A little clueless

Oakdene

Hi

I have paid into various pensions since I got my first job with the local authority when I was 19. I paid into the LGPS for what must have been 8 years in total. I then moved jobs & paid into a NEST pension for a year or two & now I pay into an aviva pension through my current work though on a salary of £24k I only pay in £12.08 pcm.

I dont really have much of an idea about pensions, should they all be transferred into the current pension? I am going to be increasing my monthly payment soon.

tacpot12

No, transferring them all into your current pension isn't necessary, and is probably very undesirable in the case of the LGPS pension. NEST is ok, but you need to keep monitoring the investment to ensure that it is growing.

You need to increase your pension payment asap. I'd suggest you put upto 10% of your salary into your pension to ensure that you have a good pension in the future.

Oakdene

tacpot12 wrote: »

No, transferring them all into your current pension isn't necessary, and is probably very undesirable in the case of the LGPS pension. NEST is ok, but you need to keep monitoring the investment to ensure that it is growing.

You need to increase your pension payment asap. I'd suggest you put upto 10% of your salary into your pension to ensure that you have a good pension in the future.

Thank you, I am going to pay more in but at the moment I cannot afford 10% but I will try to get it up there soon.

xylophone

You can leave the LGPS as is - it is a deferred defined benefit pension.

You might wish to consider transferring NEST into Aviva.

Your current pension contribution is very modest - I assume that it is an auto enrolment type so that your contributions and employer contributions will increase but you need to consider higher than the minimum if you are aiming at a comfortable retirement.

PeacefulWaters

How much does your current employer contribute?

How much would they contribute if you paid more in?

Alexland

Agree leave the LGPS alone as it's likely to be an important reliable core income stream in retirement.

NEST has very low ongoing cost probably lower than Aviva so no need to change that either. You could move it it Aviva to tidy up but if there is any possibility you might join another NEST employer in future then maybe you might restart contributions to it again anyway.

The top thing you should consider is increasing your contributions to your new scheme. Especially if there's any possibility of higher employer matched contributions. Appreciate that's easier said than done with the increasing cost of living. Maybe every time you get a pay rise or bonus ask payroll to put half into the pension?

Good luck,
Alex

kidmugsy

Oakdene wrote: »

I have paid into various pensions since I got my first job with the local authority when I was 19.

You should inform each scheme if you change address or marital status. Doing that with three should be OK. Doing it with a dozen might be tedious.

Sarastro

Not a good idea to transfer the LGPS, leave it where it is as it's defined benefit. You do need to increase your contributions and have a couple of routes to do this. If you employer will contribute more if you do, then do that. If not, look at the performance of the two pensions and see which is performing better - If NEST, then start making contributions to that (you will still get government contribution on it). If very small, it might not be worth having two and you could combine them into your workplace pension. Basically, paying into pensions is a really good idea providing you can afford to 'lock the money away' until you are 55.