Only freedom will do

edinburgher

I'm not expecting too many horrendous surprises, although they do seem to be running a tighter ship re. information leaks, so who knows?

edinburgher

Ooh - a non-crap Government website!

Just checked my pension forecast, pleasantly surprised to see that I've already managed to accumulate in the region of £93/week. If I consider that I'll be guaranteed another 10 years of credits as a worse case scenario (because CB is paid to me), I'm looking at £134.55/week minimum

I will not be counting that as part of my retirement portfolio, but if I did, it would be worth £175k. Hooray for NI :rotfl:

Suffolk_lass

edinburgher wrote: »

Ooh - a non-crap Government website!

Just checked my pension forecast, pleasantly surprised to see that I've already managed to accumulate in the region of £93/week. If I consider that I'll be guaranteed another 10 years of credits as a worse case scenario (because CB is paid to me), I'm looking at £134.55/week minimum

I will not be counting that as part of my retirement portfolio, but if I did, it would be worth £175k. Hooray for NI :rotfl:

I did that too. I discovered I could not get a credit for my years in higher ed (no pun!) and had left it too late to pay voluntary class 2 NI costs to make them up (I do have the full number of years but was looking to see if I could maximise the SERPS opted-in parts of my projected SRP. You might want to check Mrs Ed's year on mat leave to make sure it counts, if you have not done so.

When you reach FIRE you might not care but I might buy some extra opted into SERPS years by paying a voluntary C2 equivalent when I stop work to increase my pension which is hovering between £119 and £155. We'll see. Depends on the Budgets between now and then.

I always listen in so I can pick up the bits they don't report in the main headlines. Maybe no leaks but lots of speculation about pensions taking some sort of hit and using some of the tax relief the new workplace pensions are costing the Treasury to top up Social Care. And don't get me started on the so-called £60bn Brexit war-chest! No such thing. Complete fabrication. An excuse not to address the key issues.

edinburgher

I forget who (one of the IFAs over on the pensions board), but they said that the PCLS had been 'threatened' in some form every year for the last 27 years. I find myself asking 'cui bono' when it comes to some of these articles.

How could tax relief (a cost to the government) be used to fund social care (a cost to the government)? I'm confuzzled :think:

We'll check Mrs E's account at the weekend, thanks :beer:

Suffolk_lass

It's bad enough that we have to pay an IFA for advice if we want to liquidate a DC pension over £30k - they also tax 75% of the fund at our prevailing tax rate (Mutley rasser, rasser). If they remove the tax relief from the PCLS I might cry - it is two years until I finish...

edinburgher

I think that it's fair enough paying an IFA in that circumstance, but it's just a shame that the costs aren't particularly scalabale (i.e. I get the impression that the same amount of work is required on the part of the IFA for a £35k transfer vs. a £350k transfer). Considering some of the threads I've read over on the pensions board, I can understand the need to protect people from themselves!

Some of the values being bandied around are jsut crazy though, so I can understand the temptation. I have read at least one thread where a 37x offer had been made :money:

edinburgher

Throat killing me - blinking babies making everybody sick!

Council Tax has gone up by both the national increase and a 3% local increase. Bum.

Suffolk_lass

edinburgher wrote: »

I think that it's fair enough paying an IFA in that circumstance, but it's just a shame that the costs aren't particularly scalabale (i.e. I get the impression that the same amount of work is required on the part of the IFA for a £35k transfer vs. a £350k transfer). Considering some of the threads I've read over on the pensions board, I can understand the need to protect people from themselves!

Some of the values being bandied around are jsut crazy though, so I can understand the temptation. I have read at least one thread where a 37x offer had been made :money:

37x Offer! I presume that is a DB cash in price?

edinburgher

Yes, it was

edinburgher

Have booked myself a wee daddy daytrip to London - £70 1st class return in the V1rgin sale :j