Stakeholder Pension

jjgreenwood

Would like a bit of advice from the resident experts. Is it still the right thing to be saving into a pension and if so is the stakeholder the right one to have?

I'm 32 years old and a 40% tax payer. I currently save £487 each month into a scottish widows stakeholder with an AMC of 0.8%. I've built up savings of £34k approx into this fund which is a ftse all share tracker. The £487 gets tax at 20% added directly into the pension with the other 20% coming back through my tax code offsetting my company car tax. Unfortunately/fortunately atm this still means I'm paying 40% tax on roughly £20k.

I also save into an ISA with Fidelity invested into some funds. This has about half the amount of the pension and I put in £350 each month.

Is it best to contribute more into the pension? Is the pension the right product?

I have no employer contribution to put in.

dunstonh

Is it still the right thing to be saving into a pension

If it meets your objectives, yes.

if so is the stakeholder the right one to have?

nothing wrong with a stakeholder. It is unlikely to be the best option (either in cost or investment options). It is a bog standard basic option.

personal pensions tend to offer best value nowadays.

jjgreenwood

dunstonh wrote: »

If it meets your objectives, yes.



nothing wrong with a stakeholder. It is unlikely to be the best option (either in cost or investment options). It is a bog standard basic option.

personal pensions tend to offer best value nowadays.

are you referring to the likes of the HL Sipp?

dunstonh

jjgreenwood wrote: »

are you referring to the likes of the HL Sipp?

No. That is a SIPP not a personal pension. It does have a couple of low cost options but the middle ground of personal pension is typically better for an inexperienced investor.

jjgreenwood

dunstonh wrote: »

No. That is a SIPP not a personal pension. It does have a couple of low cost options but the middle ground of personal pension is typically better for an inexperienced investor.

any links?

xylophone

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-1698921/Dont-get-duped-into-bandwagon-Sipps.html

You might find this article of interest.

jjgreenwood

hmm I'm sort of understanding the sipp but having trouble with the difference between the stakeholder and the personal pension. It seems it would make sense to transfer the pension through the likes of cavendish to lower the AMC, I don't understand the benefit of the personal pension which seems to hit you with both AMC and a fund AMC.

xylophone

have you looked at this yet? http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/discount-pensions

jjgreenwood

xylophone wrote: »

have you looked at this yet?

yea thats where I got the cavendish website from. Its confusing me though as I can't understand why a personal pension can be better than a stakeholder as the only difference seems to be the cap in charges.

JoeCrystal

When I applied for my company's stakeholder, it only had six funds with limited choice on where to go. So I opted for personal pension which have far higher number of funds to choose from.

Cheers

Joe

jjgreenwood

JoeCrystal wrote: »

When I applied for my company's stakeholder, it only had six funds with limited choice on where to go. So I opted for personal pension which have far higher number of funds to choose from.

Cheers

Joe

out of interest what did you choose and what AMC do they charge? Which funds were you after and do you change them often?