job ending 4 years before retirement age.

DT2001

Firstly produce a budget for time when you draw SP. It could be quite different to now as daughter at Uni, no commuting costs, pension contributions etc. Will you get maximum SP?
You can then see what your pension pots need to fund. Maybe there will be a shortfall from present position or not. In a years time you might have another 10k in your pots.
Come back with more figures and you’ll get good advice from some of the knowledgeable contributors on this forum (I am speaking from my experience).
You can have a plan in place quite quickly to cope with different timescales for redundancy which will help you deal with that more calmly.
When you daughter applies for student loans, if your income is 15% lower than the ‘base year’, you can ask for current likely annual income to be used.

Albermarle

I have an additional pension in Aviva , into which I pay £250 pcm which today is worth £222k.

It is possible that the OP is confused about pensions and not realising you can start to take money from them any time after age 55 . Although the paperwork might mention a retirement date/age , this is not binding anymore nowadays.

JillyC8

TopKnot wrote: »

Hello, I am new to the forums and seeking views as I am feeling somewhat confused and vulnerable.

I am female, 61, state pension starts Oct 2023. I currently have a workplace pension with L&G and the combined monthly contribution which is topped up by me as a salary sacrifice to keep me just outside Higher Rate Tax is £604 pcm.
This pension pot currently holds £16,540
I have an additional pension in Aviva , into which I pay £250 pcm which today is worth £222k.
I have another £40k in bank savings, NS&I Growth Bond, Premium Bonds and an ISA.
I might reasonably stand to inherit about £100k from relatives within 5 years.
I am mortgage free
My youngest daughter is 17, and will start Uni in Sept 2020 after a gap year.
.

Am I missing something here? Why doesn't the daughter aaply for a student loan plus help with living costs?

And the £40k in savings plus earl you draw down of the smallest pension, along with redundancy payout and a part time job for both the poster and the daughter will surely be enough to cover all of this?

JillyC8

Sorry, preemptive texts took over.

First sentence, second paragraph should read: 'And the £40k in savings plus early drawdown ...'

TopKnot

Thank you everyone, there is much food for thought here, and I have learned a lot already.

I will do the detailed budgets and sums.

I am pretty sure I will be eligible for full state pension. And I am aware that I can start and draw my other pensions since I am way past 55, but thought that my annual amount would come down too much by starting early.

My daughter is diligent and will get a job during her Uni years, but I assumed that my salary would preclude her from the maximum loan and I would still need to support her to a considerable extent. I will look into it in more detail - the top choice atm is Bristol which i think is not the cheapest place to live. She can't, unfortunately, work for her gap year as she is having a long awaited surgery that will keep her out of action for about 8 or 9 months. And as far as I can see she won't be eligible for any benefits during that time.

OK, so buying a flat for cash and handing it over to an agency to rent out and sitting back to receive the rental income seems to be Not A Plan!

Extremely useful about not downsizing until the Uni Finance plan is done. And being assessed on a more recent year.

I'll do the budgets and have another think.

Thank you very much everyone.

atush

I have an additional pension in Aviva , into which I pay £250 pcm which today is worth £222k.

Stop paying into this pension and direct all this to your Sal Sac pension.

Have your daughter defer a year or get your current income after redundancy reassessed.

Put any and all redundancy payments over 30K into your pension.

bluenose1

Just thinking my youngest is due to go to University in 2 years just as I hope to retire.
I will expect him to get a student loan for the £9k annual tuition l fees and he will also be able to apply for a maintenance loan of approx £4,300 per annum based on our household income. Though I will give him some income to top this up and also expect him to work.
Is your daughter going to get the student loans or are you intending to pay all her fees?
If your income did reduce significantly the maintenance loan your daughter would be entitled to would increase.
May be worth looking at the student finance site to work out her entitlement
https://www.gov.uk/student-finance-calculator

Terron

Buying a property and renting it out could be a perfectly sensible plan, depending on where you live and your circumstances.


Withdrawing money from a pension to do so would not be sensible, but you have £40k in other savings which would be enough for a deposit and costs where I live.
Prices are going up where I live,
I would not recommend a flat. The ground rent and service charges would likely hit your net yield hard.
I would expect to make back the costs including SDLT from net yield in less than 2 years.


Some people do not realize that the UK does not have one housing market, but many local ones with differing circumstances. I would not recommend buying in an area you do not know, but if you know a suitable area it could be a sensible idea.

bluenose1

Terron wrote: »

Buying a property and renting it out could be a perfectly sensible plan, depending on where you live and your circumstances.


Withdrawing money from a pension to do so would not be sensible, but you have £40k in other savings which would be enough for a deposit and costs where I live.
Prices are going up where I live,
I would not recommend a flat. The ground rent and service charges would likely hit your net yield hard.
I would expect to make back the costs including SDLT from net yield in less than 2 years.


Some people do not realize that the UK does not have one housing market, but many local ones with differing circumstances. I would not recommend buying in an area you do not know, but if you know a suitable area it could be a sensible idea.

We are currently debating buying our fourth property. The three we own are within a two mile radius of where we live and it is a popular area to rent in, so no problem getting tenants. We are making a good income on each property, approx value £100k each and we charge rent of £525 pcm.
My plan is to retire at 55 and was to drawdown my D.C. pot to be spent by age 67.
However working out the figures it may make more sense to buy a property with the intention of selling it at 67.
All our property is on interest only mortgages and I would expect to realise approx £30k on each when we come to sell. Whereas if I use my D.C. pot to live on I won't have anything left by 67.
I have spreadsheets of my spreadsheets!!!!

AnotherJoe

bluenose1 wrote: »

We are currently debating buying our fourth property. The three we own are within a two mile radius of where we live and it is a popular area to rent in, so no problem getting tenants. We are making a good income on each property, approx value £100k each and we charge rent of £525 pcm.
My plan is to retire at 55 and was to drawdown my D.C. pot to be spent by age 67.
However working out the figures it may make more sense to buy a property with the intention of selling it at 67.
All our property is on interest only mortgages and I would expect to realise approx £30k on each when we come to sell. Whereas if I use my D.C. pot to live on I won't have anything left by 67.
I have spreadsheets of my spreadsheets!!!!

So that's probably about a 3% yield or so, maybe less ? So your profit is mainly the appreciation in price you have already made or hope to get on a new house you'd add?