Advice re retirement planning tool for someone financially inept!

bunnydrumming

Hi all.

I've been reading a couple of threads in the pension section and realise I've been going about it all wrong! I've been drifting, financially, through life thinking that when I retire I will have what I have. Now I know that I should have been more proactive and taken control of my money. Unfortunately its quite difficult for me as I have dyscalculia which means I very much struggle with any sorts of Numbers, inc money, so I avoid them.

My father died recently, he used to help me keep on track but now it's down to me and to be honest I'm a bit scared of the decisions I need to make. Dad left me some money which will definitely help by investing, not spending so I'm determined to take control of it and make it work for my retirement!

I'm single, no children and 49, in a local authority job earning around £40,000. I have some shares which bring in around £6,000 and a couple of tiny, very tiny, pensions from different jobs which I only stated in a couple of years.


I will keep trawling my way through the posts to try pick up other tips but .....
Does anyone know of a good retirement planning tool/spreadsheet I can use to help me get a grip. I know now that I need to work out how much I will need to live on and work back from there but are there any tools, or advice that will help me start.

Thanks in advance

greenglide

You say you are "in a local authority job". If you are then you should be in the pension scheme - the LGPS. although not as good as it once was is it still excellent and requires not detailed managing.

bunnydrumming

I am in LGPS but Ive only worked for the LA for the past 10 years so it won't be a huge pension.

xylophone

I am in LGPS but Ive only worked for the LA for the past 10 years so it won't be a huge pension.

But you could be working for the LA for around twenty years more?



Have you obtained a new state pension statement?

https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

Have you considered whether transferring your tiny pensions into one plan would be to your benefit?

Have you considered additional contributions to an AVC through the LGPS
provider?

http://www.lgps2014.org/content/additional-voluntary-contributions-avcs

Or a personal pension in addition to your LGPS pension?

Or a stocks and shares ISA?

You could obtain professional advice from an Independent Financial Adviser.

https://www.unbiased.co.uk/

With regard to the income from your shares, if held outside an ISA see

https://www.gov.uk/tax-on-dividends/how-dividends-are-taxed

AnotherJoe

Look at the Retireasy website.

Let's you put in all your pensions and other financial data and key dates to work out what's. You'd get in retirement, if you'd run out of money, amd so on.

enthusiasticsaver

I am in the LGPS and have added additional years to my pension by using Avcs and transferring an old DC pension from a previous employer in. Do you have any small pensions which can be transferred. Obviously you need someone to check that the pension is better being transferred rather than held but you can get a quote from the LGPS administrators telling you how many years extra benefits it will purchase once you have a transfer value of old pension.

By the time I retire in 2018 at age 58 I will have worked 20 years for the LGPS but my old pension bought me 7 additional years and AVCs bought me an extra 5 so will be 32 years in total.

xylophone

Do you have any small pensions which can be transferred.

Usually only possible within one year of joining LGPS?

http://www.cheshirepensionfund.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/Transferring-into-the-LGPS-July121.pdf

chiram2015

Hi Bunnydrumming

A lot of members on here use the Retireeasy.co.uk lifeplan tool and coincidentally I have just started a new thread about them coz they emailed me last week with details of their new plans.

Richard Dyson has today written about them in the Sunday Telegraph and I got hold of them some years ago from a great write up in the Investors Chronicle.

I have the Classic plan which is FAB but it now costs £1.99 p.m. which is well worth it for the planning and the visuals you get - beats my old xls any day.

Have fun.

Theta101

bunny

I used the Budget Planner on this site to work out my needs for retirement and pre-retirement...

The link is at the bottom of this page...

https://budgetbrain.moneysavingexpert.com/auth/login

Give it a try.

hyubh

chiram2015 wrote: »

have the Classic plan which is FAB but it now costs £1.99 p.m. which is well worth it for the planning and the visuals you get - beats my old xls any day.

Spammer - every single post you have made to these boards is to promote this particular business.

chiram2015

Well that's charming Hyubh.

I have nothing whatsoever to do with Retireeasy - we just found them a few years ago and do a lot of our planning through it.

I have also commented on a few other threads but as early retirees this is a good board for us

By the way we like Spam too!!