r/PensionsUK

I am due to start a new job in a few months where I plan to join the pension plan as soon as I can. They offer 1.5 times my contribution to a maximum of 8% from me, 12% from them which is universes away from what I get currently.

I have £28k invested in my old job plan invested via Standard Life which allows me to chose my own investments and risk.

My concern is that the new work pension may not allow me that same level of flexibility or control to move my investment to a higher risk and it will be placed in a default / lower risk fund.

So would it be a good idea to keep my old pension pot with Standard Life and benefit from the funds I am currently invested in (which have performed very well) or move it all over the new plan?

Still quite new to pensions so any advice would be appreciated.

I'm trying to optimize how I split my savings between a SIPP and a Stocks & Shares ISA. Does anyone prefer prioritizing ISA contributions throughout the year for flexibility, and then doing a larger lump-sum top-up into their pension at the very end of the tax year? Or is it generally better to just drip-feed both monthly to get the benefit of dollar-cost averaging? Would love to hear how you handle your allocation strategy.

I would love a sanity check please. I think I can afford to retire tomorrow, but please could I ask for a helpful soul from the reddit to challenge me?

I currently have

• DC pension pot of 530k
• Savings (mainly S&S ISA) 206k
• Zero mortgage

Assumptions:

• I need £31k per annum (based on average actual spend over the last six years)
• For simplicity of the calculations: Everything is in current money; i.e., inflation is covered by investment growth, but I haven't modelled any higher-than-inflation growth.
• I don't need a tax free lump sum when I start taking my pension.
• I will be able to withdraw the DC pension flexibly and so that I can minimise tax.
• I qualify for full state pension which is £12,500 from the age of 67 (checked online)
• Annual tax-free amount is £12,500.
• I am currently 58. For simplicity I am assuming that I will take the full 31k this year as well.
• My parents died at 84 and 91 respectively. I would like there to be money enough to support me for 30 years till I'm 88. After that I'm happy to live on state pension only.
• I am married, but we have separate economies. My wife is 60. She has a DB pension of ~30k p.a. and 400k of savings. She qualifies for full state pension from the age of 67. So she is always going to have more money than me, and therefore for the purpose of this model I am ignoring her.

Calculations

• For the 8 years from age 58 to 66, I will each year take
  • £16,667 from the DC pot (25% tax free = £4,167 and 75% taxable 12,500). Over the 8 hears this reduces the DC pot from £530k to £397k.
  • £14,333 from the savings, reducing the savings over the 8 years from 206k to 91k
  • zero tax payable
• For the 18 years from age 66 to 84, I will each year take
  • £12,500 state pension. Assume the tax free allowance keeps up with this, so zero tax on this and zero allowance after SP.
  • 21,765 from the DC pot (25% tax free = £5,441, remaining £16,324 taxable at 20% tax = £3,625, total after tax = £18,500) , reducing it over the 18 years from 397k to 5k
  • 0 from the savings, meaning that I still have the 91k for any unforeseen major expenses
• For the 6 years from 85 to 89
  • £12,500 state pension
  • £0 from the depleted DC pot (except for the first of these years where I will of course take the 5k that was left)
  • £18,500 from the savings, reducing them to 3k
• From age 90 onwards
  • Only state pension

Question: Does this stack up? Any major flaws in my assumptions or calculations?

The budget of 31k is based on my wife and I both contributing. It costs less per person in a two-person household to live than it does for a single person. I do expect our marriage to continue, but I have thought about what would happen if we, for whatever reason, decide to call it quits.

For this contingency, I have assumed

• My living costs will go up by 25% (i.e., to 38,750) per year as a result of being single
• The assumption from the first calculation that investment growth keeps up with inflation but no more is very pessimistic. Let's instead assume that investment returns inflation + 2% each year
• Worst-case scenario is that the increase kicks in on the day I retire so there is less time to build up a saving of investment growth. In this worst-case scenario, the accumulating growth will be able to fund 10 years of the full 25%. After that, the savings are depleted and the extras I can get from modelling investment growth is reducing year on year by about £400.

Question: Does that sound reasonable? Are there any major flaws in this "contingency" model?

I’m 32, have 32k in a SIPP, 3k in an S&S ISA and a 6k emergency fund. I’m a civil servant who will receive a generous DB pension at retirement age (in line with state pension age) I earn 58k and contribute £250 p/m to my SIPP and £150 p/m to my S&S ISA. I’m hoping to retire or at least partially retire by 55. Should I continue to overweight my SIPP or prioritise my S&S ISA? I do have room to contribute some more but would like the advice of the forum on how I should go about this

Hiya

I have a nest pension worth about £12k.

I’m 55 in 6 months and can withdraw it all with tax apparently.

Pros & cons?

How much tax? Will i be able to withdraw all? If I dont withdraw how does it affect my state pension when im 67? Can i withdraw all then? Or is it added to my state pension? Does it mean an extra tenner (or so) to my state pension?

Would like to withdraw as much as i can at 55, pay off debts and for the 1st time in my life be debt free. Looking at £3-400 less in bills/loan repayments per month.

Thank you all👍❤️

Ok so, I'm male, 50. Currently have around £417k in pension savings. I'd like to retire at sixty and reckon I need about £1.3m to be comfortable. What tips do you have? Especially from anyone who is/has been in the same boat.

Salary around 120k and paying about 1500 into the pot per month.

As the heading suggests, I’m wondering what people consider to be a healthy pension pot for a comfortable retirement fund for a comfortable living including about 4-5 international holidays a year?

Situation - company director. Will be paying maximum £60k company contributions into my SIPP. Can I then add personal contributions and get tax relief on these contributions? Am I limited to contributions ? (basic pay +divis currently).

Hi all and thanks in advance.

My father has a small pension pot (32k) and is due out in 2 years.

He is adamant to take the lump sum rather than a monthly pay. He has already had the tax free amount out a few years ago.

My question is, would it be better cashing in now and place it in a decent savings account or leave it where it is for another 2yrs with a projected growth of 2.6%.

I'm fairly savvy with finances but pensions are something I'm not sure about.

Thanks.

I've seen comments in other subs that question why someone would consider a pension pot as part of a person's wider net worth when calculating.

But I always do this, I thought it's logical to do so, but I guess the argue is that it's the least liquid asset that you'll have up until retirement of course.

But what, is the correct way to consider your net worth by excluding your pension pot(s)?

I’ve been hearing about compound growth for ages and I understand the idea behind it, but I also want to know about when it actually started feeling real for people rather than just being something on paper. It feels like early on, the changes can seem quite small, so I’m wondering at what point people actually noticed it making a meaningful difference.

quick summary of our plan

currently 55, looking to retire at 58 - April 2029 ideally. At that point we’d be aiming for
- wife SIPP 100-120k
- my DC 285k
- my DB 18k pa at 60
- two full SPs at 67

my wifes bridge is 8 years to her SP, mine is 9 years to mine.

bridge plan

- wife : use her SIPP fully up to use personal allowance and maximise tax free income as a base
- my DB : at 60 it adds 18k gross which together is more than enough for our basics
- my DC : 58&59 will need 25k per year as my DB hasn’t kicked in yet. From 60 it drops to 9-10k

at my age 67, 2x SP + my DB cover all needs and wants.

I’m fussing about the bridge and trying to balance stability vs return. I plan to put the 50k I need for the first two years in a MMF regardless. its immediate money and a large amount per year so I want the certainty. The question is what do we do about the rest. I could buy two fixed term annuities at the time, or two gilt ladders. But setting those up now is 10-11 years they need to serve which feels long. And annuities are at the whim of the market at the time and we still need to consider asset allocation to get through the next three years.

Wife is currently in a TDF I think its 2035 but I’ll check. we could adjust it to 2030. If I look up average returns for a TDF ‘at maturity - ie the date its targetting’ and the asset allocation - it looks to be around 50/50. so - is it reasonable to just leave my wife’s in a 2030/2035 TDF and draw 16760 from it each year? and if that is feasible, is it therefore also feasible to put a portion of my DC (currently 100% VWRP) into a similar TDF estimated to be enough of a balance to cover the 10k a year from 60-67?

if it does spend down sooner than planned we’d have the rest of my DC to draw on. If it lasts and has some spare at the end we can flip that into VWRP or similar at 67 as we don’t expect to have any significant (if any) day to day income need from the DCs after that.

importantly this might help me stop thinking about it for 20 minutes :)

After decades of letting my Pension manage itself (lifestyle plans etc), and a divorce a few years ago, I find myself at the ripe old age 50 getting a bit concerned that I've missed the boat somewhat with making positive changes to my pension set up.

I have 3 separate pots, and for years I have wondered if it would be better off merging them all together. I am aware that the answer to this is that 'it depends', so i'm asking now in a preparatory post - what info should I collate about each pension in order to ask the question?

I will hopefully find that the process of collecting all the info together will help me realise the answer myself, but if not, I will follow up with a proper post and ask the question there.

Will the following info be enough, or is there anything missing?

• Pension Company name
• Balance Last Year
• Balance this year
• Annual Increase
• Payment in
• Annual Charges (with charge 'type' info)
• Transfer charge info
• How the money is invested within the pension

I'm hoping I can find all this info within the annual statements and not have to make any calls.

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me decide if I should move some or all of the balances together!

PS: Apologies if this is answered in the FAQ - I couldn't find it

Hiya all :) First time posting here!

19F & £30K salary, started working when I was 17 but didn't even start thinking about pensions until last Nov... (and I literally work in payroll!) Opened an SIPP with Standard Life (work won't make contributions into my pot until I'm 21, and I haven't heard great things about NEST..) and I've been depositing £200.00 a month in (+£50 tax relief.) Is this enough?

Over the 7 months I've been contributing, I've reached £1897.68 (£1400 deposits, £350 tax relief & £147 investment growth.) Estimating around £250.00 a month into my pot brings me to £3000.00 annually, which exceeds the half your age% of your salary but I'm not sure if I should be doing more?

I do have other long-term savings in my S&S ISA, but I'm stuck between kind of enjoying my money whilst I'm young and have got a lot of disposable income, or putting it all away.

Any advise on my monthly contributions?

Secondly, I'm due to receive about £33K inheritance at the end of this month (if Aviva allows!) £20K of this is going into my S&S ISA, but I'm stuck on the other £13K. Initially, I considered putting £10K into my pension, but it felt a little scary to lock all that money away in there! Give me a kick up the arse about the most responsible thing to do here?

Thank you! x

Forgive me if this has been asked before, im new to reddit.

I turn 60 in July, worked for royal mail all my life and only recently learned what an AVC is, unfortunately. I have one set up now, but I have 2 questions.

Am I right in thinking I can't access that money till im 65? And can I still pay into it from my salary after I turn 60?

Thanks in advance.

Current positions:

1. local authority DB CARE pension; i’ll likely have done 26 years if i want to retire at 60 although i might well be able to delay taking the pension

2. Standard Life pot from a previous employer: quite volatile investing but only £17k in the pot, and i may look to start topping this up with my sole trader income

3. shared cost AVC scheme which i currently whack £750/mo into and current balance is around £10,500 (have only been in for 2 years)

I’m M37 and £45k salary; i use the shared avc scheme as a tax vehicle which minimises my student loan repayments via PAYE and my current salary sacrifice is £750/mo which is offset by a £780/mo disability benefit (PIP) which i have for life.

My general plan is for the next few years, keep upping my AVC contributions while maintaining identical take home salary (until, e.g., i reach £1250/mo or so)

The DB pension is tracking at approx £30k/year if i leave it until 65. AFAIK i can’t transfer my SL pot into my AVC pot and honestly i’m content with keeping it separate for now?

Does this seem wise? Are there different options i’ve missed??

So by taking all my benefits and savings in early retirement, the USS projection calculator says Annual Income £14k and Tax-free lump sum £98k (DB and DC). But everything I read says that only 25% of a lump sum is tax free. Is the USS scheme different or is the calculator wrong?

I guess you will probably need more detail than this, but I'm wondering if at first glance you would agree that transferring my old DB pension to my SIPP makes sense.

The DB pension is small. I'm not paying into it. Transfer value around £6k. Current annual value estimated at £650 per year. I have a good 25+ years left of working/pension contributions.

Impossible to tell how well it would perform I know, but surely transferring the £6k into a bigger SIPP pot (roughly £30k) for 25+ years of likely growth makes better sense than what will be a small annual guaranteed income. Hoping you can share your thoughts. Thanks.

Hi all, not very financially literate. I’m 35 and female, I currently have a pension pot worth £141,141, and between myself and my employer we contribute approximately £970 a month (24% of my basic pay).

I would like to retire at the latest at 62 (current role is quite physical - but would look to change to a more office based role as I age). If I do change to an office based job at my company, the jobs start at a slightly lower salary, but pension contributions are on whole salary, not basic pay (for context my basic is about 13k less than my gross annual income, due to shift pay and overtime - so 13k that I’m not getting the company contributions on).

Hypothetically, if there was zero change between now and retiring at 62, my pot would stand at £455k based off contributions alone. How do you plan for growth without being delusional?

My wife is in the auto-enrol nest pension, with minimal contributions due to a lot lower income. And will also have time off for maternity soon though she only intends on taking 9 months off. So, I’m trying to get a little baseline of where my pension could be at by age 62.

Any advice?

P.s. I’ve tried and tried to encourage my wife to start a sipp, add extra contributions to her nest pension, or even start some basic investing, but she’s quite stubborn and sees that as a problem for later down the road. She is currently doing a part time degree with the OU to better her qualifications, and hopefully she will then be able to change jobs and get a somewhat better income. Bear in mind, I’ve been telling her for over a decade to do a part time OU degree (and/or other qualifications to better herself/income), and she’s only just started, so it’s like talking to a brick wall 🤦‍♀️😂