How safe is my company CIS Stakeholder Pension?

Savvy_Sue

jamesd wrote: »

Have you compared pension to S&S ISA investing and determined that the pension route is better for you?

Well, we went to see our adviser today, and were sent away to consider using our wadge of dosh as a deposit on an investment property with a btl mortgage, which wasn't something which had crossed my mind because I didn't think we'd get a second mortgage!

It's an interesting thought which could potentially solve several problems: my pension pot is laughably small; we need to downsize within 3 years but can do so more effectively in a year or two ...

The main reason though is that I was so badly traumatised by our last move that I swore I'd never do it again! :rotfl: But as one of the problems was being left on my own to pack against a tight deadline, if we could find an investment property we'd be happy to move into, we could give ourselves a week's grace!

I was also glad to know that where I've parked the money short-term was about the best I could do. Thanks to Martin!!!

atush

Ha, you lightweight, I moved twice last year lol.

Anyway, What kind of adviser did you see? Never heard of one tell someone to put all their dosh in a rental property.

which is bad advice if that is all of your money and not just a slice of it. As if you own your own home, that is pretty much 100% of your eggs in one basket.

Savvy_Sue

atush wrote: »

Ha, you lightweight, I moved twice last year lol.

Oh I know people do it all the time, but I was almost completely traumatised by it, it was honestly the closest I'd ever come to divorcing DH, when he spent the week before moving allegedly finishing packing up, came to join me 100 miles away on the Saturday and said it was all fine, I could just go back on Sunday evening and let the removal men in on Monday morning.

So I arrived much later on Sunday that I really felt comfortable with, found a scene of almost complete chaos, and - worst sin of all - HE HAD RUN OUT OF PACKING TAPE AND NOT TOLD ME!!! This in the days before the shops were open on Sundays - although they would have been shut by then anyway.

Had he not been 100 miles away, it might have been murder, not divorce.

This was after the gazumping and part way through the 'renting a small house with a friend' period which had its own challenges ...

But I digress ...

atush wrote: »

Anyway, What kind of adviser did you see? Never heard of one tell someone to put all their dosh in a rental property.

IFA who works with the chap who arranged our mortgage last year.

atush wrote: »

which is bad advice if that is all of your money and not just a slice of it. As if you own your own home, that is pretty much 100% of your eggs in one basket.

Yes, well, that's one of the things to consider, but our situation isn't straightforward.

And it's not ALL of our money. DH has quite a reasonable pension pot. It's just me, and so this was a 'well, if you don't want to tie up this one off cash sum in improving your pension pot, this is a possibility you may not have considered.' Which was certainly true, I hadn't!!!

And absolute clarity that this isn't something to do without being sure we wanted to do it and were ready for the responsibilities.

So we're thinking about it ...

xylophone

Remember that being a landlord might not be trauma free...a relative of mine had a pretty torrid time with a defaulting tenant:eek:

Savvy_Sue

xylophone wrote: »

Remember that being a landlord might not be trauma free...a relative of mine had a pretty torrid time with a defaulting tenant:eek:

:rotfl: very aware of that ... BIL has a BTL property which he bought and gutted and fitted out jointly with a friend, so we'd definitely avoid one which needed a lot of work and would pick his brains before committing to this.

Plus a good friend is being brought 'up to speed' on how-to-buy-and-rent-out-a-flat because one of her friends is in the process, and our friend's friend seems to think that taking care of the flat would be 'a nice little job for you dear' - err, no, actually, it would be far more responsibility than our friend wants!

No, we definitely won't go into this in a hurry, if at all.

dunstonh

Anyway, What kind of adviser did you see? Never heard of one tell someone to put all their dosh in a rental property.

I have done that in the past but only to someone with existing experience with being a landlord and a diverse spread. It would be a strange recommendation to someone with no such experience. The days of a blindfolded monkey picking properties at random at an auction blind and still being able to turn a profit are gone. Finding the right property at the right cost and decent rental yield takes a lot more research and time now.