need to sort myself out, advice needed.

waynedance

i took out a private pension with the TSB when i was 22 (now 31) but have not paid into it for many years.

i also have a pension with an old company which they set up and again not paid any in for 3 years since leaving.
across the 2 schemes is only about £10,500

the question is what is the best thing for me to do, my current work is a small garage and is setting up is it a stakeholder pension scheme.

1, do i start the one at work and can i transfer my old pensions to it?

2, do i find a better private pension and transfer the others to it?

3, do i forget the pension and put more money in to paying of the mortgage quicker (£51,000)?

4, do i save money in savings instead of pension?

really need to get sorted, getting woried about the future.

oh and i believe i am contracted out as well.
thank you in advance for any help.

dunstonh

1, do i start the one at work and can i transfer my old pensions to it?

If that is what you want

2, do i find a better private pension and transfer the others to it?

If that is what you want.

3, do i forget the pension and put more money in to paying of the mortgage quicker (£51,000)?

You will spend much of your working life with a mortgage. If you dont pay towards your retirement you will have to sell the house/equity release to afford to continue living in retirement.

In much the same way you dont choose whether you should pay the gas bill or the electric bill, you shouldnt choose mortgage over retirement planning.

4, do i save money in savings instead of pension?

If you need money in the short term, then yes.

With your questions 1 and 2, the answer really depends on the schemes you already have and how they are invested and how they compare with the employer's stakeholder. Remember a pension is just a tax wrapper containing investments. It is the investments that are the most important bit. If the schemes you already have give you the best investment options, then you wouldnt want to put them into a group stakeholder.

momisa

I have a company pension with a company I no longer work for.
I also have a company pension with my current employer.
When I gavemyself a financial overhaul a few years ago I took advice from a financial advisor (I didn't pay for his time specifically).
Thankfully the chap was very good IMO and moved my life policy into one which was more up to date for less money. He also found a good Payment Protection cover - to cover mortgage whilst ill etc.
We also discussed pensions and whether I should join both of mine together. Bottom line it's all down to personal choice. The decision was made when I called my current employer to enquire about this only to be informed that they were not doing this at the time I called. I've since decided that I prefer them separate in order to avoid "putting all my eggs into one basket".

In answer to your Q's;
1) As a general rule company pensions are viewed to be better than private ones so always take them!!

2) You could look at taking out additional voluntary contributions (AVC's) in a separate policy which is then under your own control - rather than taking AVC's with the company you work for.

3) As already said - NEVER forget or ignore a pension. Take a look at your mortgage deal and see if you can pay extra into when you can - don't pay extra if you'll be penalised or charged an early repayment fee!!

4) We should all try to have savings for a rainy day.

Point to note: I'm not very good at taking my own advice and it's always sunny in my world LOL

dunstonh

1) As a general rule company pensions are viewed to be better than private ones so always take them!!

Occupational pension transfers are but group stakeholders are often very limited and dont offer very good investment choice. If the employer makes contributions then take the maximum you can in free money. However, you wouldnt want to put a decent investment spread in an alternative pension into a limited stakeholder pension.

2) You could look at taking out additional voluntary contributions (AVC's) in a separate policy which is then under your own control - rather than taking AVC's with the company you work for.

It isnt an occupational pension so no AVC will exist.

When the Govt said they were going to simplify pensions from last April they failed rather as they actually increased the number of pension types available rather than reduce them. So, answers to questions that the OP has made will usually be "depends" as there are so many variables.