ISAs v Pensions: The Official Retirement Debate

Andy_L

Bumpage.....

baby_boomer

dunstonh wrote: »

Cash ISAs are not suitable retirement planning vehicles as they are no good for long term planning.

Dreadful things. Don't touch with a bargepole :rotfl:.

Regularly beating inflation when you are in work and providing tax free income (if and when you want it) on retirement. The government should ban these savings vehicles or add a financial health warning .

Seriously, if you are saving for retirement outside (or as well as) a pension you are probably better off using your cash ISA allowance, putting the rest in a maxi-ISA and anything spare into stock market investments outside an ISA.

I personally wouldn't forgo the cash ISA element.

EdInvestor

At the moment, cash is making a better return than many a stockmarket fund, to be sure.Paying off a mortgage early can also give an excellent guaranteed return at present.

But this is very unlikely to be the case in the long term.

dunstonh

At the moment, cash is making a better return than many a stockmarket fund, to be sure.Paying off a mortgage early can also give an excellent guaranteed return at present.

In what timescale is cash making a better return? Certainly not the last month. Last 2 months maybe but not last 6 months. How about 10 years, 20 years, 30 years or even 40 years?

jamesd

EdInvestor it's true for "many a stockmarket fund" but it doesn't need to be true for a portfolio of funds with good sector and international spread. I'm clearly doing far better than savings accounts or mortgage repayment at present.

It's the UK-centric ones among mine that are the ones that are more down than up, so someone with only UK funds would not see such a pleasing picture. That may well describe what you see, since that is your own preference.

EdInvestor

Punting on China again then, are you James?

Just for the record

Q3 returns

UK equities -1.8%
Gilts + 4.1%
Corporate bonds + 1.1%
Cash + 1.5%

Andy_L

baby_boomer wrote: »

Dreadful things. Don't touch with a bargepole :rotfl:.

Regularly beating inflation when you are in work and providing tax free income (if and when you want it) on retirement. The government should ban these savings vehicles or add a financial health warning .

Seriously, if you are saving for retirement outside (or as well as) a pension you are probably better off using your cash ISA allowance, putting the rest in a maxi-ISA and anything spare into stock market investments outside an ISA.

I personally wouldn't forgo the cash ISA element.

Has Deemy returned?

jamesd

EdInvestor wrote: »

Punting on China again then, are you James?

China funds aren't a substantial factor in the performance of my portfolio. I'm no more interested in being China-concentrated than I am in only having UK funds.

About 65% of my money is in funds that are up in the last three months, the least gain of those being up 2.7%, a fund in the global growth sector.

Andy_L

Bumpety-bump

EdInvestor

Ian_W wrote: »

Now on page 10 of the board - deserves a "psuedo sticky bump" me thinks!

Many thanks to board guide Browntoa for actioning this request