Over 50 No Pension Plan

honeyissaving

Hi,
I am one of those disorganised people who has managed to pass the age of 50 and has no pension plan in place. What I would really like to know is if anyone can suggest a good plan for somebody like me. I have worked all my life and expect to get a full state pension but obviously that will not be enough in this day and age. All help and suggestions would be most gratefully received. Thank you.

somethingcorporate

There is simply not enough information in your post to help. Perhaps go and see an IFA to discuss your options.

Over 50 is very late with no pension, to get something reasonable you would need to put away thousands to make up for all that you have been missing over your lifetime.

dunstonh

What I would really like to know is if anyone can suggest a good plan for somebody like me.

It doesnt work that way. It depends on how you want to buy, how you want to invest, how you want to contribute and what sort of features and options you want.

There is not enough to go on to even start the filtering process.

I have worked all my life and expect to get a full state pension

If you are employed then that will be the case. If you have been self employed then it will not be.

bigfreddiel

get a job that has a final salary pension - work till spa (67 isn't it) that will give you 17 years worth

now iff you were in the cs classic scheme you would get 17/80ths of your final salary for a payment of £60/month

and you get a lump sum of 3xyour pension

sadly the cs classic scheme comes to an aend in 2015 for those more than 10 years away from retirement so that puts an end to that scheme.

but i'm sure its not impossible to get a similar deal -just very very difficult

good luck

fj

atush

Have you managed to save anything? Cash? Investments? Isas? Property?

If you have never saved before, there is no magic wand. Spend less than you earn and save the rest.

ermine

You need to save a capital base of about 20-25x the annual additional income you wish. Given the size of that ask you might want to ask yourself whether you can get anywhere with that, and perhaps consider not saving and throwing yourself at the mercy of means-tested benefits in old age. Any savings you do make will reduce these, so you need to research the position at the moment. You then need to take a view of how munificent the shattered and twisted wreckage of Britain's economy will be in 17 years time, bearing in mind that this is the period over which most of the baby boomers will have retired putting heavy pressure on government provision.

I personally expect the State pension itself to be means tested by then, so I don't factor it into my retirement planning. It'll be a nice bonus, or perhaps a small compensation for the stupendous inflation the expansion of the money supply has been over the last few years.

Hope you're one of the 1%, cos otherwise this is going to be a challenging predicament to resolve...

jamiefly

Replace the word disorganised with denial. You simply put pension planning off until another day and that day is rapidly creeping up with you.

In my opinion it's too late to start a good pension as at aged 50 you should be moving towards a more cautious approach anyway.

If you were lucky enough to buy a nice house when they were affordable to many, is it paid off? would you consider downsizing to release equity?

Pay off debts now or at least plan to have them paid off before you retire. Invest in a good solar hot water system (sub £1k will now provide you with all your hot water requirements + a small radiator as a heat dump). Then throw yourself at the mercy of the state for means testing.

If you are unable to save in a conventional way then take up coin collecting, silver looks pretty

As for the suggestion of finding a job with defined pension benefits they are as rare as hens teeth. Tell me if you find one and I will join you

bigfreddiel

jamiefly wrote: »

As for the suggestion of finding a job with defined pension benefits they are as rare as hens teeth. Tell me if you find one and I will join you

true but not impossible

with a bit of organisation it can come good

in my case in 1998 i was 47 with a few frozen pensions, unemployed and collecting the dole

luckily i got a cs job, joined the classic scheme, old pensions bought me 10 years service and when i retire next year pension will be about £12k pa

and with a bit of simple investing i have built up isas and ilscs that will bring in about £10k pa income which i currently reinvest

so it can be done - more difficult now, but just focus, keep it simple and you can do it.

and my missus has a nice £10k pension (nhs and sp) so in reality as we wont be constantly saving all the time now we'll be better off than when we were working! funny how it turns around innit!

and one more thing helped me - paying off my mortgage in 1985, so just go for it

good luck

fj

frugalescrow

Have you tried the pension tracing service?

honeyissaving

Many thanks to all who answered my question. Much appreciated. I will look into adopting some of the advice given. Thanks!!