u/unvanquishedgod

68 male. Still working, half-time ish. In receipt of state pension, DB pension (not taken yet) of ~£8500. ~£100,000 in ISA/SIPP/PP, which will be about £120,000 by September.

I stooze. I have ~£30K in %BT cards, and matching money in ~5% cash accounts.

If I retire in September, my SP and DB pension will total ~£21K. After tax that will be £1600 a month. I track my spending very carefully, and I can live within that very easily. I would intend to do that, and use ISA/SIPP/PP for treats, extras, emergencies etc. By "spending" I mean money that has gone out of my control, rather than shifted from my current account to a card debt.

House is fine and paid for, children work, my oldest in particular earns a fortune, partner is already in receipt of decent DB pension and has twice inherited substantial sums. I can't imagine too many unexpected calls on my money.

But the £1600 I'm expecting to live on doesn't include the ~£300 that leaves my current account to service the stoozing debt.

So if I stop working completely, I would probably have to take some money out of ISA/SIPP/PP to service the stoozing debt.

That doesn't sound like a good idea, somehow. But I can't get my head round whether it is or not, in purely financial terms.

In another stoozing thread I posited the idea that stoozing isn't really a capital thing, but is actually a form of work. I find some "cheap" loans (the %BT card) and lend the money to somebody who will pay me a higher interest rate. So that should still be the case here.

Or should it?

Thanks for your thoughts.

I have a relatively small amount invested in equities. I hold only one single company share (Astra Zeneca). The rest is in whole developed world index trackers, accumulation funds. I also have a personal pension which is in a "cautious" fund, 30% equities (trackers, again).

Reading about bear markets, it seems that the average time for a fall is very roughly a year, then the recovery starts, which might take 2-3 years.

I assume that the various advice/data about bear and bull markets is based up simple S&P or FTSE 100 indices (or similar)

But as my funds are almost all accumulation funds, does the fact that dividends are being reinvested lessen the fall, and shorten the recovery time?

Thanks.

I have ~£80,000 in a PP with Utmost (it's an old Equitable). A while ago I started a SIPP with my broker (Interactive Investor). I only have about £6000 in the SIPP, but making regular, free, payments into it.

I can see all the various funds that my Personal Pension is invested in. Most of which seem to be available via ii. In which case it should be possible to duplicate the PP in the SIPP, yes?

The AMC on the PP is 0.75%

Am I right in thinking that moving all of the PP into the SIPP, and investing in the same, or very similar, funds would save the AMC.

Is it a good idea, or is there some more sophisticated fund management covered by the AMC that I wouldn't have time or expertise to do?

Thanks.