Convert old workplace pension?? Now self-employed

newbiesaver55

I've got 2 pensions from old jobs - £21k & £8k and now work very part-time, self-employed around the kids. I'm 40 and I'm trying to work out what to do with them. How do I tell if they're good value or not?? I can see the funds info online... but it doesn't tell me if they're doing ok... I'm pretty sure fees were capped at 1%... Should I pay what I can into 1 of them now to keep it going... and which one?! Or pay that extra £100 a month into the mortgage, or an ISA or something else?

atush

You can look up the past performance of the funds online- google them if you dont see links from your onlin platform (should be there though).

Call the companies and ask the platform charge. See if it is 1%?

As for where to put future cash, do you have an emergency cash find of 3 months spending +? What is your mtg rate? Do you have any S&S isas?

I would consider splitting any extra cash into a pension (could be a new PP or one of the old ones) and a S&S isa if you have enough emergency cash.

newbiesaver55

Hi atush, thanks for the reply. Whilst I can see past performance... how do I actually *judge* the performance? How do you define good or bad or great??

Yes it is 1% so I know this is ok...

Re the emergency fund. I have always though I'd use a credit card for that... but nothing's as good or as cheap to use as cash... OK, I will look at cash ISA's to build emergency fund then.

Atush - do you split the pension £ between stocks and shares ISAs and pensions to spread the risk, so to speak? Just wondering about the reasoning, I am a bit clueless re, have never had one. How do you go about choosing one??

greenglide

Re the emergency fund. I have always though I'd use a credit card for that

Credit cards etc are fine to cover "minor" emergencies, depending on the level of income.

Some people find items such as a new washing machine can pretty much be funded out of general income, some would struggle. But new boiler for heating? New roof for house if not covered by insurance? Unexpected replacement for car, loss of prime income source - redundancy etc?

If you have no income, for whatever reason, how would you pay back the credit card?

atush

Actually, these days 1% is highish.

You can get better rates of interest ont he new Currnet accts like santander123 than cash isas.

Split money between Pension and S&S isas because you can't access pensions until 55-57 dep on your age, and you can access S&S isas should you need to.

It is great to have CCs for emergencies, but not to hold as credit long term due to the high rates of interest. So use them if you like, but have the cash to pay them off after 30 days when they are due.

To measure fund performance, you measure it against its relevant index. This should be shown on the performance charts. So a fund that invests in UK companies could be compared to the Ftse all share or 100 depending, and global ones against the global index, etc.

newbiesaver55

That's a big help, thank you

newbiesaver55

Atush - or anyone else with pension knowledge - ive looked up my pensions performs e and tried to compare them on various websites etc. But - both pensions invest in multiple sorts of geographical areas and investment types and so o don't know what I'm comparing their performance to ... I can see that one of them has a 3/5 crown rating fwiw. So still a bit clueless!!