Pensions Planning: The NUMBER

swindiff

I have not as I am still only 49, but I know a few members of staff that have done, going down to 4 or 3 days a week.
The best option is to try and wrangle redundancy you then don't get actuarialy reduced for taking pension early

SingleSue

jimi_man wrote: »

From what you’re saying you are getting three million views a month on your website, which takes an international team of 60 people to run and you aren’t getting a penny from it! I don’t know how many hours each person spends on it, but there must be a serious time commitment there which in itself is a massive cost. I’d suggest that the ‘fickle crowd’ probably aren’t actually that fickle – especially when you consider that the free hosting site already has adverts from what you say.

Out of interest, what is the real purpose of it? If it’s a charitable thing (not sure that motor racing is generally known as being particularly charitable!) then there is nothing wrong with that. If it’s a fun thing (for all 60 people) then fine, but even fun things can generate income. But from what you are saying it’s got to the stage where it’s now too big to be ‘just’ a fun thing and has become rather all-consuming in terms of time? How much time do you and the other 60 odd people spend on it each month?

Without giving too much away and falling foul of the rules against advertising here, I run it lock, stock and barrel but there are others that get involved in their free time at home and whilst they are at the sporting event. It is still a fun thing, it's been this big pretty much from the start and believe it or not, people get a buzz from being a part of it rather than seeing it as work.

It's not a charitable thing, it is a voluntary thing and for our sport, that is very normal, big money is not really a thing ...we're very much the poor cousin of motor sports. It was set up by the fans, for the fans and not on a commercial basis because those who have tried it have failed and this is especially true in these days of Facebook and Twitter, why pay for something when you can get it for free, albeit with slightly less information and a lot less fun and social involvement.

The page views are high but that is because people are impatient and will constantly refresh the page to see the absolute latest result, when you get 2 or 3 thousand people doing that at the same time it mounts up.

As for how much work? For me, during the UK season, it can be as little as a few minutes or as much as all day. For others, a couple of hours if they cover one meeting a week, more if they do more than one but with such a big team it means it's not too bad for each person. Outside of the UK season, well I'm covering an Australian championship at the moment, I spent a couple of hours on Saturday, 5 hours yesterday and 3 hours today with two more meetings to go...next week and until March it will be pretty much zero.

As for our users not being fickle...my message/complaints list on the site disagrees :rotfl:

Anyway, I believe this is taking the reason for the thread off track and I think we should leave it there before it becomes annoying for others. I don't mind answering questions privately as I really don't think this is the place for this topic even if it is slightly related to the issue of increasing 'my number'.

bluenose1

PJM_62 wrote: »

@swindiff
@bluenose1
Have either of you looked at USS Flexi Retirement?
I'm a year away from 55 and am considering early retirement then if I can afford it.
I'm not sure if the Flexi option is a good perk or not.

I want to go at 55 as well. If I still wanted to carry on working part time would definitely consider Flexible retirement, though don't know anyone in my University who has done it. I know there's quite a few staff in HMRC who have.
Definitely worth considering if you want to continue working and crunching the numbers. How many days do you want to work?

PJM_62

swindiff wrote: »

If I put my details into the USS benefit modeller these are the figures I get for retirement around the age of 60.

at 60 years and 2 Months £17,280
at 60 years and 1 Month £17,210 reduction of £70 for 1 months service
at 60 years and 0 months £17,140 reduction of £70 for 1 months service
at 59 years and 11 Months £15,650 reduction of £1,490 for 1 months service
at 59 years and 10 Months 15,570 reduction of £80 for 1 months service

As you can see there is quite a large reduction for going before the age of 60, it definitely is not linear at that point.

bluenose1 wrote: »

I want to go at 55 as well. If I still wanted to carry on working part time would definitely consider Flexible retirement, though don't know anyone in my University who has done it. I know there's quite a few staff in HMRC who have.
Definitely worth considering if you want to continue working and crunching the numbers. How many days do you want to work?

Our Number for the stopping work option is about 34k.
My wife (NHS) would like more of a phased move into stopping work, so I think I need to do some calcs for working a Flexi-retirement 3-day week for a couple of years.
Stopping early at 55 basically halves my USS DB. I'm not sure that compares to the option to go for a paid 3-day week + pension.

bluenose1

PJM_62 wrote: »

Our Number for the stopping work option is about 34k.
My wife (NHS) would like more of a phased move into stopping work, so I think I need to do some calcs for working a Flexi-retirement 3-day week for a couple of years.
Stopping early at 55 basically halves my USS DB. I'm not sure that compares to the option to go for a paid 3-day week + pension.

I have been saving aggressively for the last year or so into my USS DC pot. I intend to live off this the first few years and defer taking my DB pension until 60.
For every £68 my salary is reduced £100 goes into my DC pension pot. With the 25% tax free lump sum and the £12,500 basic allowance each year I intend to withdraw all my pot without paying tax.

Bravepants

bluenose1 wrote: »

I have been saving aggressively for the last year or so into my USS DC pot. I intend to live off this the first few years and defer taking my DB pension until 60.
For every £68 my salary is reduced £100 goes into my DC pension pot. With the 25% tax free lump sum and the £12,500 basic allowance each year I intend to withdraw all my pot without paying tax.

This is similar to what I plan to do with my SIPP, which is held in cash at 1.95% interest rate at the moment.


I plan 5 years worth of drawdown (55 to 60) up to my tax allowance level BUT I have assumed an incremental increase in the basic rate tax allowance for each of the 5 years taking into account the information about such uplifts available on the UK Government website, and also assumed inflation at 2%.

DairyQueen

Bravepants wrote: »

This is similar to what I plan to do with my SIPP, which is held in cash at 1.95% interest rate at the moment. .

Would you mind posting how you managed to receive that return on cash within a SIPP wrapper? We are holding cash in SIPPs (for drawdown within the next 5-ish years) and it's returning diddly squat.

Many thanks.

Bravepants

DairyQueen wrote: »

Would you mind posting how you managed to receive that return on cash within a SIPP wrapper? We are holding cash in SIPPs (for drawdown within the next 5-ish years) and it's returning diddly squat.

Many thanks.

Hi, yes its a MINERVA SIPP held with Investacc Pensions. They are the trustees where the sum is actually held in an Investec 2 year fixed Cash Deposit Account. I am just coming up to 1 year with them, and I have another year to run.

Crabby

I have been saving aggressively for the last year or so into my USS DC pot. I intend to live off this the first few years and defer taking my DB pension until 60.

Is it worth deferring as payback will probably be nearly 20 years. Mrs C has just finished and we're waiting to see what the figures are, taking the pension now against waiting 2 years till she's 60.

bluenose1

Crabby wrote: »

Is it worth deferring as payback will probably be nearly 20 years. Mrs C has just finished and we're waiting to see what the figures are, taking the pension now against waiting 2 years till she's 60.

Don't think there is a right answer. If you could do with the money now then I would definitely consider it. But if you don't then may be better to wait until 60.
Think you normally lose about 4% a year for taking it early.
I have not ruled out taking mine early to help us fund up to age 67 when our state pensions start. Though will use up DC pot first.