Company pension contributions and ISA money

fifeken

I contribute to my employers defined contribution pension scheme through salary sacrifice. Once a year I have the opportunity to change the level of my contributions.

I have a couple of pots of money available to me. 1) Stocks and shares ISA and 2) Collective Retirement Account, both of which I was content to leave where they were to contribute to my pension income when I retire.

Another idea has been put in my head that I take the money from either of these two pots and use it for regular expenses, in particular my mortgage as that's my largest outgoing.

As I would then have £800 per month less outgoings from my salary, I could increase my company pension contributions by £800 without any downside in my available cash for day to day living and, at the end of the (2 year) period doing this, the same amount of money in my retirement pots, only distributed differently.

Finally, as the pension is salary sacrifice, I'd actually be £160 better off in my take home pay each month (which far outweighs the interest in the CRA or ISA)

I'm not familiar with all the rules surrounding this, so my questions here are how does all the above sound? Is it a practical suggestion or a non-starter? What should I be looking out for, and are there any other comments you would like to make?