Had been contibuting but not for last 5 years.

ScoobyZ

Hi I dont know if you can help.

The Bad News:

I need to get some advice about pensions as I havent paid anything in for the last 5 years. Im 38 (almost 39)

I have previously paid into a pension scheme. dont have the amounts to hand.


Company Pension- Final Salary age 21 to 32 (11 Years)

Computer Mail order company- Private company contributed age 32 to 34 (2 years)

So should have a tiny pension.

The good news is I have a buy to let mortgage and with that aim to be completly mortgage free and debt free in 2 years time.

I am keen to start contributing more now and start a new pension and have a couple of questions.

I aim to leave the final salary pension alone as that was a good one with the boots group.

However I would like to get some advice on weather to transfer the 2nd pension (2 years of payments) to another pension or restart paying into that scheme. Ideally I would like to go and see someone and get some forcast / advice on what I should be saving rather than just call into a high street bank / building society. Can anyone recommend where to start ?

Any advice appreciated.

pamaris

You should find out the status of the 2nd pension. DH & I lived overseas for the past 4.5 years and did not contribute to his (small) pension. Now we are b ack in the UK but the account is "frozen" and he is not allowed to make regular monthly contributions. He is, however allowed to make top up payments if he wants. He has a new pension with his new job, and will make regular payments to that. Although the old pension is "frozen" it is still growing in value and earning interest/ dividends etc. We could transfer the old pension into the new scheme, but will lose money as the transfer value is lower than the fund value. So, we will just leave it where it is and let it grow while we contribute to the new pension.

The place to start is your pension provider. Find out the status of your pension and whether you are even allowed to make regular contributions.

Some people around here are using stocks & shares ISA's to build up their pension as well. Our aim is to use both ISA's and pension schemes so we will have some flexibility in the end.

ScoobyZ

Thanks for that. Need to get on board with this and find my 2nd pension details.

I will look into the stocks and shares isas too as I dont want to put all my eggs in one basket.

dunstonh

I will look into the stocks and shares isas too as I dont want to put all my eggs in one basket.

The eggs in one basket applies to the underlying investments and not the tax wrapper. If 100% ISA or 100% pension is best choice then that is what you go with.

Ideally I would like to go and see someone and get some forcast / advice on what I should be saving rather than just call into a high street bank / building society. Can anyone recommend where to start ?

www.unbiased.co.uk

That is the uk database for IFAs. You can search by postcode. Dont filter on anything else though as the filter system is flawed and goes into overkill

ScoobyZ

Hi got some details.

Standard Life:curent value £9607 - Future pension in todays prices: £23,100 - £887 ayear.

Boots: would only say would be £5618.28 per year in todays value.

I worked that out as about £125 a week, when Im 65. Im 39 mortgage will be clear in about 3 years time, but would like to start putting some away now.

Found a local place on unbiased but would like to get a bit more savvy before I go in there as I was bit badly by the endownment advice I got years ago and dont want my pension to go that way.

EdInvestor

ScoobyZ wrote: »

Standard Life:curent value £9607 - Future pension in todays prices: £23,100 - £887 ayear.

Boots: would only say would be £5618.28 per year in todays value.

Then there's the state pension on top of that - 4.2k in todays money if you get just the basic, could be double that if you have a full record for SERPS/S2P.

You should be looking at ISAs now, not pensions ,because you have already basically filled up your old age tax free allowance of 10k a year.So your existing pension income should be tax free.But any more, you will pay tax.The ISA income is tax free so it's a better bet, especially since you don't lose the capital either and can access the money any time.

dunstonh

Then there's the state pension on top of that - 4.2k in todays money if you get just the basic, could be double that if you have a full record for SERPS/S2P.

I think boots final salary scheme was contracted out.

ScoobyZ

dunstonh wrote: »

I think boots final salary scheme was contracted out.

Yes I think it might have been as well. Do I need to or can I contract back in ?

I've just requested to see a IFA from unbiased.com

I will also look at putting the money into ISA's

dunstonh

Yes I think it might have been as well. Do I need to or can I contract back in ?

Contracted out with a final salary scheme is different to contracting out with a personal pension scheme. You need not do anything.