Pensions - can you lose money?

xylophone

And you are able to see your pension on line through an RBS/L&G portal?

What does it show?

AnotherJoe

Chickabee wrote: »

Despite being quite money savvy in most ways I have to admit I could write all I know about pensions on the back of a postage stamp.


So I was hoping some pension expert could perhaps give me a little bit of guidance.


I managed to build up about 40k work place pension with my previous employer. Its managed by Willis Towers Watson. To be honest I never paid much attention to the pension or contributed perhaps as much as I should because I've always had the probably misjudged assumption that you never know where that money is going and who knows if you will ever get it when you retire. As a result I've always been more of a saver because I know despite low returns I know I'm not losing money.
However I have since moved to another job and joined their workplace pension. Its through Aviva and doesn't seem to have the same matched contributions that I had with my previous employer. Even still I am contributing monthly. But I wanted to ask someone that knows about pensions:
1. can they lose value - is there a risk element? Not as risky as your strategy of nit saving into a pension
2. can I contribute to my 40k pension as well as my current work based pension? Yes
3. if I contribute to the 40k pension do I also get tax relief on my contribution or would it be deducted from my salary after tax as a private contribution? You'll get tax money added on. Nothing will be deducted from your salary.


Thanks for any guidance

But unfortunately you have been, in several respects.
First, inflation is losing you money.
Second, you've lost money through not taking the tax relief.
Third, you've lost money through the opportunity cost, e.g. If you invest a sum over 20 or 30 years, e.g. Long term, whatever that would return which would be much larger than compared to savings, that's also money you've lost even if it isn't as visible (and long term it's the biggest amount of these three)