Teacher pension - where to go for advice

louby40

I'm a teacher with 21 yrs & 52 days service so far. I'm 48 (49 in February) and started teaching in 1996 which means my teacher pension is in 2 parts.

The first portion is part of the final salary scheme which I think means I can retire at 60 but the second part (from 2015) means I have to work until I'm 67? There is no way I want to do this.

Ideally I'd love to retire at 60 in 12 years time (wouldn't we all) but my mortgage still has 17 years to go so I need to ideally tie these 2 in. I will eventually sell but not sure when.

Who can I contact to get some advice and to work out when I can retire. I don't want to get my hopes up thinking 60 will be the magic number when it will actually be 67.

I've had a flyer from Weslyan that has got me thinking but I know nothing about this company or if they know anything about teacher pensions??

louby40

Further digging has revealed that the Wesleyan is supported by the NASUWT Union.

tacpot12

An independent financial advisor will be able to help. You can find one near you using https://www.unbiased.co.uk, but your situation is relatively simple and there is information available online about the Teachers pension scheme,so I'm not sure I would recommend paying for advice at present.

If you are willing to post some details here, you can probably get the answer you need for free.

The final salary TPS will include a lump sum payment, which may be sufficient to clear your mortgage even if you retire at 60.

it will be very useful for you to estimate what your living expenses will be when you retire.

louby40

What info do I need to provide on here?

I have no idea how much I would need to live on. My plan is to downsize and travel whilst I can.

cobson

There is a website for members of the teachers pension scheme where you can see your most recent statement, and which has calculators for early retirement etc. The forum wont let me post a link to it but just google 'teachers pension'.

Once you have registered for an account and logged in there is a contact form you can fill if you need to ask them any questions about your scheme.

If you retire at 60 then you will receive the full final salary part of your pension, but your average salary part will be reduced because you are retiring seven years early.

crv1963

louby40 wrote: »

What info do I need to provide on here?

I have no idea how much I would need to live on. My plan is to downsize and travel whilst I can.

I just worked out our bills- utilities, council tax, car ins, car tax etc, what we spend on food, pets rounded it all up added guesstimate of entertainment/ activities so arrived at a rough figure annually and divided by 12 for monthly income needs.


It doesn't need to be exact but nearest best estimate. Our figure is roughly 20-22k pa. So we are going to aim for 22-24k pa so that we know (hope) we have enough to live on. You have to best guess your travel plan costs - is it a back packing trip around the world, a campervan or first class 5* hotel trip around the world?


Hope this helps- another good thread to read on this board is "What is your number".

louby40

Cobson I’m registered on the TPS website and regularly check it. A colleague recently retired and found lots of discrepancies in her years of service so we have all been encouraged to check that our details were correct.

It’s a great site to look at lump sums and yearly pension amounts.

My travel plans will be mid range. No backpacking but maybe not quite 5 star. I’ll have £200k house to sell also but obviously need to buy something smaller.

tacpot12

Louby40

If you post your current salary and how much you expect this salary to increase over the next 10 years (either as an percentage per annum or the increase over all of the 10 years), it would be possible to provide a forecast of what your pension entitlement will be at various ages.

If you post the following details of your mortgage: whether it is a repayment or interest-only mortgage, the capital amount borrowed, the current interest rate, and the current monthly payment, we can see what capital will be owed at various ages.

If you sell your current property, how much do you think you will be able to buy a new property for?

Do you have any other pensions, other than your teacher's pension?

louby40

My current salary is £38633 I have no idea how much it will increase over the next 10 years. I currently pay £306 per month into my pension.

My mortgage is a repayment mortgage it’s fixed until May 2020 on 2.55% and then has another 15 years to run. The repayments are £566 but I rounded it up and pay £600 a month. I owe £95k.

I reckon I’ll sell for £200k and could buy a small terrace for £100k

I have a very small council pension that I paid into for 5 years, I’m not sure how much it is. I think I’ll get £900 a year from it but would have to check.

crv1963

I think you should work out how much you need income wise when you retire and then work backwards to what you need to save and how long these savings need to last.


For instance are you looking for income to bridge the gap from retiring at 60 until SP and TP start or will it need to last past this date or is it ok for it to provide income until then but would okay to be much reduced after then? As an example we are saving to build my wifes "pot" to bridge the gap from her retiring at 57 and SP at 67 but it can be exhausted if needed by the time she gets SP.


Nationwide website has a savings calculator which is basic but to get 95k in 10 years 4 months you'd need to save 608pm at 5% interest.

Fermion

It's worth taking a look at the TPS web site - there are some very good factsheets:-

https://www.teacherspensions.co.uk/members/resources/factsheets/how-the-scheme-changed-in-2015.aspx