Investing £150,000 for growth

xylophone

https://adviserbook.co.uk/

When the menu comes up, tick "confirmed independent" and such other specialisms that are required.

badger09

Threadersroyal wrote: »

I'm learning a lot from this post. I've spent 10 years in the Marines then 23 years putting out fires, so my expertise is not in the financial side of things. I would like to DIY but clearly shouldn't right now. I'm arranging visits from local IFA's now so hopefully will come to a 'correct' decision. Thanks again.

I thought normal retirement age for Fire Service was 55 (or 50+ with at least 25 years service)?

arwain

Is anyone tempted to leave the £200k in the pension? This gives an additional £500 per month which is index linked for the rest of his life. Retiring at 52 (unless due to health reasons) could easily mean 40 plus years of that index linked £500 a month.

The OP has said that he does not need that additional £500 a month, so he could pay that into say one of the various global trackers with someone like Vanguard every month, set it all up with the use of an ISA. Every year as the £500 a month increases due to the index linking, then he can put a bit more into the tracker fund. At the end of 10 years he is quite likely to have done reasonably well in the tracking fund, and he is still getting the £500 per month (plus the indexing).

If there has been a crash and investments have dropped say 40% over a short period of time, then provided it didn't happen towards the end of the 10 year period he should still be fine as he would have been buying cheaper units with his £500 a month.

If instead he takes out the £200k and puts £150 into a fund or funds and there is a 40% drop in its value in the next year or two, how is he going to feel?

OP are you allowed to take out less than the £200k from the pension? Would it be possible to withdraw £50k for your celebrations (hope we all get invited to that party), leave in the remainder which would provide you with a bit less than the additional £500 per month index linked.

DrSyn

1. I suggest looking at both these before you go further:-

http://www.kroijer.com/
https://www.ifa.com/indexfundsthemovie/


2. Tech yourself something about investing even if you are not going to DIY.


3. If you are going to use an IFA read through these first :-

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/debt-and-money/getting-financial-advice/
https://www.which.co.uk/money/investing/financial-advice
https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/best-financial-advisers/


4. Make sure you understand the difference between an:-
Independent Financial Adviser(IFA) and Financial Adviser (FA)

5. When you have chosen an adviser it would be a good idea google them to see if anything turns up.

As an example " St James Place complaints and reviews"

the top three results where:-
https://citywire.co.uk/wealth-manager/news/sjp-tops-complaints-list-for-specialist-wealth-firms/a1046440
https://www.yodelar.com/insights/st-jamess-place-review
https://www.which.co.uk/news/2017/07/exclusive-wealth-manager-st-jamess-place-misleading-customers-on-charges/

Threadersroyal

badger09 wrote: »

I thought normal retirement age for Fire Service was 55 (or 50+ with at least 25 years service)?

I transferred 10 years Royal Marines pension into the Fire Service scheme when I joined in 1996, the Service gave me nearly 7 years transfer value for it. I've now served 23 years in the Fire Service so the combined pension and length of service allows me to retire at 52 with 30 years pensionable service (in the Fire Service pension scheme) which is the 2/3 salary pension. Hope that makes sense.

Threadersroyal

arwain wrote: »

Is anyone tempted to leave the £200k in the pension? This gives an additional £500 per month which is index linked for the rest of his life. Retiring at 52 (unless due to health reasons) could easily mean 40 plus years of that index linked £500 a month.

The OP has said that he does not need that additional £500 a month, so he could pay that into say one of the various global trackers with someone like Vanguard every month, set it all up with the use of an ISA. Every year as the £500 a month increases due to the index linking, then he can put a bit more into the tracker fund. At the end of 10 years he is quite likely to have done reasonably well in the tracking fund, and he is still getting the £500 per month (plus the indexing).

If there has been a crash and investments have dropped say 40% over a short period of time, then provided it didn't happen towards the end of the 10 year period he should still be fine as he would have been buying cheaper units with his £500 a month.

If instead he takes out the £200k and puts £150 into a fund or funds and there is a 40% drop in its value in the next year or two, how is he going to feel?

OP are you allowed to take out less than the £200k from the pension? Would it be possible to withdraw £50k for your celebrations (hope we all get invited to that party), leave in the remainder which would provide you with a bit less than the additional £500 per month index linked.

The maximum commutation is 25% which gives me a tax free lump sum, the tax free status is why I am taking the maximum lump sum.

With the Fire Service scheme if I die my wife gets half of my pension for life, when she dies the pension stops so my kids do not get anything passed to them.

By taking the maximum lump sum and investing it, no matter what happens to me or my wife my kids will get the lump sum passed to them (I'm looking into protecting this against possible care costs etc.). So I'm taking the best of both worlds, £150k invested to pass to my kids and the remaining pension for me guaranteed for life. I think that is the best balance for my family.

Threadersroyal

DrSyn wrote: »

1. I suggest looking at both these before you go further:-
not allowed to post the links
2. Tech yourself something about investing even if you are not going to DIY.
3. If you are going to use an IFA read through these first :-
not allowed to post the links
4. Make sure you understand the difference between an:-
Independent Financial Adviser(IFA) and Financial Adviser (FA)
5. When you have chosen an adviser it would be a good idea google them to see if anything turns up.
As an example " St James Place complaints and reviews"
the top three results where:-
not allowed to post the links

Wow, thanks for taking the time to do this. I'll look at all the items you have given me. As a beginner the system will not allow me to post the URL links above. Again, many thanks.

badger09

Threadersroyal wrote: »

I transferred 10 years Royal Marines pension into the Fire Service scheme when I joined in 1996, the Service gave me nearly 7 years transfer value for it. I've now served 23 years in the Fire Service so the combined pension and length of service allows me to retire at 52 with 30 years pensionable service (in the Fire Service pension scheme) which is the 2/3 salary pension. Hope that makes sense.

Thanks for clarifying, I thought it might be something like that.

That's a generous pension, but you deserve every penny of it:)


To add to DrSyn's reading list, I'd also recommend this website

https://monevator.com/category/investing/passive-investing-investing/