Pensions, what to do?

atush

Neverland wrote: »

A troll being anyone who doesn't agree with the particular line of cack the accuser is peddling? :rotfl:

No a troll whose sole purpose is to bash a profession, and cause arguments. You fit perfectly.:D

Neverland

atush wrote: »

No a troll whose sole purpose is to bash a profession, and cause arguments. You fit perfectly.:D

I am wounded and will now go and cry in a dark corner

gadgetmind

Neverland wrote: »

I am wounded and will now go and cry in a dark corner

Under your bridge?

Neverland

gadgetmind wrote: »

Under your bridge?

Ouch

darkpool

Lokolo wrote: »

Where's darkpool nowadays?

in a desert with very poor internet access.

atush

You may have sunstroke because I agreed with you the other day ;-)

darkpool

dunstonh wrote: »

No they dont

so if actively managed unit trusts don't have typical annual charges of 2% what are the typical charges?

good to see you still call anyone that disagrees with you a troll.

Wobblydeb

Autumnrust wrote: »

The total value of my pension is £9,557.56, and its fully managed and invested in medium risk companies.

I currently earn between 60k-70k a year, varies due to commissions.

What I am really looking for is some sound advice on what to do.

Returning to the original thread (I know, it's radical, but go with me on this) ..... It is great that you started your pension at such a young age, and are focused on where next. One thing I believe you need to do is radically increase the contributions you make to whatever pension you go with. Your existing pension would get you about £550 per annum on current annuity rates. Obviously you need to decide exactly how much you need to live on, and when you want to retire, but I would suggest you should be looking to save at least £10k into your pension each year.

As someone else suggested, it might be worth looking into paying enough to take your salary down below the 40% tax rate. It might seem a lot, but the remaining salary will still support a comfortable lifestyle. It also means if you have a period out of work (or with low commission), then you've made hay when the sun was shining.

Autumnrust

Wobblydeb wrote: »

Returning to the original thread (I know, it's radical, but go with me on this) ..... It is great that you started your pension at such a young age, and are focused on where next. One thing I believe you need to do is radically increase the contributions you make to whatever pension you go with. Your existing pension would get you about £550 per annum on current annuity rates. Obviously you need to decide exactly how much you need to live on, and when you want to retire, but I would suggest you should be looking to save at least £10k into your pension each year.

As someone else suggested, it might be worth looking into paying enough to take your salary down below the 40% tax rate. It might seem a lot, but the remaining salary will still support a comfortable lifestyle. It also means if you have a period out of work (or with low commission), then you've made hay when the sun was shining.

Thanks a million, sound advice.

Well..... for someone who doesnt know an awful lot about pensions, this thread/debate :rotfl:has certainly given me a sheep dip! I see people are passionate about their opinions and its great to get points from both sides of the fence.

Just to let you all know, I have contacted Friends Life and requested the following -

> Terms and Conditions of my contract
> Previous performance of my fund
> Confirmation of charges

I thought it would be a good first port of call, as if everything is acceptable with FL I may just stay with them.

It may sound ludicrous that I dont have all of the above to hand, but I literally just said yes to a pension at my previous employment with giving it little thought, so now is the time to get serious I suppose.

Ill post what I get back from FL on here, and hopefully some of you will be kind enough to offer your opinions again.

Cheers everyone

Autumnrust

Wobblydeb wrote: »

As someone else suggested, it might be worth looking into paying enough to take your salary down below the 40% tax rate. It might seem a lot, but the remaining salary will still support a comfortable lifestyle. It also means if you have a period out of work (or with low commission), then you've made hay when the sun was shining.

Hi Wobbly, thanks for this, so I understand this one right, say I earn £60k per annum. Are you suggesting that I pay £21k a year into a pension to take full advantage of the 40% tax benefits?

And then just live off £39k at 20% tax?

Fantastic idea, I think would struggle at the moment though. I am the only earner in our house and I support a wife and a 9 month old baby (planning for another ) we are also saving for a deposit on a house.

By no means am I trying to point out that we are hard off, but we have REALLY cut back over the past couple of years to pay off debt and save.

We had around £25k of debt between us which we have got down to £2,700 and we have £3,500 in the kitty for a house.

I would like to make large contributions into a pension, but I suppose I am getting caught up in the here and now at the moment.

Maybe something to consider for the not to distant future though!