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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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Good (and short!) explanation of COPE
There are lots of queries about COPE cropping up regularly. This is one of the better, not to mention shorter, explanations I could find which might help: https://www.wypf.org.uk/pensioner/all-about-my-pension/contracted-out-pension-equivalent-cope-amount/
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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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New board for state pension top-up / Future Pension Centre / voluntary NICs questions
Hi all Regulars on this board will well know how many threads we've seen in recent months about Future Pension Centre-related questions. As a result of a great suggestion from a Forumite (passed on by a Forum Ambassador) we've created a new sub-board for all these types of threads: ➡️ Topping up your state pension ⬅️ If…
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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 me 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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Old Barclays DB Pension
Hi, I would appreciate some advice as I am trying to understand my pension and what it will mean at retirement age I have a Barclays Pension DB (1964 scheme) the transfer value has dropped over the last couple of years but I have learnt this will not affect the figures long term. I am 54 and the pension would be paid at…
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Pension Contribution at 74
I am 75 in December . It would seem fiscal drag is likely to have just put me into the 40% tax bracket for 23/4 ( by a small amount but enough to lose £500 of interest relief and pay the higher rate on part of my dividend payment ). I do not have a private pension my income is from a final salary pension, state pension and…
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NHS pension contributions
Hi, I currently work full time for the NHS, my contributions from 1 April will be 6.5%. I am applying for an additional job, still in the NHS but with a different trust, it is a part time role that I intend to work at for approx 6 months. Will the new role mean starting a new pension or will my 2 roles be combined into my…
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Advice on moving away from Hargreaves Lansdown please.
We've come to the end of our tether with HL having botched my wife's paper based UFPLS payments on so many occasions. I've had it out with them over the phone and I can go through weeks / months of complaints, however all we want is a reliable service. So, do St James, Vanguard, a n other allow electronic (HL insist on…
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Twenty Year Gap in Pension - how to maximise current USS pension
Hello, I'm a woman in her mid 50s who spent 20 years either at home raising kids or working a minimum wage part time job to fit around children's school hours. I'm now back in a professional post earning £40k a year. My state pension is fine but my personal pension is a disaster. I have eight years pre-kids where I paid…
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Pension Pot and emergency moving out of marital home
Hi The situation . Taken already last year my 25% tax free but left the rest invested with Vanguard . I have been married for over 25 years but the last 10 years has been marred with wife becoming an alcoholic , she has stopped for 4 years , gone to work with a drug abuse company to help others ( which im extremely proud…
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NHS PENSIONS
Hi, I receive both state and NHS pensions. As the NHS pension is classed as ‘contracted out’ my state pension is reduced and I currently receive £8160 per annum. This amount is then deducted from my tax allowance so that my allowance for 2024/25 is now only £2980 per annum. In effect I am taxed on my state pension. When I…
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Should I take my state pension?
I am nearly 66 and still working, at the moment I am putting around £20000 a year into my pension. If I take my state pension and carry on working does that mean I will only be able to put £10000 max yearly into my pension? Is taking the state pension classed as accessing my pension? Which would then mean I will not be…
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RANK MONEY PURCHASE PENSION SCHEME
Hi, Spent around 4 months and many, many hours trying to trace above pension, been to Pension Tracing Service, HMRC, .Gov, about 15 companies. My wife left the pension in 1997 but have all paperwork/statements etc. including letter advising Abbey National will be responsible for 'some aspects' of the pension as being…
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Early Pension and National Insurance Contributions
Hi all I'm hoping to retire in September with a teachers pensions and a drawdown from other pensions. As I will be 7 years away from state pension should I be thinking about National Insurance contributions from September onwards in order to get the full state pension in 7 years? Many thanks Jimmy Jazz.
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Pension Drops.
Hi - I'm a nervous person when it comes to money, probably because I grew up in abject poverty. My accountant recommended I finally open a pension as a good way of getting money from my LTD company for the future. My financial advisor recommended True Potential, the low risk pension category to start with, so i brought…
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Target Life FGold Fund Insurance policy
Hi, WE have recenty found policy deocuments for the Target Life Gold Fund Endowment Assurance under the Gold Investment Plan which matured in 1994. Can anyone give us any advice on how to trace this policy and how to apply for a surrender value report as I have searched the name and cannot find any company that has taken…
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Lump Sum vs Cost Averaging 2024/25
Hi All, I have been researching what to do with my workplace pension this tax year. My pension is Royal London's RLP Susatainable Trust. I've been paying into this for around three years now and it generally seems to perform OK when i bnechmark it against other similar funds. I don't know enough about pensions and the…
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Moving pension from Standard Life to Vanguard
I have a personal pension with Standard Life, but I've become aware of the relatively high charges made against the total pension pot, over 1% even when invested in a passive Vanguard index fund. By moving the money to the same fund invested directly with Vanguard, the ongoing fee is just 0.2%, i.e. a fifth of the SL…
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Paying More Into Wife's Pension
Hi All, Just wanted to put this out there to get some opinions. I am 53 and my wife is 48. I currently have a pension pot of £675K and my wife has a pension pot of £14K. This is due to me being a 40% tax payer and us taking the decision to pile monies into my pension to shelter it from the 40% tax burden. Current total…
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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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Civil Service Classic Pension - which month to retire?
I am in the Civil Service Pension Scheme. I'll be turning 60 in late June and planning to take partial retirement after that date. For the partial retirement period I will only be taking my Classic pension. The pay settlement date for my Department is 1 August each year although typically the pay settlement is agreed a…
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Accessing a dormant pension
Hi..I have an old pension policy originally taken out through NPI which is now handled by Phoenix Life. I paid into it for a few years then stopped, its been dormant ever since. I'll be 54 this year and wanted to know when I can access this/how to access it early if possible or best advice to wait til next year at 55Yrs -…
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State Pension amount on 2023/24 SA Tax Return
My state pension started on 2 February 2023. (No tax due for 2022-2023 tax year) I know State pension is paid in arrears. I had a part payment on 17 February 2023 (16 days). I had a payment on 17 March 2023 and another on 14 April 2023 (both for same amount). Payments on 12 May 2023 to 15 March 2024 (12 payments in total x…
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NHS 2015 Deferred Membership and increases
If a person leaves the NHS 2015 scheme and a pension becomes deferred, is there a set date they have to be employed after which the extra 1.5% is removed or is it applied as long as pension was accrued in the previous year? Or more simply, is it worth planning my "retirement" data to maximise that year's pension increase?…