Learning to walk before I run

elantan

to be fair the public sector isnt as good as it used to be either ..  cant start lifting it state pension age now and lump sums are done away with 

edinburgher

@elantan - aye, that's my flavour of public sector pension. My F-I-L asks about my lump sum and refuses to believe they've gone the way of the dinosaurs

elantan

yep and you pay more per month than they did years ago 

Merlin's_Beard

Speaking as someone with a NEST style legal minimum crapper, I probably end up paying as much % out of pay into a SIPP as you guys do, but for un-guaranteed, worse returns.... grass isn't always greener! 

South_coast

Mine is the legal minimum 🙁 Feeling grateful I made the effort to put more in in the last two jobs, which were a bit more enthusiastic about paying more

(Still prefer this job though 😀)

savingholmes

Thanks for sharing which fund you are in. I am lucky as 2 DB pensions. I have just £3.6K (was £3.9K) in Av1v@ - 4 out of 7 risk rating - before now averaged 6%. At times it's dropped below the £3.6K but yes currently rising. I've gone for a riskier fund for AVC was Van via SL (through work) - but it's not set up yet. More global all cap type one... It will be interesting to see what it does. Not putting all my eggs in that basket - as I am currently feeding £ into regular savers to grow my EF. At some point I may feed some of that into AVCs too but going slowly slowly currently.

I do love the frequency at which you put £ in. I definitely need to find a rhythm of doing that. Currently I'm using the automated route - which is effective if less sexy.  If I get accepted for surveys with Prolific - hoping that might then give me extra funds...

I've been watching FI stuff again today - including the Catching documentary - to try and re-motivate myself.  

edinburgher

@Merlin's_beard - I absolutely hear you - I've had a mix of jobs (and pensions) over the years.

@savingholmes - remember that the little and often approach is because that's all I can do. I've no money left for regular SIPP payments after Mrs E pays £600/mth into her sal sac pension! 

elantan

Oh I have a NEST work pension ... deep joy at that one 

think I have a whole £150 in there now 

QueenJess

My last job was a minimum contribution DC and they only allowed you to change the % you contributed once a year within a 4 day period (which I missed as I was away). The standard until you changed it was a 1% contribution.

I now have a really good contribution (I can pay up to 6% and my employer pays 12%). It’s unusual these days as I don’t really know anyone outside of the minimum contribution. I am definitely maxing that one out as much as possible as I don’t think I’ll ever have it better! I can even change my percentage contributions monthly by filling out a really quick request online. It is definitely one of the factors that makes it harder to leave my job!

teapot2

edinburgher said:

 Also hoping to order some Velux blinds this weekend, there is a sale on.

Can I ask where the sale is on?  I've been looking to replace a Velux blind before winter as the previous one seems to have rotted away!!