Pension advice

Triumph13

This is a really difficult decision for you both, and it isn't one with an obvious answer which anyone here can give you. What we may be able to do though is help you work out ways to look at the options.
My suggestion would be that you get a big sheet of paper and rule a line down the middle horizontally and another horizontally to divide it into 4. The top half of the page is taking the £12k pension. The bottom half is taking £7.5k pension and £50k. Now for the more difficult bit. The left hand side of the page is your treatment goes well and you survive for many years. That's the side we are all hoping for. The right hand side is what happens if you don't.

Basic maths says that the top left is preferable to the bottom left, but also that the bottom right is preferable to the top right, In itself that isn't very helpful. What you and your husband need to work out is how big a difference the pension decision will really make to your lives in each case and weigh that up against the probabilities of being on the left hand side or not. The position is unlikely to be as clearcut as 'we can cope with bottom left but husband starves in the top right without the £50k', but it may help give some clarity if the difference in lifestyle impact is much bigger on one side than the other.
I hope that helps. I hope even more that you remain solidly on the left hand side of the page for many years to come.

squirrelpie

Louise321 wrote: »

Originally diagnosed jan 04 with a grade 2 astrocytoma (brain tumour), then needed further surgery may 06 and radiotherapy, then further surgery July 16, most recently surgery August 18 And currently undergoing chemotherapy. My consultant says that because of the type of brain tumour that I have they can’t really give a prognosis.

Sorry to hear of your medical problem and best wishes for a full recovery and long life.

It seems like you have a 'slow growing' cancer, but it may come back more aggressively at some point even after treatment.

So it seems to me you are facing a gamble. You might live a long and happy life, or it might be cut short prematurely. It's a bit like the gamble we all face of being run over by a bus, but with closer odds on the bus.

You might be able to work out the odds of each outcome and estimate your life expectancy and thus which pension option gave you the most money, but if I was in your situation I don't think I would be thinking like that.

I think I would think about what I (and my wife) wanted to do with our lives. Both in terms of short-term bucket list-type activities and longer term sitting-in-a-rocking-chair ambitions (or parachuting in your eighties or whatever floats your boat). Then try to draw up a budget that draws a balance and choose the pension option that best fits.

Or maybe another way to look at it: if you're a pessimist then think of things to blow the £50k on and accept you will have a lower standard of living if you live a long life; whereas if you're an optimist, then maximise the pension and accept you may not live to collect it all.

Thrugelmir

Not suggesting that you blow the £50k in the wind. However give consideration to doing things that are special to you both.

xylophone

Do you have a use for the £50,000 now?

Do you have the choice of varying the amount of lump sum?

Louise321

Yes I can vary the lump sum and get a smaller lump sum with slightly reduced pension.

LHW99

Then as Triumph 13 suggests, check that your OH is OK if things don't go too well for you (and also how you would cope if, unfortunately, that bus came for him!).


Once you know that, you can perhaps work out the best combination to allow you to do some enjoyable things together while your health is good.
Here's to that being for a long time.