Dummy's guide to pensions?

Angie8

Can anyone recommend to me a good 'dummy's guide to pensions' - preferably in book form?

Are there any websites besides this one that are good reading on the subject?

dunstonh

Not sure a book would do you much good. Pension legislation is being changed in 2006 and there have been a number of "leaks" of information over the last 2 years that will be coming in or may be coming in 2006.

Also, pension products have been evolving heavily since 2001. What we thought in 2001 would not match what we think now. i.e. When stakeholder pensions were introduced, it was considered that personal pensions would be finished. Now it appears personal pensions are the superior product and its stakeholder pensions that are less desirable (subject to provider).

Anything written in book form is likely to be obsolete or wildly inaccurate.

Google would be a good start. Also asking questions here.

cheerfulcat

Hi, Angie,

Are you thinking about pensions as products or just about investing for retirement?

Angie8

To be honest I've decided to look at sorting out a pension, but have no idea where to start, so I want to read up as much as possible about them.

cheerfulcat

Well, it's a bit confusing right now - things are changing and everything is a little uncertain as it stands. You could put money into an ISA for the time being; it doesn't have the up-front tax relief of a personal pension but the ISA wrapper will still shelter investment gains from Capital Gains Tax.

In the mean time, there's a lot of info on TMF ( just ignore the massive ads and scroll down to where it says " more information on pensions " )

http://www.fool.co.uk/pensions/pensions.htm?ref=sitemap

deemy2004

Pensions - the goverment bribes the average worker with tax relief, knowing full well that they would have got the money anyway on retirement via income top up.

Milarky

Angie8 wrote:

Can anyone recommend to me a good 'dummy's guide to pensions' - preferably in book form?

Are there any websites besides this one that are good reading on the subject?

How about the FSA guide: "Stakeholder pensions
and decision trees"?

http://www.fsa.gov.uk/consumer/pdfs/stakeholder.pdf

The idea is that you can work through a 'decision tree' [like a flow chart] to find out whether this type of pension would be appropriate for your circumstances. [I suppose that you can think of a stakeholder pension that you can take out without an employer input or as a unwaged person is the 'default' option only. Also, once you understand how a stakeholder may fit - or does not fit - your requirements you should 'fine tune' this information with some understanding of how current means-tested benefits like the pensions credit might impact on the initial assessment.]

exil

deemy2004 wrote:

Pensions - the goverment bribes the average worker with tax relief, knowing full well that they would have got the money anyway on retirement via income top up.

Not sure I understand this post. Please explain! If it means that the govt will obtain more tax revenue in the long term as people will in the future have higher incomes in retirement, well - the politicians who give the tax relief today will be six feet under by the time the increased tax revenue from bigger pensions starts coming through.

IMO the govt gives tax relief as without it, pension schemes would be
a bad choice for most people. Most of us would be probably prefer investing in bonds, endowments or other investments which could be cashed in as needed, rather than having to wait until retirement. That is, the bribe is there to make sure people do save for retirement. The alternative could be people cashing in their savings in their 40s and 50s and ending up with a poverty-stricken old age.