Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

CKhalvashi

Masomnia wrote: »

It sounds to me like you're in a decent enough position Lydia, being mortgage free and paying into a pension. In terms of your spending I would see that as 'investing in yourself', and definitely worthwhile

What to do next is tricky. It might be worth seeing a professional when you are in a position to save, or at least post on the Savings and Investments board for a starting point. There's a debate as to whether it's worth going with a further pension or a stocks and shares ISA, as both have advantages and disadvantages.

ETA: You can find IFAs on www.unbiased.co.uk

My mum is looking to retire in the next 5 or so years so we're having this kind of conversation a lot. She works in the NHS and with their scheme you can buy additional pension for a fixed amount, which if you plan on living a long time works out at very good value on the face of it. I don't know if there is a similar option with the TPS, but it might be worth investigating.

Interview went ok I think this morning, they said it's actually just for four months (I thought it was 6), but really that works in my favour as I think they'll be more likely to hire me. So we shall see!

Will delete if asked.

Agree with this, although I'd say a S&S ISA would be the way to go assuming Lydia would be paying basic rate tax on retirement too.

It would also give the ability for a flexible drawdown depending on what she or kids need (house deposits, uni fees etc) without being subject to higher rate tax charges, as the money is tax paid when it goes in.

LydiaJ

Thanks Mas and CK.
Meeting with new solicitor very promising. Much more proactive and has plenty of plans for moving things forward. Am feeling very encouraged. Maybe sometime soon I'll have some money to decide what to do with!

michaels

SW did let me log on tonight but for some reason when I asked to see my pension payments it just told me there was an error and to log on again later.

michaels

cfiresim is a useful tool for working out how much you can live on per year in retirement (based on historical returns so you can choose to be 'ok' even if the worst that has happened over the last 120 years happens.

I can probably retire in 8 years given normal investment growth although I will still have (at least) 4 child years of uni left by then which may prevent it. However I would be happy to retire tomorrow....

SingleSue

We're going on a daytrip tomorrow...to London! Blimey have rail fares gone up, when I was a teenager, it was pocket money + paper round amount and easily affordable, now it is almost take out a mortgage amount.

Thought it best to do something in the half term with Joe going off to uni this year and before things start getting really expensive with the run up to his going (halls deposit, equipment etc). At the moment we are planning on the Tower Bridge experience and going up the Shard, luckily with the wheelchair, the carer goes free, unluckily, Tower of London is out due to wheelchair access issues.

After that, it will be a walkaround and see what takes our fancy (Joe fancies City hall....)

michaels

Should be a good day with the weather much warmer than of late - enjoy.

Oh and fingers crossed for Mas.

vivatifosi

Imo the problem is not just working out what you can live on, it is that you can say, with some degree of certainty, that whatever you think the answer is, the government or pensions industry or finance industry will throw a curved ball in at some point.

I've been a pension fund trustee since 2001. I've lost track of the changes in that time, but they certainly include the Brown taxes, rewriting of mortality charts, the pensions liberalisation rules, ramping up of retirement age, changes in BTL landscape, growth of alternative investment vehicles, the financial crisis, Pensions Regulator changes to how the scheme must be run, yada yada yada...

I will not retire for at least another 10 years, but one thing I know for certain is that yet more changes will be chucked into the pot between now and then. Most of my pensions (though not all) are DB and about 75% of those are FS, but even then it is bloomin' complicated. I really feel for DC savers and those who look for alternatives (such as BTL).

ukmaggie45

SingleSue wrote: »

We're going on a daytrip tomorrow...to London!

Sue, I'm sure you're aware of this already, but for other Nice People who might have to take disabled friends/rellies around, take a look at Euan's Guide.

They recently did an article about disabled friendly stuff around the River Thames that is really interesting.

zagubov

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

Sue, I'm sure you're aware of this already, but for other Nice People who might have to take disabled friends/rellies around, take a look at Euan's Guide.

They recently did an article about disabled friendly stuff around the River Thames that is really interesting.

This is one of those finds that proves the internet has treasure buried in it.

GDB2222