Investment help?

dawnybabes

Disclaimer - I am seeing a IFA in the next two weeks but want to crack on to make the most of this years tax breaks.  Just sanity checking I’m on the right lines.

Husband has just died.  After everything (mortgage etc) paid off I will have approx £400k left.  I am 54 with a dependent 18 year old (will be dependent for a long time yet) 

I have a monthly income of approx £1k with approx £200k in my own pension pot (@ HL) and a local government pension (not big) 

Before I see the IFA I thought I would pop £20k into a S&S ISA through vanguard for this tax year, Buy max premium bonds (I know - but I like the idea !). 

I anticipate withdrawing £3k ish a month - which according to my rough calculations will take me into retirement. 

El_Torro

Putting £20k into an ISA now is a good idea. As you probably know, if you don’t do it before the end of this tax year you lose the allowance.

If you want to buy £50k worth of Premium Bonds now then go for it. You can always withdraw the money after your meeting with your IFA. Still it’s worth having a fair bit of cash anyway and Premium Bonds is currently one of the best places for cash to sit. 

So you plan to withdraw £3k a month of your £400k? As you rightly say this means this money will be gone after some years. What do you plan to live on after that? 

Thrugelmir

Do you have flexibility to add to your pension pot with HL this year? i.e. any remaining allowance. 

You can continue to add to your pension and ISA's in future years as well. 

dawnybabes

El_Torro said:

Putting £20k into an ISA now is a good idea. As you probably know, if you don’t do it before the end of this tax year you lose the allowance.

If you want to buy £50k worth of Premium Bonds now then go for it. You can always withdraw the money after your meeting with your IFA. Still it’s worth having a fair bit of cash anyway and Premium Bonds is currently one of the best places for cash to sit. 

So you plan to withdraw £3k a month of your £400k? As you rightly say this means this money will be gone after some years. What do you plan to live on after that? 

After this I hope my pension pot will ‘fund’ me plus I will be earning more (hopefully) and adding to my pension pot. 

dawnybabes

Thrugelmir said:

Do you have flexibility to add to your pension pot with HL this year? i.e. any remaining allowance. 

You can continue to add to your pension and ISA's in future years as well. 

I need to check, I think I might have some to add - can I add to my SIPP when I’m contributing to LGPS ? 

Eyeful

1. At what age, do you think you will draw your (a) government pension (b) state pension?
2. Have you checked your State Pension Forecast yet?
https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension
3. Are you thinking of putting any money into a SIPP?
4. Which Vanguard Investment are you thinking of putting your money into?

Thrugelmir

dawnybabes said:

Thrugelmir said:

Do you have flexibility to add to your pension pot with HL this year? i.e. any remaining allowance. 

You can continue to add to your pension and ISA's in future years as well. 

I need to check, I think I might have some to add - can I add to my SIPP when I’m contributing to LGPS ? 

You can indeed. Time is of the essence as the tax year ends shortly. 

dawnybabes

Eyeful said:

1. At what age, do you think you will draw your (a) government pension (b) state pension? 67 
2. Have you checked your State Pension Forecast yet? Yes full pension 
https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension
3. Are you thinking of putting any money into a SIPP? Already have £200k in my SIPP (consolidated all my pensions last year) 
4. Which Vanguard Investment are you thinking of putting your money into? *think* a global tracker 

I *might* also have some compensation coming from the NHS, I’ve a 29 page report already from them telling me how they missed my husbands cancer, he would still have died from it but would have had another 2/3 years. 

TheAble

Very sorry for your loss. Just out of interest - 3k/month plus your existing income. Do you really need to withdraw all that, with a paid off house? Carefully managed, 400k could keep you going in perpetuity.

dawnybabes

TheAble said:

Very sorry for your loss. Just out of interest - 3k/month plus your existing income. Do you really need to withdraw all that, with a paid off house? Carefully managed, 400k could keep you going in perpetuity.

I’m going to sit down in next couple of days  and work out a proper budget.  I don’t think I will spend anywhere near that (no car costs - mobility vehicle) but I’m also conscious I’ve not ‘budgeted’ for many many years - luckily don’t have expensive tastes, love a bargain !  Cook from scratch 90% of the time.

Albermarle

Probably the IFA , will want to transfer your HL pension on to their preferred platform and invest most of your cash also on the same platform . Normally they can get good/low charges , which may partly compensate for their own charges. 
These should be 0.5% for an ongoing service and there will be an initial charge of a few grand.
Alternatively you could have a one off advice session( also costing a few grand ) You can keep your HL pensions and will have to set up any new investments yourself . The IFA will basically set out a plan/suggestions for you to follow, but after that you will be on your own , although you could repeat the exercise at some point.
The first meeting with them should be free and these kind of different options will be discussed .
If you don't get on with them , then try someone else.
If you have any questions after the meeting, feel free to come back here .