Retirement

[Will e]

Yes he was going to run multiple scenarios etc. and produce a 15 page report for the strategy (£1800) then it’s extra for the implementation details etc. etc.

To be honest I might just stick to fiddling around with my spreadsheet and watching videos on YouTube about different strategies.

There is a free initial meeting but I was expecting a cost of £2-300 for actual official advice!

I think if he told me it would be £1800+ the second word I would have said would have been "off".
Fair enough if someone was clueless or too busy and had plenty of money.
As you mention spreadsheets and watching YouTube on this, you seem like you don't need a bull$hitter like that.
Absolutely nowt to lose looking at it yourself at the moment.

And there are some on here who would give decent advice without sharing all your business.

 

[Fletch]

This place itself can be a good source of advice … just have to be wary of the odd bullshitters

 

[Tuono]

If Labour put 2% on income tax then I'm 100% retiring in March. Fuck giving this incompetent lot any more money.

 

[Matt Hopkins]

One I watched on YouTube was some IFA saying how he helped on bloke go from being penniless at 75 to potentially having £1m in savings at 100.
Something about handing his business over to his son and his son pays him a wage for doing so. This wage is invested and Bob's your uncle. Because everyone has a business they are able to pass to kin for a profit don't they.

Another classic is "sell your rental properties" I've got an old shed if that counts

This place itself can be a good source of advice … just have to be wary of the odd bullshitters

Ta

 

[Hucknalls Fluffer]

£1,800 sounds like a lot. I am saying that from a position of having no experience with IFAs.

I assumed an advice session would be a couple of hundred at least. If they are doing some ongoing management then fine, but that sounds like a hell of an hourly rate they are on.

I'm an IFA and that's higher than our fee but it's difficult to comment without seeing what you're getting for that fee. Is it a full review plus cashflow analysis which stress tests how robust your retirement plan is? If it consists of all of those things it's likely to be a good few hours of work in the background aside from the time spent with the adviser.

 

[DaveH]

I'm an IFA and that's higher than our fee but it's difficult to comment without seeing what you're getting for that fee. Is it a full review plus cashflow analysis which stress tests how robust your retirement plan is? If it consists of all of those things it's likely to be a good few hours of work in the background aside from the time spent with the adviser.

So 6 hours at £300 per hour?

 

[Edinburgh Black Cat]

A friend of mine is 48, left her job in accounting and finance for a charity that was a bit of a basket case and is wondering what to do next with her life. I think I should persuade her to become a pensions and investment expert.

I'm considering going down that route. Working to make businesses richer is pretty unfulfilling, and as I find myself more motivated to understand my own personal situation the IFA route starts becoming more appealing.

I think if he told me it would be £1800+ the second word I would have said would have been "off".
Fair enough if someone was clueless or too busy and had plenty of money.
As you mention spreadsheets and watching YouTube on this, you seem like you don't need a bull$hitter like that.
Absolutely nowt to lose looking at it yourself at the moment.

And there are some on here who would give decent advice without sharing all your business.

A lot of things can things can be discovered on your own but going down that route you may have to learn from expensive mistakes.

It's the niche rules and loopholes where they earn their fee, the ones where you deviate from 'conventional wisdom'.

For example, not many people realise the nuances around the minimum pension age increasing from 55 to 57. Many people will have clauses in their existing pension schemes that they can retain the 55 retirement age even if the government changes the rules, they may inadvertently lose that right if they leave that scheme to consolidate their pensions in a new workplace scheme - I bed loads of people do that withdraw realising. If you are later approaching 55 wishing you could retire, I bet you'd look bad thinking I wish I paid that £1800 rather than wait another 2/3/4/however many years.

That said, the route to becoming an IFA isn't difficult so the quality of the advice and advisor can vary drastically.
*look back

Edit: you don't always lose that right when you consolidate, it depends on the scheme details.

 

[Will e]

I'm considering going down that route. Working to make businesses richer is pretty unfulfilling, and as I find myself more motivated to understand my own personal situation the IFA route starts becoming more appealing.


A lot of things can things can be discovered on your own but going down that route you may have to learn from expensive mistakes.

It's the niche rules and loopholes where they earn their fee, the ones where you deviate from 'conventional wisdom'.

For example, not many people realise the nuances around the minimum pension age increasing from 55 to 57. Many people will have clauses in their existing pension schemes that they can retain the 55 retirement age even if the government changes the rules, they may inadvertently lose that right if they leave that scheme to consolidate their pensions in a new workplace scheme - I bed loads of people do that withdraw realising. If you are later approaching 55 wishing you could retire, I bet you'd look bad thinking I wish I paid that £1800 rather than wait another 2/3/4/however many years.

That said, the route to becoming an IFA isn't difficult so the quality of the advice and advisor can vary drastically.

Fair enough, my post wasn't to do it himself just to look into it before spending those amounts, if you have enough time most things would become apparent, but that would depend on people's situation.
Being able to make a better informed decision would be my goal first.

 

[Edinburgh Black Cat]

Fair enough, my post wasn't to do it himself just to look into it before spending those amounts, if you have enough time most things would become apparent, but that would depend on people's situation.
Being able to make a better informed decision would be my goal first.

Makes sense. Doing some research and going in with specific questions would be a great way to do it.

Google Gemini (other AI is available but Gemini is my personal favourite) is a great way to work back and forward on particular scenarios and increase your knowledge.

 

[BILLY BUS PASS]

A friend of mine is 48, left her job in accounting and finance for a charity that was a bit of a basket case and is wondering what to do next with her life. I think I should persuade her to become a pensions and investment expert.

Seeing the size of the place my IFA bought during lockdown when stamp duty was shelved I’d say it can be a pretty good career path.
It’s heavily regulated these days but summit I wish I’d done when the yards closed it wasn’t as regulated then mind.

 

[DaveH]

For example, not many people realise the nuances around the minimum pension age increasing from 55 to 57. Many people will have clauses in their existing pension schemes that they can retain the 55 retirement age even if the government changes the rules, they may inadvertently lose that right if they leave that scheme to consolidate their pensions in a new workplace scheme - I bed loads of people do that withdraw realising. If you are later approaching 55 wishing you could retire, I bet you'd look bad thinking I wish I paid that £1800 rather than wait another 2/3/4/however many years.

Like a lot of things, pensions can be difficult to understand and a lot of that is deliberate on their part. It means they can fuck about with the scheme and people do not complain quite as hard.

My pension has a defined benefit part where anything you earn up to a threshold gives you 1/75th of your wages per year up to that threshold. Then a defined contribution part, where anything over that threshold goes in to a DC pot, and the long term benefits are worked out at a different rate. Then you have the lump sum to consider along with the claiming early penalties. There is a lot going on.

I ended up spending a few hours reading the policy guides and booklets in detail, making notes and eventually producing a calculation spreadsheet that matched their worked examples. I'm quite intelligent, IT and maths is my background, but I found it confusing and found most of my colleagues did not fully understand their pension either.

Then to complicate matters more, the pension company planing projection website has some serious flaws in it. What I was putting into it did not match my spreadsheet or even their own worked examples. It was predicting a considerably lower pension than I was. In the end I pulled a copy of the javascript on their site and went through that in detail, finding out they were working out benefits on a daily basis but rounding down to a .1 accuracy, which means rounding down to the nearest 10p. Then interest on what you have earned so far is calculated daily and rounded down too. That means two lots of rounding down every day over lets say a 20 year projection. The difference is significant.

I spent a hell of a lot of time on this and there is still a little voice at the back of my head saying "are you sure you are right Dave?". At least as I get closer to retirement, my projections will get closer to theirs as the projection time becomes shorter.

I can see where an IFA who really understands the scheme and can just say, forget all that, this is how it is, can be worth a lot.

 

[Hucknalls Fluffer]

So 6 hours at £300 per hour?

That sounds about right.

I specialise in a pretty niche area and I'm chartered so the firm I work for set the rate for me at £300 p/h + VAT (I don't receive this). We have a number of options for clients when it comes to how they pay for advice ranging from an hourly rate to a % cost of funds invested with us. For some simpler calculations we have a fixed fee service, for example if a person is trying to project their defined benefit pension to age 60 we'd have a lower fixed fee for that.

In reality I can end up spending an hour at the outset for free with no guarantee that a client wants to proceed, it's probably no different to a person in the trades coming out to price a job up but not getting the work in the end.

 

[Zweiguys]

Took our savings out and turned it over to a woman at Morgan Stanley about 10 years back. Not sure what she’s doing, but she sure as hell knows what she’s doing. For the first time in my life we have more in savings than our house is worth, and we have a nice house.
Our goal now is taking a nice vacation each year and have fun before one of us gets the bad news we try hard to avoid.
My wife while working was an avid saver and it’s paying off. Anyone at any age take this advice, put some money aside each week as compound interest is as great in saving as it is harmful in debt.

 

[Fletch]

Listened to a brief podcast about how trying to time the markets rarely ever works … especially for the long term

 

[JAZZMANB]

Thanks. It’s opened a minefield as the IFA has a stipulation that he meets with a couple, not only the person who asks for advice. Which makes sense for tax reasons etc.

But my envisaged early retirement doesn’t align with my wife’s expectations! I’m not preparing meals, cleaning etc. when she’s at work, even though it’d be fair for me to do those chores.

It looks like I’ll be retired and single

Can anyone recommend a decent divorce lawyer?

I've never minded house stuff . You can't put your feet up all day . Working on your own stuff in your own time with your own rules isn't the same as Work . Radio on ,kettle on , no drama . Great . I've never needed someone to cook and clean for me .

If Labour put 2% on income tax then I'm 100% retiring in March. Fuck giving this incompetent lot any more money.

Have you got your claim on with Borisnchums for what they've spunked off you ?
It is nice paying no income tax mind you

 

[DaveH]

That sounds about right.

I specialise in a pretty niche area and I'm chartered so the firm I work for set the rate for me at £300 p/h + VAT (I don't receive this). We have a number of options for clients when it comes to how they pay for advice ranging from an hourly rate to a % cost of funds invested with us. For some simpler calculations we have a fixed fee service, for example if a person is trying to project their defined benefit pension to age 60 we'd have a lower fixed fee for that.

In reality I can end up spending an hour at the outset for free with no guarantee that a client wants to proceed, it's probably no different to a person in the trades coming out to price a job up but not getting the work in the end.

I'm surprised it is that much. In a couple of years I'll have the mortgage paid off and will be thinking about how to save/invest the monthly payment towards retirement. I was thinking of going to an IFA but best park of £2k is a lot to pay when we might not get good advice.

I hear a lot of stories about how IFAs have saved people a fortune or put their money in good investments. But I have also heard stories about bad ones and where people have lost a lot (my parents included, posted a few weeks back). I'll certainly be hesitant to give a good chunk of the first few investments to someone who may not make my life better.

 

[Hucknalls Fluffer]

I'm surprised it is that much. In a couple of years I'll have the mortgage paid off and will be thinking about how to save/invest the monthly payment towards retirement. I was thinking of going to an IFA but best park of £2k is a lot to pay when we might not get good advice.

I hear a lot of stories about how IFAs have saved people a fortune or put their money in good investments. But I have also heard stories about bad ones and where people have lost a lot (my parents included, posted a few weeks back). I'll certainly be hesitant to give a good chunk of the first few investments to someone who may not make my life better.

As always, pick a reputable firm with good reviews. If it’s some fly by night recommending something with astronomical returns and promising the earth be wary.

The cost is the cost, ultimately if the adviser can offer real value that’s the important thing.

 

[DaveI]

For example, not many people realise the nuances around the minimum pension age increasing from 55 to 57. Many people will have clauses in their existing pension schemes that they can retain the 55 retirement age even if the government changes the rules, they may inadvertently lose that right if they leave that scheme to consolidate their pensions in a new workplace scheme - I bed loads of people do that withdraw realising. .

Ooh that’s interesting. Will have to check that out.

 

[Ned Land]

Is it not something you could just do yourself? All the information is out there on how to 'work' your pensions. It really isn't that hard.
I never looked into an IFA so don't know how they really work but are you saying you pay the fee then he says do this that and the other then that's it ? No ongoing fee or any more advice? What happens when your circumstances change, do you just go back and pay another £1800 or whatever the fee is?

I always laugh at an IFA called Reeves, seem to be based up here. They do stuff on you tube, I know it's all clickbait, but they'll have stuff like can you retire at 62 with £2.50. Then goes on to say well you can if you take more risk with your money or take a part time job. No shit Sherlock I'd be pissed off if I paid a fee for that sort of advice

I just wanted an opinion of my plan really, or if I’m missing anything obvious. As I have a DB pension then I shouldn’t end up penniless.

There is the free meeting then different levels of advice. £1800 for strategy, extra for implementation.

I’ve been reading again today about the retirement ‘glide path’ but I seem to have too many options which is confusing me.

I’ve asked for some pension projections for age 57 and 60 from my employer.

 

[DrNo!]

Is it not something you could just do yourself? All the information is out there on how to 'work' your pensions. It really isn't that hard.
I never looked into an IFA so don't know how they really work but are you saying you pay the fee then he says do this that and the other then that's it ? No ongoing fee or any more advice? What happens when your circumstances change, do you just go back and pay another £1800 or whatever the fee is?

I always laugh at an IFA called Reeves, seem to be based up here. They do stuff on you tube, I know it's all clickbait, but they'll have stuff like can you retire at 62 with £2.50. Then goes on to say well you can if you take more risk with your money or take a part time job. No shit Sherlock I'd be pissed off if I paid a fee for that sort of advice

I've watched a few YT vids from Reeves. Seems like really basic advice they offer - All the vids I've watched are the same - consolidate your workplace pensions, diverisfy into low cost investments that match you risk tolerance, consider downsizing blah bla blah. Nothing anyone couldn't work out for themselves.

I'll not be paying an IFA for my retirement. Run your figures through a free compound interest calculator with a few different scenarios, get your head around withdrawal stategies to minimise tax. It's not too hard really.