Darlo1973
Striker
I've found ChatGPT and Gemini useful for financial planning. Of course you need to double check everything before making a decision but they are a good way of playing around with a few ideas.
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Retirement
- Thread starter Shieldsman
- Start date
I've found ChatGPT and Gemini useful for financial planning. Of course you need to double check everything before making a decision but they are a good way of playing around with a few ideas.
How do you do that please.
Darlo1973
Striker
you need to be or have been self employed to be able to pay class 2 contributions. they're way cheaper than class 3 though and you get the same result from both your pension (or pension forecast).
as per my other subsequent post from this tax year on I (and everyone in my circumstance) can only pay class 3 from now on as the rules have changed, which is disappointing.
i'll be honest it was very confusing and conflicting for a while, i had different advice from hmrc saying i couldn't then I could pay class 2. if i'd sorted it out sooner i would have been able to pay for more 'missing' years but it is what it is and i'm not complaining.
use the link above and ensure you have a gov.uk account. once you've logged on you can see your pension forecast and your missing years if you have them and options to pay. the wifey i spoke to on the phone earlier (from UK pensions) was top drawer though. good service and good advice. so if all of that sounds a bit of a chew on give them a call.
Thanks for that, I will look into it in more detail, I don’t think I will need to top up any insurance any way as I have got about 38 years in but I missed a few years when I set up a limited company, rather than go self employed.
Guitar Man
Midfield
As @Edinburgh Black Cat has stated the big questions are
How much is in the pot ?
How much will you be taking out a year ?
The man who wrote the 4% rule has now publicly stated it needs to be 5% in 2026 .
So going off that 5%
If it's your only income source,
A couple of holidays a year ,general repairs ,unforseen stuff ,new boiler etc you could be looking at needing 30k per year to live on, so your pot would need to be 600k to get you 30 k back at 5% .
Research in Oz suggests that people in their 80’s have exhausted all or most of their pension pot by then. That’s true for my MiL who does have some left but she’s managing it carefully.
That might change over time as superannuation didn’t come in here until that cohort were in their 40’s, so most balances were on the lower end (still are to be honest for a lot of people in their 50’s & 60’s)
Copacabana
Midfield
I found Grok and CGBT vey good, and have formulized a plan combining both of their ideas.
I have then added all the numbers to a spread sheet to hopefully confirm what they their plans are workable..
My pot consists of
45% DC Pension
21% S&S ISA
18% Cash
16% S&S fund outwith of ISA
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DaveH
Striker
Is there a state pension too?
I am on defined benefit. That plus the state pension is not as much as I think I will need for the things I want to do in my late sixties and early seventies, but I’m happy to have spent lump sum and savings by the time I am in my eighties.
whitey
Striker
Used ChatGPT to have an initial look at where we are at. Although took with a pinch of salt was reassuring to a degree. Need to start putting into savings at some point. Pot seems healthy for my age and Mrs has a couple of smaller pensions into the mix. Going before 60 would be amazing but can’t see it
Yes, but it's means tested. I won't get it until my own super/pension drops below a certain amount, which for me and the missus could be well into our late 70's. My UK pension probably won't affect it once i do qualify as you are allowed to earn a few hundred dollars a week without losing anything and according to my forecast I'll be under that.
Most people will be getting some state pension here as the average and median super balances are under the qualifying threshold for the Oz pension. there's a few sweet spots where you can have a certain amount in super, also get the pension and be better off than people with second homes etc who may on paper have more assets but they won't qualify for the pension because of that, so can only rely on the drawdown from their super.
some people draw down on their super to pay for renovations etc just to get below the threshold and get access to the pension.
DaveH
Striker
I can see means tested pensions coming in here. It makes sense but is a nightmare to implement. Anyone 20 years out from retirement will be stung hard because they have a pension designed to supplement the state pension, not replace it. So any government who introduces this measure will be very unpopular with half of working age people, but will not see the benefits of the policy until at minimum 3 more elections away.
a lot of people here who are recently retired or retiring soon feel that way. iv'e made a conscious effort to salary sacrifice into super to get my balance somewhere near decent but i know a lot haven't been able to do that since it was brought in, for many reasons, so their super balances are barely enough to get by and need that state pension top up.
Arguably it would take decades to have any meaningful impact to the UK's finances, and would undermine everything about how we contribute through NI, but you may well be right. It might be palatable perhaps if it was implemented alongside some additional tax benefit on private pensions for those impacted by means testing, to encourage increased private contributions, eg a significant increase on the Lump Sum Allowance. Guess it depends where you set the threshold though.
My guess is that the UK Govt is more likely to do something around the triple lock and qualifying age, which would be a bit more palatable and easier to implement. They should do this in some kind of cross-party process to attempt to depoliticise it. Personally think it makes sense to:
- Stop the triple lock and align pension increases to only one of the measures (probably CPI). Surely everyone agrees that the current rate of increases is far too generous and will keep compounding year-on-year to eventually make the SP utterly unaffordable.
- Lock in a process for increasing the qualifying age aligned to life expectancy. Unavoidable with an ageing population and people are already used to this happening. This is more or less what is already scheduled to happen but probably needs to be accelerated a bit.
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Darlo1973
Striker
I mostly have been using Gemini but it's always useful to compare the analysis with another tool.
It's especially good that you can upload statements and keep the conversation going so it learns more about you over time.
im not roland rat
Midfield
Needs to be a crossparty consensus to establish a Royal Commission or somesuch and agree to implement the recommendations. Shift the ‘blame’ to this Commission.
Darlo1973
Striker
Presumably this Royal Commission would be manned by the great and the good who have already retired.
Exactly what needs to happen - with no political point scoring over the agreed changes and safeguards agreed between the parliamentary parties that they won't revoke the legislation (except maybe in clearly defined exceptional circumstances such as war or a major economic crash, and even then it goes back to another independent process to decide any changes).
Edinburgh Black Cat
Striker
Totally agree triple lock needs to go. It's a stupid policy, always has been. Even a double lock would significantly more sustainable (Min x%, and one of the other two measures).
I don't hugely mind an increase in state pension age. Fundamentally opposed to increases in minimum age for private pensions. Younger people need job opportunities and if someone has the desire and means to retire at 55, let them.
My other main view, state pensions are already means tested based on income. If you've got a private pension (above ~£12k per year) then you only receive 80% or 60% of the state pension amount in your pocket.
