Pensions

Butcher's Coat said:
We were told in the late 1980's by the Thatcher Government, that the state pension would not be enough by the time came for the 20 somethings came to retire.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I did heed such advice, and am now reaping what I have sown.

As for Jezza, Labour are on the side of pensioners - especially those who are being forced to work longer to receive their old age pensions. For instance those 2.5 million women born in the 1950s have had their state pension age changed by the Tories without fair notification, which is a f***ing disgrace.
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I wasn't questioning Labours view on pensions, I was questioning the states ability to pay for it and keep the triple lock if they f*ck up the economy.
 


When retirement comes and pension contributions and national insurance contributions stop, although in most cases your gross salary is less, your net pay becomes private pensions plus state pension after income tax only. The net pay then should be reasonably similar especially when travelling expenses become redundant. As for women having the state pension put back 6 years is the reason why yours truly had to work until state pension age as well as being penalised 6% a year for retiring early except the final year where it would have been 9%. As for working beyond retirement age to subsidise Nicola Sturgeons mob who's rates of income tax are the highest in the UK ,decided to give that a miss.
 
Posh/ODvM said:
Hargreaves Lansdown SIPP. As a contractor there's only me and my Ltd company adding to the pot so it makes sense to sort it all myself. Their fees are a little higher than others but their website is very good and easy to use. I do all my own investments into whatever funds I fancy. Its working pretty well so far, although moving lump sums of dosh around between funds can feel a bit like monopoly money at times and be a bit too much fun. The first time you see your money go down as the stock market falls, that will tell you if its the right choice for you.

Who knows how long the state pension will last, especially if Comrade Corbyn gets in. So anyone not making their own provisions could be facing a bleak future.
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How long have you been going & what have your profits been like so far?

Butcher's Coat said:
We were told in the late 1980's by the Thatcher Government, that the state pension would not be enough by the time came for the 20 somethings came to retire.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I did heed such advice, and am now reaping what I have sown.

As for Jezza, Labour are on the side of pensioners - especially those who are being forced to work longer to receive their old age pensions. For instance those 2.5 million women born in the 1950s have had their state pension age changed by the Tories without fair notification, which is a f***ing disgrace.
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I might get this slightly wrong, but...

In 20 years time it’s expected we’ll have double the age of 80+ people we do now. I’ll be 55 then. Imagine that doubles again? By the time I get to state pension age, there’ll be a stupid amount of people taking out of the pot & not dying :lol:
 
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Pop said:
Ya divvint need financial advice man, by all means take some advice if you are wanting to setup additional funding like SIPP's but joining the company pension scheme is a no brainier, if you opt out you are forfeiting free money and sometimes additional benefits like life insurance.
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FFS the OP is clearly not owa strong in the financial department, so it’s best he speaks to some **** who can advise him, not ask on here.

To me, you, most on here it’s a no brainier to stay in the company scheme, for some reason the OP has gone against that, it’s wise some IFA looks over all his investments / pensions etc to make sure he’s making the best of his investments.

If that results in him opting back in to secure the best return in many years time, it’s worth a couple of hundred snots is it not.
 
box2box said:
What is a SIPP ? Which provider do you use ? I guess there is a tax advantage via a limited co ?
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A SIPP is a Self Invested Personal Pension. Basically you put your money in a choose what you want to invest in. Basically you’d have to be pretty confident & have a decent knowledge to want to do it yourself. Otherwise you’d pay a Financial Advosor to do it for you.

Being a Ltd Co you can take earnings in the form as dividends which has a lower tax rate after you’ve used your tax free income allowance. But again, you’d get a qualified accountant to do all this for you, keep you on the right track & use the allowances available to you to the fullest.
 
The Breen Machine said:
Many on here bother with a private pension? I've got one with Aviva which I pay a fairly minimal amount in at the moment, but I've opted out of my workplace pension with a view to paying in the difference that'll now be in my salary. My thinking was that it would allow me greater control with the money going into one pot, and I can be flexible with the payments if need be.
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First check if your work scheme, the employer pays into.
Don’t let this go.
From experience Aviva are low risk and thus low profit making.
 
Exile in Ayr said:
Any employer that contributes into your company pension is something any employee should take advantage of. Most companies have a probationary period before they allow you to join because they are obliged by law to offer you free money. The employer is not allowed to pay you below the minimum wage however. Say the employer puts in 5%, make sure if you put in 30% for example that you are at least 30% above the minimum wage because if you try and beat the system the tax relief takes a hit. Saving tax and national insurance contributions is a 32% saving for the employee which especially if you are approaching retirement beats inflation hands down. Salary 40k pension contributions 27.5k contributions= 0 income tax and very little National insurance.
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That only applies for salary sacrifice. Not all pensions are sal sacrifice. In fact they're banned in the public sector
 
42 said:
That only applies for salary sacrifice. Not all pensions are sal sacrifice. In fact they're banned in the public sector
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Yes, with Final Salary Schemes diminishing at an alarming rate, mine included , I was allowed salary sacrifice which enabled me to use to my advantage. Depending on whichever scheme members are in will have different options which really need careful planning. Incidentally anyone who is at an age where they have to use the pension tracing service , I had a pension which had 4 different companies administering it which took me 3 years to finalise, 1970 to 1981. Don't think for a minute just because a former company disappears off the face of the earth that the pension scheme goes with it. I had to admit at one point I had my doubts.
 
niceonemarra said:
I don't pay into a pension because pensions are for old people.
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With such optimistic forward planning, what could possibly go wrong? My uncle was in insurance and finance and told me to read How to win friends and influence people, by Andrew Carnegie , otherwise I may well have expressed the same statement and worse still suffered the consequences. I have a lot to thank him for believe me, and I was daft enough to smoke for 25 years, which wasn't a good move.
 
Exile in Ayr said:
With such optimistic forward planning, what could possibly go wrong? My uncle was in insurance and finance and told me to read How to win friends and influence people, by Andrew Carnegie , otherwise I may well have expressed the same statement and worse still suffered the consequences. I have a lot to thank him for believe me, and I was daft enough to smoke for 25 years, which wasn't a good move.
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I'm daft marra what is the cure?
 
Longy said:
I might get this slightly wrong, but...

In 20 years time it’s expected we’ll have double the age of 80+ people we do now. I’ll be 55 then. Imagine that doubles again? By the time I get to state pension age, there’ll be a stupid amount of people taking out of the pot & not dying :lol:
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Yup, pretty much. It’s only 10 years for me but I doubt that age of 55 will have remained the same. Also I’d be astounded if the government don’t do away with tax free payments into pension pots. It’s too tempting and lucrative for them to resist.
 
Gingga said:
Transfer them to your current pension? When i was made redundant i transferred my pension.
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I looked into that a few years back and the transfer values meant I would lose out so it was recommended I leave them where they are - since then one of the pension schemes closed and I transferred out without penalty which was a win. Bizarrely I have two money purchase schemes from my current employer and when I asked the pension trustees about combining them they said that after looking at the transfer values it wasn't worthwhile and both are administered by the same company.
 
Kent_Mackem said:
Yup, pretty much. It’s only 10 years for me but I doubt that age of 55 will have remained the same. Also I’d be astounded if the government don’t do away with tax free payments into pension pots. It’s too tempting and lucrative for them to resist.
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Other side of that is they seem to be pushing pretty hard for people to do their own pensions because they know they can’t support the people who believe the state will just sort them out at old age. Apparently there’s a few too many :lol: I suppose the push for all employers to provide a mortgage is a part of that.

I’d have said the likes of pensions & taxes are the stuff kids should be learning at school because there’s far too many people out there who don’t realise the importance of it. The majority of us stumble into the world of employment just doing what we’re told by an employer. A lot of employers won’t give the right education, but it’s also argued it’s not their place.
 
Kent_Mackem said:
Yup, pretty much. It’s only 10 years for me but I doubt that age of 55 will have remained the same. Also I’d be astounded if the government don’t do away with tax free payments into pension pots. It’s too tempting and lucrative for them to resist.
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I just can't see this happening as they wouldn't be the government much longer as it isn't exactly a vote winner.
 
box2box said:
What is a SIPP ? Which provider do you use ? I guess there is a tax advantage via a limited co ?
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A SIPP is a self invested personal pension, basically it’s a personal pension with a few more investment choices (you can hold a commercial property in a SIPP). They tend to charge slightly higher fees given that they are a little more complex than a personal pension. If you operate a ltd company your pension contribution is a tax ‘reducer’ in that it is taken off your gross profit and therefore not liable to corporation tax.

On the face of it the OP should opt back in as many have suggested to take advantage of the employer contribution. Also there is the old adage of compound interest, the money he saves now starts working for him straight away. The only time it might make sense to opt out is if debt is high and it needs to be serviced.

*Im an IFA.
 

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