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Tax Free Lump Sum Question
Hi I wonder if I could get the benefit of the forums wisdom around TFLS' Using hypothetical numbers: If i had 1 million in a SIPP and took £17430 of the £250000 TFLS available this year plus£12570 of of the crystalised pension as well (so an income of £30000 but no tax) I would leave £232570 TFLS available to take in…
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Retirement sense-check 2026 and bridging the gap
Time for my annual stocktake; I have a discussion with my financial advisor next week about bridging the 60 - 65 gap after proposed retirement at 60, but if anyone has any comments about where to focus my efforts for that, I'd be grateful for them. Age 55 Income £61K Plus £4-5K taxable interest this year (likely to…
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Doing it myself - Current portfolio
I’m starting to manage my crystallised SIPP, which is on the Fidelity platform. I’m 70, I have been drawing down £13,500 gross pa keeping my total income (from state pension and DB schemes, just under the 40% tax rate. My spouse, 74, has old state pension and a small DB pension totalling £12k pa. We have combined assets of…
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I've moved overseas - what to do with State Pension
Hi all, I know the info is probably somewhere on the main website or on this forum but I haven't had much luck finding it. I'm looking for advice. Here is my situation - As of 1st April 2025, I left the UK and haven't contributed to National Insurance. Before that I contributed for 14 of 17 years (since 2007-2008), missing…
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Mid-30s and starting to think about retirement
Hi! Don't let the username fool you, I joined this forum as a TwentySomethingGirl with a first mortgage, and 10/11 years later all that's happened is it's increased! Anyway, I'm now 35, husband is 36 and we're starting to be in a position to think about retiring early, at least earlier than state pension age, if it even…
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Defined benefit or defined contribution pension? Confused!
I am due to start a new job at the beginning of January and have been given the choice of 2 pension schemes which I need to decide on before starting; I know very little about pensions and have never been given the choice of schemes in a job before, so I am quite confused about which would be best for me. Tried to…
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Lump Sum Payments
Hello, Sorry, not much of an expert on finances or pensions, but I am due to retire in a few months. I currently have 3 different pensions, all based on current or previous employment. Having been in housing tied to my employment for the last 30 years, I am looking to buy a house which means maximising my capital. So my…
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Can’t be bothered with work any more
Age 45 Got 890k in my dc pension 40k in a Lisa 10k in a cash isa 40k in a s&s isa my missus (age 40) has 190k in a dc pension + Lisa , plus she work local government so is building a CARE pension That’s more than enough for our retirement, I’m pretty miserable in my job, while it’s well paid I almost don’t need the money…
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Pensions- consolidate or not
Hoping someone can give me some ideas of what is best to do, and how to best go about tackling pension/retirement planning please. Any comments very gratefully received Currently I am aged 34 and have: Scottish widows private pension-set this up when 19, contributions scale in line with inflation each year. £59k here…
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Consolidating multiple pensions- do I need to pay for advice?
Hello, having had a portfolio career- I have multiple pensions from a variety of providers including Teachers Pension and Nest, as well as Scottish Widows and Standard Life, amongst others. Would it be to may advantage to consolidate these and if so, am I best paying for advice?
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CSPS: Using Scheme Pays to pay a tax charge; what to think about?
Hi all, This is my first pos. I've got a tax charge on my civil service pension CSPS for this year of £3000, which I can either pay from my own funds or use the Scheme Pays to pay it. I'm keen to check that I'm thinking properly about it all before making a decision and finding it very hard to get anything resembling…
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Merged: Another question about directors' pensions and the "wholly and exclusively" …
This discussion has been merged.
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Merged: 57 or 60? – sanity check
This discussion has been merged.
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Two USS paths, cannot decide
I am in USS and 56, essentially I have a choice. 1. Stay until 60, 3 days per week, and get USS pension of 31k + x3 TFLS at 60. Will have IB/DC's of 500k. 2. Go now and take 24k USS + x3 TFLS. Will have 500k IB/DC at 60, if I leave invested. All todays money. The extra USS under path 1 is essentially due to staying and not…
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Mid-life musings
I've started this thread for me to try to gain a bit of clarity on what I am aiming for pension wise and whether we're heading in the right direction. I'm not sure my thread fully fits here as I / we really are working towards being mortgage free, financially independent, being prepared for retirement and hopefully pulling…
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Maximising Higher Rate Tax Relief When Opening First SIPP
I have a DC workplace pension with Scottish Widows which is matched by my employer at 7% which I have been paying into since 2004. I'm now 54 and want to pay in a lump sum in this financial year but I'm think of opening a SIPP rather than adding to workplace scheme. I want to maximise higher rate tax relief which I believe…
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Big problem with P55 and expected future DB pension payments
Not sure if anybody else has fallen into this rabbit hole using P55 but sharing as a warning & would be good to hear any similar experiences. I took £42,500 out of my flexible drawdown pension in October 2025 (it was all taxable as I already took tax free lump from the entire pension value a few years ago). I haven't taken…
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USS Global Equity Fund performance compared to Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap Index Fund
Hi, For the past 3 years Ive been paying a much larger monthly amount into my USS Global Equity Fund than I have into my SIPP FTSE Global All Cap Index Fund. How has the USS Global Equity Fund performed in that time compared to the Vanguard FTSE Global All Cap Index Fund? Perhaps I should be better paying the much larger…
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Tax on small LGPS pension
I took my deferred / reduced LGPS from Dec with an increased lump sum. They said they will pay it monthly and my tax code updated today to 1257LX. Currently no other income except interest on UK savings , total annual income below 17500 & I'm putting the max allowed each year into SIPP from savings. My understanding is I…
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Believe I've over paid into a SIPP.
A while back I saw a FA about some money me and my husband had. I mentioned that I had various pensions with differing amounts in, many from years of temporry work and a couple larger ones. The FA recommended opening a SIPP and she collated all my pensions from the various providers and put in into this but also £16k from…
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739 discussions
6.4K comments
Most recent: reduced pension payments by Silvertabby
20 March at 1:54PM
