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Pensions Planning: The NUMBER
The NUMBER is how much income you need to "live comfortably" So What's your number? Very important for pensions planning, to know what you are aiming for. My Number? (for a couple) I calculated: £22,000 based on Food £5,000 Car/transport £5,000 Bills/Utilities £4,500 Holidays/Leisure £4,500 Clothing/Cash/Xmas/Other £2,000…
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Success Stories - Pensions
This is a bit of a light topic where the idea is to highlight what successes you had with your pension pots. Example - I contributed X and accumulated Y by Z year. Total appreciation was 'x' percent. Just trying to learn the following that could inspire a range of people - those with no pension, those who started late etc.…
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Acronyms etc..
Hello to all. As a fairly new forum user I would appreciate someone posting a key to the acronyms and arcane terms used when discussing pension issues. Thank you in advance.
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Pensions, Annuities & Retirement Planning Sticky
Welcome to the new Pensions, Annuities and Retirement Planning sticky! 👋 📖 Here are some Forum threads you may find useful (if there are any you think have been missed, please do let us know): * Can I cash in my pension? * Early-retirement wannabe * It's time to start digging up those Squirrelled Nuts!!!! 📝 And here's some…
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Missing pension contributions - former Employer
hello looking for advice I worked for an employer (2024-2025). My pension contributions were taken directly at source monthly from salary. recently I contacted the pension provider to request annual statement and info about partial retirement. The pension provider said there was no record of any contributions for the 14…
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using AI for pension projections
Has anyone used an AI tool to validate their projection numbers? I used chatgpt and found it very interesting and useful, especially how resilient my pot would be in a crash and adds another available tool for pension planning with the obvious caveats.
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Maximising your SIPP
You can maximise your SIPP total value by electing to pay fees by direct debit from an external bank account instead of selling some of your investments each time. "Paying fees from your bank account via Direct Debit is not considered a pension contribution, so it does not count towards your annual allowance or affect your…
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Bold leap into retirement
Morning all, I hope you have managed to find some time for yourself in what can be a busy period. We have enjoyed spending time with family over the last 3 days, it’s a quiet one today, then off to visit more family tomorrow. I’m not planning anything wild for NYE, but have been really starting to think about what I want…
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New Capita-run Civil Service Pension Scheme - problems (what a surprise!)
So, Capita have taken over the admin for the CSPS and their new website and members portal went live this week. I have just registered on the new portal and am not in the least bit surprised to find that the information available on the new portal is very scant and incorrect in terms of my length of service. With…
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AVIVA
I been in contact with Aviva believing I could simply start withdrawing a regular monthly sum from my pension but was told this 'old style' pension doesnt allow this.i asked if I could move it to something within Aviva that WOULD allow regular withdrawals and was told again NO but I could try transferring to other…
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Want to move away from SJP
A few years ago my husband and myself saw a financial advisor, we were aware that she wasn't an IFA but didn't fully understand that she was completely connected with SJP. We had some money we didn't know what to do with and she suggested moving some into cash ISAs that we found ourselves which is why we didn't realise…
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FIRE Girls Pension Diary - Aim High & Dream Big
10 year targets are set and I'm aiming high and dreaming big. :) A bit of background. When I was young I grew up with a family of 4 children, Dad worked and Mum stayed at home. We had very little material things or new clothes and I remember I was always dreaming of how I could possibly become a millionaire. So why not…
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Taking further PCLS from a SIPP
In 2022 I crystallised my SIPP for the first time by taking a PCLS of approximately £265,000. At the time it used up 99% of my LTA. I now have two pots within my SIPP - a large crystallised pot from which I drawdown a monthly income and a much smaller uncrystallised pot. The value of the uncrystallised pot is roughly…
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Pension advisors - on-advice charges
Hi! I'm 32 and have recently got in touch with a financial advisor from Unbiased to help me consolidate my pensions and generally make me feel a bit more in control of my future . They have sent their advice for free and have sent a breakdown of their fees which are: £1400 - one charge to carry out changes which is…
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Gilt ladder - How to implement
Just looking to see if a gilt ladder would be better than an annuity…….How would i implement a gilt ladder? I am a bit worried about the required admin. I currently have an II SIPP. I would be using about 20% of the SIPP value. Should I just buy all the gilts required and hold it all in my SIPP, or is it possible to set up…
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First year of retirement
Dear diary and all, I am starting this diary as a record of my first year in retirement. OH and I both officially retire at the end of August, at the moment we are on annual leave until then. There is quite a lot of advice about the financial planning aspects approaching retirement, but I have found less about the reality…
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Consolidating pensions
Hi, all I currently have a pension with Scottish Widows (or whatever they are called now, it appears on my Halifax app) I don't contribute to it, it's currently around £112k I did take my tax free sum out of it a couple of years ago I'm now being told that because it's "crystalised" I cannot transfer it to another…
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early retirment
Hi all I am 60 now and want to retire now , i have a pension pot of 160k what is the best way to take it ? i have no other income and i dont want to pay tax so what take need to stay under the tax threashold till im 67.
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Whether to topup SIPP immediately prior to retirement
In a couple of weeks time, I am planning to retire. Is there any advantage to me making a lump sum personal contribution into my SIPP prior to retirement? I have maxed out the £60k contributions for the last few years and have made one-off personal contributions in the past. This year, at the point of retirement, I will…
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Putting final touches to retiring at 53, and thinking of extending my lovely GILT ladder
JamTomorrow is getting closer to JamToday. 50 now, planning on retiring June 2029 at 53. Quick summary of where we stand: Assets: My SIPP: ~£1.2m — currently ~60:40 equities/bonds. The bond side includes one nominal gilt sized to cover a mortgage repayment (£200k) at the end of 2032 plus the first year's £50k spend, then…
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Feedback on my plan please
Hello all I’ve spent the last few months setting up my pension and investments in preparation of potentially retiring in the next year or two. So the general idea has been to lower the risk and structure it so l’m able to manage a correction within the markets if that happens. I was hoping for some feedback on my portfolio…
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Lump-sum allowance and pension growth
I'm trying to help someone, whose DC pension fund is around £900k, which gives a potential crystallisation lump-sum of £225k, to understand the consequences of fund growth. Since the Lump-Sum Allowance is £268,275, which is the lump sum available from a fund size of £1,073,100, it seems that growth of only about 19.25%…
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USS widow's pension
Sadly my husband died while in active service at a university this summer. When he died he had £72k in his investment builder. However, I have only been paid £27k of this as a 'discretionary lump sum'. We honestly both thought that when we were saving in the investment builder, we were building a fund that was ours to use…
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Local Government Pension two year qualification period query???
I hope someone can help/advise. I joined a Local Pension Scheme on 1st January 2025, working in a school (non-teaching role) receiving my first payslip on 17.1.25. There is a rule that you must be part of the scheme for a minimum of two years before you can access and draw a pension. I would like to stop working at the end…
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Most recent: Delays for P55 tax refund fro… by dobbers
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