How many pensions do you have?

thatoldchestnut

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

I also have worked for the LGPS since 1999 and the scheme has changed three times since I have joined it. Great benefit. Are you using the prudential AVCs?

I haven't done an AVC. It didn't appeal to me as much as an APC (additional pension contribution) because I favoured having a bigger regular income over receiving a tax-free lump sum on retirement. Don't know whether I should still consider doing it, because at the moment I'm trying to save for a deposit.

Novice_investor101

I'm 35, female, single, no kids (not planning on having any), own my home with £65k left on the mortgage. Aiming to retire between 60-65.

I have a DB scheme that I paid into for 10 years from about age 24. The statement I got in 2015 (when they closed it) said I'd built up an annual pension of £3400 a year & this will increase by CPI upto a max 5% each year. Retirement date age 65. (No idea what that means to how much I'll get at age 65 tho).
I am now in my new employers DC scheme where I pay in 6% & they pay in 12%. I'm currently on the starter wage but I'll be getting a £2k wage rise in September & I'm expecting this will increase further & regularly til I get to the top of my job banding. In September, once I get the payrise I'll increase my pension contributions to 8% EE & 14% ER. This is invested in 3 Global Equity funds (2 active funds - 30% towards a 0.66% annual fund charge, 32% to a 0.3% fund charge & 1passive - 34% to a 0.12% fund charge) & 4% to a UK FTSE All-share tracker - 0.12%charge (which brings my UK total to 10% with the other funds). No other charges are paid. I'm pretty much gonna stick to this to try & build my pot & then closer to retirement move towards bonds etc
I also have a cash ISA for emergency funds & a S&S ISA on a monthly savings plan. This is my sort of extra pension fund/emergency fund. Once I get nearer 50&60 (& I've had no emergencies) I'll start shifting some of this into a private pension, providing there's still tax relief. Once my mortgage is gone (currently overpaying) I'll invest the same money into either an IPP or the ISA.
I'll get full state pension - but expecting/planning that to not be til age 70....
& Finally, I'll possibly have no one to leave my house to so I may also do equity release to use that for income too. I plan to do lots of travelling in retirement.

Novice_investor101

I forgot the company share saving scheme as well. I pay £25 a month from my net pay into a buy 1 get 2 free share scheme. It's one of those sell after 3 years & pay tax or 5 years & no tax things. But I joined that to mainly have a nice little holiday fund every year. But I won't see any of that for another 4 years yet....

Terron

1. Regular payment private pension started in the mid 80s when I wasn't eligable for the company scheme with a GAR of 10.6% when I am 60.
2. Lump sum scheme on same terms as above,
3. DB scheme with 5.5 years contributions
4. AVC linked to the above
5. Hybrid scheme where the DB underpin will almost certainly kick in.
6. DC scheme replaced the replacement for number 5 which I have transferred to a modern scheme ready for drawdown as the discounted charge for employees stopped when I lost my job.

3 should give me about 5k a year, 5 about 9k, 1&2 about 4k payed yearly in arrears.
4 is small but I should be able to take it all as a tax free lump sum due to the link to 3.
Only part of 5 has the DB underpin/ I will probably take some of the rest to pay off mortgages and by a new car - my current one will be 12 years old by then.
6 is about 300k so at 3 or 4% drawdown should provide 9 or 12k.


I don't quite have enough for a full state pension but I am pretty close (£151 pw).

worried_jim

Novice_investor101 wrote: »

I'm 35, female, single, no kids (not planning on having any), own my home with £65k left on the mortgage. Aiming to retire between 60-65.

I have a DB scheme that I paid into for 10 years from about age 24. The statement I got in 2015 (when they closed it) said I'd built up an annual pension of £3400 a year & this will increase by CPI upto a max 5% each year. Retirement date age 65. (No idea what that means to how much I'll get at age 65 tho).
I am now in my new employers DC scheme where I pay in 6% & they pay in 12%. I'm currently on the starter wage but I'll be getting a £2k wage rise in September & I'm expecting this will increase further & regularly til I get to the top of my job banding. In September, once I get the payrise I'll increase my pension contributions to 8% EE & 14% ER. This is invested in 3 Global Equity funds (2 active funds - 30% towards a 0.66% annual fund charge, 32% to a 0.3% fund charge & 1passive - 34% to a 0.12% fund charge) & 4% to a UK FTSE All-share tracker - 0.12%charge (which brings my UK total to 10% with the other funds). No other charges are paid. I'm pretty much gonna stick to this to try & build my pot & then closer to retirement move towards bonds etc
I also have a cash ISA for emergency funds & a S&S ISA on a monthly savings plan. This is my sort of extra pension fund/emergency fund. Once I get nearer 50&60 (& I've had no emergencies) I'll start shifting some of this into a private pension, providing there's still tax relief. Once my mortgage is gone (currently overpaying) I'll invest the same money into either an IPP or the ISA.
I'll get full state pension - but expecting/planning that to not be til age 70....
& Finally, I'll possibly have no one to leave my house to so I may also do equity release to use that for income too. I plan to do lots of travelling in retirement.

Love it! I do all the share save schemes at work too and make sure I get the maximum employers contribution by paying 5% to get their 13%- free money!

Dorian1958

Planning to retire next year age 60. I have:
1. RN Service Retired Pay already in payment.
2. War pension (20% disabled) attributable to service, so that makes 1. Tax free.
3. Deferred DB scheme able to take at 60 with no reductions.
4. AVC pot must be taken with 3. When I was higher rate taxpayer contributed all i was allowed for about 3 years.
5. Currently contributing to LGPS DB/CARE allowed to take at 60 without reductions.
6. AVC Prudential pot linked to 5, contributing everything above personal tax allowance to maximise tax free lump sum.
7. State pension, payable at age 66. According to forecast I will be one year short of new full flat rate at age 60, but intend to apply for Carers NI credit then.
Think I will be ok but intend to run the numbers past the experts on another thread. Interesting to see how complex other posters arrangements are, the days of one final DB scheme like my father and father in law are indeed over. They retired 3 years younger than I am now by the way, but argued they worked harder!

enthusiasticsaver

Novice_investor101 wrote: »

I forgot the company share saving scheme as well. I pay £25 a month from my net pay into a buy 1 get 2 free share scheme. It's one of those sell after 3 years & pay tax or 5 years & no tax things. But I joined that to mainly have a nice little holiday fund every year. But I won't see any of that for another 4 years yet....

You sound as if you are pretty well set up pension wise then. You will find that £3400 per year will be considerably more than that by the time you are 65 if it is growing at 5% per year. Benefits of compounding.

Novice_investor101

Whenever I use one of those retirement calculators that predict what I might get at retirement from my DC, State & DB schemes there's never any box to say that it increases with inflation. So just tells me I'll get £3400 a year in 30 years time, bit frustrating. So I figured if I work on my DC & S&S ISA then I'll be well prepared come retirement & hopefully be able to do it at 60 rather than 65.

Novice_investor101

worried_jim wrote: »

Love it! I do all the share save schemes at work too and make sure I get the maximum employers contribution by paying 5% to get their 13%- free money!

Best financial advice I ever got was from my manager at my student/weekend job whilst I was at uni. I asked her about the pension & she told me to join it cos it was a good one. I ended up staying there for 12 years & came out of it ok. I look at how much of a DC pot it would take to buy an annuity of £3400 pa right now (with 50% spouses benefit) and it's a lot of money.....

worried_jim

Novice_investor101 wrote: »

Best financial advice I ever got was from my manager at my student/weekend job whilst I was at uni. I asked her about the pension & she told me to join it cos it was a good one. I ended up staying there for 12 years & came out of it ok. I look at how much of a DC pot it would take to buy an annuity of £3400 pa right now (with 50% spouses benefit) and it's a lot of money.....

Snap! I joined my first company scheme in '91 when I was on just £8.5k as a trainee on the advice of a great manager. Left the company in '99 on about £17k. That current pension pot is now worth £43k and grew 19.5% last year. I also ran a private scheme from '96 to about 2003 which is doing okay and I now save 18% (just 5% from me) into my current company scheme since joining in 2005.

I worked out that across all schemes since 1991 I've grown @ 7.5% per annum as an average (back of fag packet calculation). I do a spreadsheet every November- sadly I look forward to it.

I now tell all the new employees that I work with to pay the maximum into their pensions from day one, I get the compound interest calculator out and they sign up straight away. Someone took the time to tell me so I am passing on that information. After 23 years of pension saving it is starting to get pretty sexy. Love the compound interest but have to admit I need to get out a bit more!