Advice Please

Stormer79

Hi,


I've posted in the debt forum and suggestions have been made in there to ask for advice here.


I currently pay into the Local Government Pension Scheme but, stupidly, know very little about it or what I can expect at the end. I am thinking about paying into a private pension scheme as well. I'm 37 and I still rent with no prospect of ever owning my own place.


So what I need advice on are the following:


Can anyone here talk to me about the LGPS and point me in the right directions of the sort of questions I should ask them when I discuss making voluntary contributions or what I should expect when I reach retirement age?


I'm not in a position at the moment to pay into a private pension as advice received is to clear my debts first. What sort of things can I be doing now to prepare for that wonderful moment when I am able to pay into a private pension?


I am very clueless on all of this stuff so please feel free to assume I'm a total novice as anything you ask or suggest will go a long way to helping me plan and sort out my situation.


Thanks

sleepymans

Why not enquire if there is a possibility to increase your contribution to the scheme you are in? When I was in a public service scheme it was a very attractive option.

jamesd

LGPS is an excellent scheme, have a read here and also follow the LGPS2014 link. For payments into it before 2014 there are benefits as a percentage fo final salary depending on how long you work in LGPS jobs. For payments into it after that it pays a percentage of your career average salary depending on how long you work in LGPS jobs.

It is probably not the case that you can never own your own home. Provided you're willing to work to get that done. First thing, don't stop or switch to 50/50 payments into LGPS, continue paying the standard amount because you will rely on this plus the state pension in retirement.

Beyond that, if you want, you can try to use the maximum in the help to buy then lifetime ISAs and use the bonuses they provide to help you to get a sufficient deposit. You can also pay into a personal pension to build up a pension pot and from that pot you can take 25% as a tax free lump sum and the rest as taxable income whenever you like, added to your normal taxable income in the years in which you take it. The 25% can further increase your deposit and you can take the 75% rapidly but still within your normal tax band to accumulate more or help with the initial expenses after buying.

HTB and LISA are first for buying a home, pension second, but never stop paying into the core LGPS scheme.