retirement plans

elantan

Hey all ,


Looking for a bit of advice ideas etc on what may be the best option for me... my husband is 5 years older than me and we want to retire at the same time, so i have to effectively save 5 years worth of wages, i only earn £11k a year so not exactly a whole lot i need to find ...


We are currently paying off £500 a month extra to our mortgage and until last august i was paying into a pension ( private pension can give you all the details if needed) i stopped paying into the pension due to my husband having a mental breakdown and not being able to work for nearly 8 months, he is back at work now and slowly we are financially getting back on our feet ( my husband being off made our finances take a nose dive) ... we are paying off the mortgage just now for the peace of mind that comes with it ( my husband may never fully recover from his illness)


I am nearly 40 so understand i need to save 20% of my wages to have a decent standard of retirement, however i am not yet financially in a position to save the 20% but will be paying 10% every month into a s&s isa ( which i may then transfer over to a pension at a later date) and if i can save anymore i will be

I am also saving £150 a month ( starting from may) into a s&s isa towards my 5 year early retirement, i know this is not enough but as soon as i pay off the mortgage ( we owe £36k) i plan on paying £500 a month into retiring 5 years early


The rest of the mortgage money will be divided between home improvements and spending

So basically i am saving £150 a month for early retirement and 10% ( to go up as soon as i can manage) into an s&s isa for retirement ...

I have an account with h&l to put my money into ( i previously had an account with nationwide and one with l&g)

Can anyone recommend any unit trusts that might be suitable for my needs? or is there anything else i can try ? ...

xylophone

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Pensionsandretirementplanning/StatePension/DG_4017919
When do you intend to stop work?

elantan

well i intend on stopping at the same time as my husband ... now if we get our way he will retire a few years early aswell (possibly 2) but currently our plan is that he works to retirement age... i am not too sure what age that is for us ... he is currently 44 so i would say another 22 years for him and 17 years for me ( with the hope of 20 years for him and 15 for me)

we have both got our pension forecast from the government mine shows i should get £167 a week ( although i assume this is now going to go down to £140 .... no doubt once again i loose out ) husbands is £125 ( his might go up to £140 not too sure)

atush

I would start back paying into your work pension as you were doing before (as well as saving into an ISA). I assume your work made a contribution, and you will also get tax releif as well.

Also, you say your finances too a battering? Have you rebuilt your emergency cash reserves? HTis should come first. Is your husband paying into his pension again?

As weel as funds, we aren't really in the bisiness of giving free advice, but some might chime in with funds they like. I wont, as I mostly prefer investment trusts myself.

If you take free advice from an internet forum, instead of a professional, then you have no comebacks if the advice turns out to be bad advice. Plus, your risk tolerance and other personal factors wont be the same as anothers, so you could get advice to invest in riskier funds (and more expensive funds) than your profile would suggest.

elantan

i have never said i was paying into a work pension ... my work has however started the nest scheme this month paying a contribution of 1% into it ... my understanding is that this isnt a good scheme and i would be best just to pay the minimum required to extract the 1% from them

my husband has never stopped paying into his work pension that continued even though he was off ill ...

we have nearly recovered financially and have managed to get some rainy day funds back in place ( more than the £500 in my sig ... that is for something else)

i totally understand and respect that people will not give me funds to choose from and if they do and i choose them then i have no come back ( if i remember right i dont really have a comeback from an i.f.a either) i spose i am not really looking for that ( although it would be handy to have say several that i can then go away and research myself and make my own decision on)

just read back ... i did infact ask if anyone had any unit trusts they would recommend ... sorry i shouldve elaborated in what exactly i was looking for

things that are going through my mind are

should i invest the £150 and the pension 10% into the same fund?
would i be better off doing say 3 x £50 in different funds and one for the pension ?
are they any funds that are better aimed for the longer term ( 17 years as opposed to 5 years) ?

would it be advisable to have say some in the u.k market some in the u.s market some in asia ? i am thinking ftse tracker as the books that i have read seem to think this is a good way to go ( Tim hale)

thanks for replying though it helps me clarify my thought process

atush

and until last august i was paying into a pension ( private pension can give you all the details if needed)

Sorry I read pension and though work, not personal. but this is the pension I was thinking of. You can invest in the same funds in pensions and ISAs, but the pensions get an uplift from tax relief so more gets more money in each month. So it is still worth using a PP on top of your work nest scheme, but it you don't like your old one, you can always start a new one that has the funds abnd trusts you want to invest in available.

I do think a broad spread of investments in many areas of the world is wise, esp in your case with 22 years to go. for instance, last year the US market performed quite well, as opposed to the UK market. And having money in Asia/emerging markets is a good idea too. These have been some of my best performers over the years (one of mine Aberdeen Asian smaller companies is the highest performing trust over the last 5 years and has more than doubled).

elantan

thanks atush...

i was thinking to put it into a s&s isa with the idea of maybe putting it into a pension at a later date ( to possibly get any gains that can be made if the ni and tax get combined ?)

will phone the pension company tomorrow and see if i can pay over the phone once a month ( i recieve a different wage depending on o.t ... was thinking 10% of wage before tax