Retirement planning advice

terryjune

Hi all im after some help/advice/thoughts on my situation and my thoughts on retirement.
Im 52 years old 53 in May 2018 and am asking if you think i could retire at 56. i have worked for Royal Mail for 31 years and have a 21 year final salary pension and 10 year defined benefit pension that is going to change to whatever new pension comes in march 2018. the last statement i got was for up to march 2016. the final salary can be taken at 60 the defined benefit at 65 with reductions if taken early, i plan to take at 60.
The statement says FSP AT 31 MARCH 2015 £8279 FSDB AT 31 MARCH 2016 £3023 = £11302
PLUS TAX FREE LUMP SUM £33901.
i also have an AVC with 16000 in which i currently contribute £800 a month
this can be used to take my lump sum.
we have a Halifax S+S ISA With £67,000 in that we put £900 a month in
we have £30,000 in premium bonds
£5000 in nationwide flex direct
£3000 in a tesco acc £7000 in royal mail shares in a EQUNTI S+S ISA
£8000 In ordinary bank acc that bills come out of and £45,000 in another that we have just been left off wifes father who has just passed.
we own a house worth roughly £180,000 here and an appt in Spain worth roughly £100,000 which we are hoping to move to. My wife has a pension with SPAR shes worked there 25 years but its not much of a pension. were thinking of selling our uk house and moving to spain when im 56, we think we will need 18,000 a year to live comfortably, Do you think it is doable in our situation? is there better ways to maximise our savings/pension and money weve just inherited. Do i need to go to financial adviser? Sorry for long post and i will try to answer anything else i need to.Thank you in advance

terryjune

I have just noticed ive used my sept 2016 pension illustration i should have the sept 2017 one at home, currently at work i will look for it tomorrow, Cheers

justme111

I think it is very doable. you will need 18k×4 =72 k before the age of 6O which you can take from inheritance and premium bomds for example
And about 7 k a year from the age 6O to 67 - 5O k lets say. you can take them from your lump sum and a bit from premium bonds for example. It stll would leave you with about 1OO k ISA, about 29-25 k cash and the remainder of premium bonds about 15-2O k.
It's an awful lot of money which you as people on guaranteed income ( occupational pension plus state pension would not really need so it is a bit of a wasted opportunity. in my opinion.
That is all even without selling your house here...

ams25

You do need to consider your spouse cover if you die first. most often it's 50% on the fsp and your wife loses your SP also...so potentially you go from 100% final salary pension plus 1 or 2 SP (ie comfortable) to 50% of your fsp and only 1 SP which might be tight. So you need to consider that there is adequate proviosion for your wife as part of the equation.

kidmugsy

I don't understand the "=" bit; can you explain?

terryjune wrote: »

FSDB AT 31 MARCH 2016 £3023 = £11302 PLUS TAX FREE LUMP SUM £33901.

(i) In your shoes I'd want a financial advisor who can tell you in advance about Spanish tax and investment law. For example, will your pensions be taxed as ordinary income? Will your ISAs remain tax-exempt (my guess is "no")? Will Premium Bond winnings be exempt from tax? Does Spanish income tax ignore some starting income, in a way equivalent to our "Personal Allowance"? Does Spanish tax law let you take any advantage from being a married couple? How about Capital Gains if you sold your British house: taxable? Etc, etc.

(ii) Subject to his advice, I'd think that a good move would be to make max pension contributions for your wife for 17/18, 18/19 etc. I'm assuming that when you turn 56 she'll be at, or close to, 55 so that she can drawdown from this pension immediately or soon thereafter. I'd also make max contributions for you, because you could drawdown later to fill the income gap from retirement until your pensions start at 60.

(iii) I'd also get an official forecast of State Retirement Pension for each of you, and I'd find out how and when to make extra contributions, if necessary, to increase your eventual SRP. It might suit you to defer such contributions until your other pensions have started at 60, but that's only my guess. It would be better to know.

xylophone

Get a state pension statement for each of you.

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

terryjune

Thank you all for your replies, I'll get a pension forecast for both of us this week.
The part you have bolded Kidmugsy is I was in Royal Mail final salary scheme 86 to 2008 they the made it a defined benefit final salary so from 2008 until present in that so the forecast gives two separate figures to equal the 11k.
So I can start a private pension for my wife ? As well as her works one? she is the same age as me. How would I set that up please? Would I need to go to IFA for that.

Another option we are thinking about is 6 months uk 6 months Spain as then I remain uk tax resident which might be better if Isas not tax free over there, also I could do some agency work with Royal Mail as HGV driver as we use a lot of agency now so sure I could get some work, maybe downsize to smaller house or appt which we can get for 100k roughly which would free another 80k up.