Learning to walk before I run

edinburgher

Back to work and another fiver paid into my LISA, signature updated.

Suffolk_lass

@edinburgher, you should be able to transfer in any or all previous pensions to the Scottish Government one. for the CS in England, it used to be within a year but I know a number of schemes changed and DH missed out with his Teachers' Pension as they reduced it to 6 months.

Of course if you were to do so, the time when you can take it might be impacted in the future. I am sure you have savings plans outside a pension wrapper too - this is partly our buffer for the time between stopping work and taking state pensions, but we are fortunate that my scheme gave me a reserved right to NPA 60 and so did DH's teachers' pension. We both worked past that date as we were not sure our savings would be enough, but they are.

edinburgher

@Suffolk_lass - I am starting to hatch an embryonic cunning plan. I don't have a lot of DB pension provision but I believe that I could get to touching distance of £20k/year between SP and DB pensions if I a) get one of the new jobs and b) was able to buy an extra £2k or so in the new scheme by transferring in some of my SIPP.

I would then consider joining the Partnership scheme (DC) and shovelling in as much as I could afford into that to build a bridge between 58 and 68. I think this might be preferable to joining the DB scheme and taking a 40%ish reduction on all my DB income from 58. I haven't done the maths properly but I'm struggling to see how else I can generate the £££,£££ needed to bridge a 10-year gap... The partnership scheme isn't bad, 5% contribution from me would get a total contribution of 19% this year, 21.5% next, 22.75% from 2029 until retirement.

Anyway, getting ahead of myself, need to start interview prep this weekend

£18 paid into the LISA (cashback from Ch@se, a few Tilly Tidies and £15 or so remaining from our petrol budget after I put 40l in the car).

Suffolk_lass

Don't forget that if you transfer in a DB, you will be moving a cash value, no nn years. And if you were to leave your current DB as a frozen scheme, it will begin indexation between now and when you choose to take it. So I believe it might grow more quickly than in another DB scheme.

For my scheme, which had NPA 60, there was an optimum point at about 57 and 4 months that many swore was the best point to take it. The reduction for taking it early was 10% and was repaid quickly through indexation. 

I think I would keep something separate that I could draw upon (or down) during the years after work, with children through uni, while you and Mrs E are young and fit enough to enjoy in your peak years. And outside a pension wrapper, it gives you a little underwriting of your intent to go early, even if the drawdown rules or minimum pension age is raised. 

edinburgher

I'm talking about transferring in some of my SIPP @Suffolk_lass? 

DD2 won't start uni until the year I retire

edinburgher

Honestly feel like I smashed DD2 daddy daughter day #1, don't often feel like that

Took her to DD1's P3 assembly, spent much of it crawling around the floor behind the rows of benches filled with more attentive parents Then home for a snack, walk attempt #1, walk attempt #1 abandonment and home after 5 minutes for medicine. Medicine administered, walk #2 commenced, she slept for 101 minutes Home for lunch, play and hugs, a slight wobble when mum returned, then DD1 pick up, more play and Mrs E finished work slightly early to take over. Then a chippy tea, which I might just have earned at 22,125 steps and rising.

Also paid for the next block of my exercise class, paid £5 into my LISA (£6.25 after bonus) and £4.40 into my SIPP (£5.50 after tax relief). Other than those things that I just did, no financial shenanigans of any sort, no side hustles or money making and I was a present and loving parent. Yeah, I know we're meant to be that way all the time but pobody's nerfect.

Happy weekend all.

badmemory

I know we are supposed to be present & loving 100% of the time BUT.  I still remember an occasion almost 40 years ago when my DS was not yet 2.  At one point I left him in his high chair & went upstairs put my face in a pillow & screamed.  I considered this a much better reaction to what he had done than clipping him round the ear or similar.  His crime doesn't actually sound like much until you know the full story.  He had had a banana.  He had crushed it between his fingers & mashed it all over his hair before I could stop him.  Doesn't really sound too bad does it, just need to wash his hair, no problem.  That is until you know that as soon as water (or anything) touched his hair he started screaming.  So I had my scream & then went back downstairs & washed his hair & listened to him screaming.  Eventually his father took him to the barbers when he was about 4 to have his haircut there & he never screamed again.

I had a friend whose husband used to work away all week & she worked too.  She once told me that some days she would put them to bed before 6 when she had had enough.  Sometimes you have to do whatever it takes just to get all of you through the day in one piece.  Anyone who tells you children are total joys 24/7 is lying to you.

savingholmes

Sounds like a good father daughter day to me

Suffolk_lass

edinburgher said:

I'm talking about transferring in some of my SIPP @Suffolk_lass? 

DD2 won't start uni until the year I retire

I knew that, but I was suggesting some other bits to have considered. If you subsume your SIPP into your new pension, where will you put the little bits you want to save? in your LISA if it were me but also in your ISA (aka): insurance policy against a future Chancellor changing the pension drawdown rules; stopping you getting a lump-sum or being able to retire actuarily reduced by 50% (ten years early) - What happens if SPA increases to 70 within 18 years? 

Have you considered dropping to two days a week at some point in your fifties, so you are still accumulating pension while partially retiring and getting ready for stopping completely (and enabling you to support DD2 for a year or two in Uni)?

I have also screamed in frustration, and smacked DS (too hard, I think), and it wasn't into a pillow. It was past my breaking point and he knew that

QueenJess

 Kids require infinite patience, which is something I don’t have. When it’s all too much, I hand them over to DH and go and hide in the bedroom for a while!