Where are your savings and/or investments going?

pawlala

"Gaaarlic bread?" someone once said. "Cheeeesecake?"

Keep going at those properties chuck, its definately the future. I'll be right behind you when I pay this damn mortgage off

grizzly1911

chucknorris wrote: »

You've just articulated my own counter arguement to myself. Not to mention my wife who has already decided to invest in another house and said that if I buy with her she'll manage it.

We are looking at Totenham Hale, not the most splendid of areas I agree, but with the regeneration going on we think that it has good 10-15 years prospects. Current yields are about 5.3% on 3 bed victorian houses which is what we would go for.

But I will also invest in shares I think as my savings bonds mature.

I would be surprise if London property prices fall noticeably if at all, but that is an outsider looking in.

At least with bricks and mortar you have a definite property that is "yours". Shares and funds are a bit ethereal. My wife prefers bricks.

I have held varying percentages of shares/funds over the years and on the whole done OK but it has been more of drip accumulation without paying too much attention. I have relatively recently started taking it a bit more seriously. Strategic rather than tactical.

At least you can blend, move them around a bit more easily than property transactions with less of the cost. Downside is you can't write off any expenses and I certainly wouldn't borrow money to invest in it either.

grizzly1911

22%/42%/13%/23% ish

james_toney

meljm2 wrote: »

Are you a debt junkie?

What happens when the government take away all the props?

Theere is a real risk of a big crash by Christmas

sorry mate heard that everyyear for the last 9

Harry_Boyle

Most of my wealth is tied up in my home and in my pensions. I have emergency savings in CASH ISAs to cover 6 months or more (probably 12 months if we really cut back to the bone).

My financial aim has always been to have a lovely home to raise the kids in, enough savings and insurance to cover any kind of emergency and plenty of cash when I retire.

I currently contribute to a career average scheme pension that effectively pays £1000 per annum for every year I work for that employer. I.e. if I work there for 25 years I'll have a guaranteed £25k pension (indexed linked).

I also have a SIPP where all of the other company pensions have gone, that is invested in stockmarket funds and has a pot currently of £117k, most of which is employer contributions and tax rebates. It's forecasted to pay out about £10k a year.

We plan to sell our large family home, releasing tax free equity from the house sale to allow us to downsize to a 2 bed stone cottage and have a lot of cash for fun.

chucknorris

Harry_Boyle wrote: »

Most of my wealth is tied up in my home and in my pensions. I have emergency savings in CASH ISAs to cover 6 months or more (probably 12 months if we really cut back to the bone).

My financial aim has always been to have a lovely home to raise the kids in, enough savings and insurance to cover any kind of emergency and plenty of cash when I retire.

I currently contribute to a career average scheme pension that effectively pays £1000 per annum for every year I work for that employer. I.e. if I work there for 25 years I'll have a guaranteed £25k pension (indexed linked).

I also have a SIPP where all of the other company pensions have gone, that is invested in stockmarket funds and has a pot currently of £117k, most of which is employer contributions and tax rebates. It's forecasted to pay out about £10k a year.

Harry do you know much about SIPP's and income drawdown? What I would like to know is that when I have a guaranteed pension of income of over 20k (it will be about 25k). I can then elect to take it all as cash rather than income as part of income drawdown.

But what I don't know is, do I have to cash in the SIPP and transfer it to a recognized income drawdown scheme provider, or can I simply cash it in and do it myself? I am thinking that if I have to do it via a recognized pension scheme provider then obviously fees will be involved.

Harry_Boyle

chucknorris wrote: »

Harry do you know much about SIPP's and income drawdown? What I would like to know is that when I have a guaranteed pension of income of over 20k (it will be about 25k). I can then elect to take it all as cash rather than income as part of income drawdown.

But what I don't know is, do I have to cash in the SIPP and transfer it to a recognized income drawdown scheme provider, or can I simply cash it in and do it myself? I am thinking that if I have to do it via a recognized pension scheme provider then obviously fees will be involved.

You are allowed to take a maximum of 25% of the value of the pension pot as a tax free lump sum and the rest then stays in drawdown (paying an income from the investment returns and capital balance). So if your SIPP is £100k when you retire, £25k is taken as cash and the £75k remains invested.

I'm 20odd years from retirement and so I haven't really researched all the rules about drawdown, mostly because they will probably change by the time I come to retire. As far as I know, you can't do the drawdown yourself. There are safeguards to prevent people from blowing all of the cash in a world tour. You are only allowed to take a set amount per annum, depending on how large the pension pot is when you go into drawdown. Your SIPP provider should be able to set all this up for you when the times comes.

mystic_trev

Mainly Equities. I own a few properties bought in the mid to late 90's when you could get 10% yields.

I've been getting some stunning returns on my Equities in the last couple of years. I also invest in some AIM Companies. If you want to Invest in Property, I'm currently buying REIT's as this gives me some exposure to the Commercial market. I've just bought some New River Retail, trading at below 30% NAV and yielding around 8%. Bit of a no brainer.;)

chucknorris

Harry_Boyle wrote: »

There are safeguards to prevent people from blowing all of the cash in a world tour. You are only allowed to take a set amount per annum, depending on how large the pension pot is when you go into drawdown.

They changed the rules (last year I think) and now if you have a guaranteed pension income of at least 20k (includes the state pension) then you can take all of your remaining pension in drawdown as lump sum in the first year (if you want to).

So I was thinking of treating it as just another investment (rather than conventional pension) i.e. for every 100k you would take 25k tax free and only pay 30k tax on the remaing 75k (so 30% only tax overall). Therefore you not only get the 40% tax relief whilst investing in it and the tax free growth, but you also only have to pay 30% tax (overall) when taking it as a lump sum as part of income drawdown.

EDIT: The danger is of course that they could again change the rules.

Thrugelmir

Excluding employer \ defined benefit pension schemes and my home (my only property)


Equities 60%

Spread across private equity, commercial property and shares internationally.

Fixed Interest 15%

Direct Holdings ( Some equity funds also hold some Corporate bonds)

Cash 15%

Premium Bonds 1%

Held investments trust shares such as Foreign & Colonial for approaching 40 years.