Smart Pensions versus ISA's

jem16

haf63 wrote: »

The info on the above thread states that only earnings above 40% tax threshold are eligible for the full 40% relief so if I was earning say £60k then I would only get tax relief on £18k i,e 60-42k tax break. I should not sacrifice anymore than the £18k then?
I assumed I would get 40% on any amount but now I'm not so sure.

That's correct. The higher rate tax relief would be on the £18k.

atush

I'm dubious about europe in 2012 and not overly confident in the USA either

Are you aware that over the last year, the three top countries for returns were USA, Indonesia and Qatar. US is tipped for 2012 by many brokers as well. Not sure why you aren't so confident?

fizio

atush wrote: »

Are you aware that over the last year, the three top countries for returns were USA, Indonesia and Qatar. US is tipped for 2012 by many brokers as well. Not sure why you aren't so confident?

No reason other that the regular news about the state of their debt and economy. As I said, given the long term nature of the investment my default position will be 50% UK and 50% developed world

jamesd

The way that higher rate relief works is part of why a mixture of pension and ISA can be good - pension for the higher rate part and ISA below that. But if your employer is paying in all of their saved employer NI that still makes salary sacrifice interesting for basic rate money. The less of the employer NI added, the less attractive it is. But with the basic rate employee NI being higher than higher rate NI you still get a big boost for basic rate from the saved employee NI.

atush

haf63 wrote: »

No reason other that the regular news about the state of their debt and economy. As I said, given the long term nature of the investment my default position will be 50% UK and 50% developed world

IMHO (anbd please disregard it if you wish) you are not even looking at emerging markets- where I have made a lot of money this last 10 years, Madness ;-)

fizio

atush wrote: »

IMHO (anbd please disregard it if you wish) you are not even looking at emerging markets- where I have made a lot of money this last 10 years, Madness ;-)

As I said earlier, my choice of funds is very limited and there is no emerging markets choice. I have to handle these area via an ISA instead - as well as other specialist sectors such as commodities/energy/etc

jamesd

Have you tried checking whether you can periodically transfer money elsewhere? I haven't yet had a workplace defined contributions scheme that barred that, though one had a restriction on how much and a service fee.