Should I? Shouldnt I? Pensions newbie

lynzpower

Hi all

Right bit of background for you all.

Im 29 and have been working in local government for 5 years, i started with the pension scheme but after 3 months, cashed in, as I was skint so I got a few hundred quid back.

Since then ive been really pants with money, up till finding MSE.

NOw I had thought about getting out of debt first ( total in sig)

but then I also said once my student loans are paid off, id use this 100 pcm towards a pension. NOw, thanks to my charges coming back from the bank this week, and the dregs of my student loan paid off (c.600 quid) I now have that money *spare* I was thinking about snowballing this money to my next debts, but they are all at 0% and I wonder whether its the right thing to do??

Now the thing is, I know nothng about pensions, apart from all the scare stories in the press.

So my dilemma is
a) do i start paying into local gov pension scheme
b) do I carry on paying my debt off when its gone start paying into my pension scheme?
c) do I scrap the pension scheme and do something else with the money- ie, save it elsewhere, somewhere more stable?

What do you reckon, i really have no clue

cheers
lynz

Andy_L

Buy opting out of the LGPS (for 5 years) you have thrown away about 75% of a years salary worth of employers contributions.

For me, as a council tax payer thats a good thing. For you it's not.

clairehi

Hi Lynz

Join the LGPS if you can possibly afford it. As a public sector, final salary scheme it is one of the safest and best value pensions around. When you have paid off your debts and maybe built up some rainy days savings, you may want to ask for a quote to buy "added years". This would enable you to make up for the 5 years you were not in the scheme.

seven-day-weekend

The Local Government Pension Scheme is one of the best around. Join it now!

bristol_pilot

Not joining a pension scheme to which the employer makes a significant contribution is throwing away free money. You are getting to an age where you really have to be in a pension scheme, otherwise when you do eventully get round to it you will have to pay an eye-watering fraction of your pay into it. I only hope for your sake that they will allow you to re-join. Being bad with money is not cool after 30.

lynzpower

bristol_pilot wrote:

Not joining a pension scheme to which the employer makes a significant contribution is throwing away free money. You are getting to an age where you really have to be in a pension scheme, otherwise when you do eventully get round to it you will have to pay an eye-watering fraction of your pay into it. I only hope for your sake that they will allow you to re-join. Being bad with money is not cool after 30.

Id say being bad with money isnt cool at any age

But I take your point and thanks a lot, will speak to payroll about the scheme and getting onto it asap

Lynz :beer: