We’d like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum.

This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are – or become – political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.

📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!

Any chance of early retirement

2»

Comments

  • edinburgher
    edinburgher Posts: 14,167 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 30 March 2011 at 1:15PM
    someone told me that I cant have both a works pension and a separate private pension - is that correct.

    No it's not. I'm sure someone will correct me instantly if I'm wrong, but I don't think there's any limit to the number of pension pots you can have as long as you don't exceed the lifetime limits. As you're currently looking at £70/mth total contributions, that doesn't look likely ;)

    As a comparison, I pay about £135/mth into my pension and I'm 12 years younger than you. If you're expecting pensions to provide most of your future income you need to pay as much as you can afford to, not as little as is possible.

    What basis is your pension scheme set up on? I.e. does your employer match your contributions? If so, up to what percentage?

    Also, do you know what age you can draw your pension from (even allowing for a reduction if you retire early)? If it's 60 or higher you'll need to build up additional investments to tide you over for the period between early retirement and claiming any pensions.
  • jamesd
    jamesd Posts: 26,103 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    You can have an unlimited number of different work and personal pensions today.

    It used to be true that you couldn't have both work and personal pensions unless you earned under £30,000 a year but that changed on pensions A-day on 6 April 2006.

    Today you can do things like using different pension plans for different types of investments to get each type at the best price and combination of features. You may also be able to do periodic transfers from a work pension to a personal pension if that interests you, the rules depend on the specific work scheme. It's potentially useful if you get cheaper or better investment choices in a personal scheme but save NI by contributing to a work scheme via salary sacrifice.
  • dunstonh
    dunstonh Posts: 120,328 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    No it's not. I'm sure someone will correct me instantly if I'm wrong,

    You are correct. 2001 abolished it for all but final salary schemes. 2006 abolished it for them.
    I am an Independent Financial Adviser (IFA). The comments I make are just my opinion and are for discussion purposes only. They are not financial advice and you should not treat them as such. If you feel an area discussed may be relevant to you, then please seek advice from an Independent Financial Adviser local to you.
  • I can see where my friend got the wrong end of the stick with the pension thing now. I think in that case I will definitely look at setting another one up now and increasing the works one
This discussion has been closed.
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 352.3K Banking & Borrowing
  • 253.7K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 454.4K Spending & Discounts
  • 245.3K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 601.1K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 177.6K Life & Family
  • 259.2K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.7K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.