not guaranteed for many these days and therefore I focussed on debt reduction for quite a while. As a result I was mortgage free a year or so ago at 48yo. I guess our house is worth c£0.5m. I've actually kept the mortgage going incase I need to borrow any cheap money as it s one of the First Direct Offset mortgages. Effectively I could borrow a fair chunk if I needed to and not worry about paying back until I'm 65. I have a half decent final salary pension from an employer that I was with for over twenty years. That will give me £2400/month index linked at 65, maybe a bit earlier. I'm now in a fortunate position to be almost able to max out the tax exempt annual allowance by my current DC pension with employer and a SIPP I set up. The only dilemma I have is where to invest it and I'm leaving too much in cash until there is a bit more stock market certainty.
I also have two daughters to fund through education and get them started in adult life so I expect cash might be useful. I do wish I ploughed a bit more into pensions as the tax relief for higher earners is a no brainer. However sometimes having access to cash is useful and whilst 55 isn't too far away it is money that is tied up until then if you put it in a pension. I plan to have the option to do something less stressful at 55. I don't love my work enough to keep going the way some do but I recognise I'm in decent position. Always been a decent job, shied away from debt and lived within my means. I see too many mates, family members and colleagues who live vicariously on debt for today and have no plan for any of life's curve balls. My BiL ran up a whole load of debt and had to be bailed out by his parents when they had a child that has turned out to be severely disabled.
I've got mates who are relying on inheritance to fund retirement and paying off mortgages. TO all those 30 something's on here - don't leave it too late and keep a balance of cash, debt and saving. Yes its dull but its incredibly hard to retire comfortably at 65 never mind any earlier especially as we have seen the best of capital growth in UK property - which was another factor in bailing out a lot of people over the last 20 years.
Japan is a spooky view into the future. Robot carers. OAPs robbing stores to get deliberately sent to prison. Worrying inversion of demographic pyramids.... One of the reasons I am reluctance to max out my SIPP, is I wonder how different society will be in 30 years.
Soldato
By the time I get to pensionable age it will have been moved back so far I might as well be dead.
It's definitely an interesting debate. Much to the despair of socialists, i for one see that retirement by 2050/2060 will only be a privilege for those who can afford it. I suspect by then the state pension will afford people so little that if they don't have a reasonable pension they're going to find themselves working until they literally drop dead.
Do you have access to a pensions advisor through work? Typically you need to look at the costs you're incurring with your old pension, to then see whether you'd actually gain more from moving it, or if it's better remaining on it's own. Depends a lot on how much is in there as well. Normally the bigger pot, the bigger the cut the provider takes for managing it.
Soldato
My pension is with a local authority so I'm not worried at all 
Soldato
I have a pension of 6 years from a previous employer and I recently went to transfer it to PensionBee. Got a letter from the current provider of the pension saying it was worth £xxx but if I carry out the transfer to PensionBee it will be worth just over half that amount. I'm just not clued up on pensions or what it means so I just cancelled the transfer and left it with the current provider.
Caporegime
Besides saving as much as I can, increasing my pension contribution at work, putting savings into either personal pension or index fund, not sure what else most people can do if they are merely in employment with an national average salary.
Hi there
Private pension is a must if just for tax reasons and quality of life and early retirement.
I have Nest which most of us will have and also a private pension which I then transfer into another setup by my financial advisor which I pay in a large monthly figure and sometimes I make one of larger payments but never put more than 40k per year into it so I am getting maximum government contributions and can then also get some tax back at end of financial year.
Any good financial advisor can advice you well or you can research and learn more.
I will take mine and draw down on at the earliest retirement age possible which I think is now 58.
Private pension is a must if just for tax reasons and quality of life and early retirement.
I have Nest which most of us will have and also a private pension which I then transfer into another setup by my financial advisor which I pay in a large monthly figure and sometimes I make one of larger payments but never put more than 40k per year into it so I am getting maximum government contributions and can then also get some tax back at end of financial year.
Any good financial advisor can advice you well or you can research and learn more.
I will take mine and draw down on at the earliest retirement age possible which I think is now 58.
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Sadly no. It's not even like they make it easy to move, loads of jargon I just don't understand.
All I know it's even with the fees and the fact I'm not adding to it anymore, it's still growing but slowly. Bit I don't know if it would be better in the work based one.
Soldato
First thing I told my son to do when he started work at 18 was to start a sipp. He was putting in £100 a month then but will be increasing that soon, probably double. Best to get some money in there now with compound interest doing its thing, then if he has to decrease payments later for a while for a mortgage or something it won't be such an issue. I don't think many of his friends are bothering at all though, other than their workplace pensions. He's 23 now and hopefully he will be ok in 40 years or so when he can retire as who knows what condition the state pension will be in then! I'm 55 and could start drawing down on my pensions now but will probably just keep banging money in every month for the next ten years or until I finally get fed up with working.
I really feel for younger people with the government moving the goalposts all the time, seems off changing the age people will be able to take their own private pensions.
I really feel for younger people with the government moving the goalposts all the time, seems off changing the age people will be able to take their own private pensions.
Do you have children? My brother set up pensions for his children as soon as they were born.
Oh wow didn't know you could even do that. Yea I have 3.
Soldato
I think property is the only other thing. If the average joe can get on the property ladder instead of paying rent that will be in a much better position come retirement!
Holy smokes Gibbo. Hopefully you get to enjoy that in your old age
The max going in to my pension is £5250 which I thought wasn't too bad!
Associate
I'm 31 and ready to retire right now, only problem is I don't have any money! 
Soldato
I am ready too @Jasoncmor. I've been with the same company 19 years! My own fault...
Associate
@fobose - I was with my last company for almost 10 years, I hated it! Been with my current company for nearly 2 years, not much better, but i'm trying to get through college and who knows, maybe i'll get into something I enjoy!