Income drawdown

xylophone

Your wife could contribute £2880 to a pension, obtain tax relief of £720, leave in cash rather than investing in a fund etc take the PCLS and then draw down the balance to leave enough in the account not to fall foul of the early closure fee.

http://www.hl.co.uk/partners/search/sipp?theSource=PCHLS&Override=0&adg=G+HLBS+HPN&gclid=CMTAnsiw6c0CFcO4Gwod02YIwQ

She could open a Tesco current account....

She can do this in subsequent years up to state pension age......

xylophone

In fact, if she wished, she could continue to contribute to a pension up to age 75, as indeed could you.

jamesd

tgon wrote: »

My IFA has advised, and I understand this, that I need to preserve my DB pension (Civil Service Nuvos, current value £12k pa) as long as possible. I am mortgage free but your comments on bridging any short term gap with 0% credit, etc was also made by my IFA. I'm impressed with the consistency!

Good job by the IFA, nice to read about, lots of cautions and watch out here, good to read the positive side as well.

The IFA probably also told you that the 12:1 commutation rate was lousy and you shouldn't take a lump sum?

Worried_of_wakefield

Interesting how the OP details replicate my own, same age, similar DC pension ( with Aviva ) and a DB pension to be taken age 65ish. I can confirm Aviva wont offer a draw down facility but in my case didnt apply a charge to allow a transfer across to HL ( cash sipp) again at no cost. I took a 25% LS and popped it into my Santander accounts earning 3% ish, keeping them topped up using 0% credit cards wherever possible.

The only concern I have is the draw down cash fund with HL which is diminishing at a rate of (£11k/year) without earning anything at all but reading the comments provided appears this is something both of us may have to accept untill the funds are exhaused.

Good luck with the early retirement, best move I ever made ( now 6 months in!)

tgon

Nice coincidence. Unfortunately my early retirement was not a choice I wanted but following compulsory redundancy and 12 fruitless months trying to regain employment full of post-60 bias (no, surely that is illegal lol), I needed to take time out and position my head and heart in a less stressful scenario.

I will take on board you experience with Aviva drawdown. Many thanks and good luck.

xylophone

full of post-60 bias

And how ridiculous that is when you consider that Mrs May will be 60 in October!