1688 days.

xylophone

You say that a COPE is shown.

This indicates that at some point in your working life you were in a contracted out pension scheme.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/state-pension-fact-sheets/contracting-out-and-why-we-may-have-included-a-contracted-out-pension-equivalent-cope-amount-when-you-used-the-online-service

Do you know when you were contracted out and the scheme?

andys15

xylophone said:

You say that a COPE is shown.

This indicates that at some point in your working life you were in a contracted out pension scheme.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/state-pension-fact-sheets/contracting-out-and-why-we-may-have-included-a-contracted-out-pension-equivalent-cope-amount-when-you-used-the-online-service

Do you know when you were contracted out and the scheme?

Hi. Yes I contracted out of my pension about 3 and 1/2 years ago. 

It was for various reasons. 

1. I was reading that the CETV was in a bubble ( not heard what’s happened to other peoples)
2. I got effectively a 31% pay rise. 

3.  I was getting close to my lifetime allowance and was hearing horror stories of colleagues who had got promoted and went above theirs. 

4.  My pension age was being put up to 57 and felt I could save my uplift and more to retire early. 

5. My final salary pension would close when we both died. 

No doubt many negatives for opting out of my pension but I think I made the right choice. 

xylophone

Hi. Yes I contracted out of my pension about 3 and 1/2 years ago. 

I think some misunderstanding has crept in.

Do you follow what is meant by "contracting out"?

https://techzone.abrdn.com/anon/public/pensions/Tech-guide-contracting-out

It is not the same as "opting out" of a pension scheme.


Do you mean that you were a member of an employer's  DB Scheme but chose to drop out of it, leaving your pension deferred?

Or do you mean that you obtained a CETV from your DB pension scheme and transferred the cash to a SIPP/other personal pension?

andys15

Many thanks for clearing that up. 

Yes I transferred my DB pension to a SIPP. 

I am not sure about the contracting out of my state pension then. 

xylophone

I am not sure about the contracting out of my state pension then. 

If you had a DB pension, it was almost certainly contracted out of SERPS/S2P and would explain the COPE.

In several years of reading the boards, I can only recall one mention of a DB pension that wasn't.

The second state pension ended with the introduction of the "single tier"/new state pension in 2016.

andys15

So my saving has begun. 

I initially put a few k in Etherium but decided to set up an ISA. I will able be to fill both ISAs prior to April. (Wife and I)

Decided to start with high yield shares. Rio tinto is doing bad, about 6% down in 3 weeks. Averaged down there a couple of times. 

Bought 5 FTSE 100 shares 3 weeks ago and although the FTSE is doing well, I am about 4% down on £11k investment. 

Not sure wether to put more into Rio on payday or spread the risk. Think I will have both ISAs with only FTSE 100 shares though. 

Once the ISAs are maxed out for both years I am thinking of saving £85k( about 9 months savings) and put it into a 5 year fixed paying 2%( maybe by then the BOE interest rates will have risen). 

[Deleted User]

andys15 said:

So my saving has begun. 

I initially put a few k in Etherium but decided to set up an ISA. I will able be to fill both ISAs prior to April. (Wife and I)

Decided to start with high yield shares. Rio tinto is doing bad, about 6% down in 3 weeks. Averaged down there a couple of times. 

Bought 5 FTSE 100 shares 3 weeks ago and although the FTSE is doing well, I am about 4% down on £11k investment. 

Not sure wether to put more into Rio on payday or spread the risk. Think I will have both ISAs with only FTSE 100 shares though. 

Once the ISAs are maxed out for both years I am thinking of saving £85k( about 9 months savings) and put it into a 5 year fixed paying 2%( maybe by then the BOE interest rates will have risen). 

Do you know what you are doing?  Are you an experienced investor?  Do you understand basic principles of portfolio design?   Have you read financial statements from the companies you are buying? Do you like their management teams?  What is the reason  for picking “high yield”? 

 I could be wrong but it does not seem like you know much about investments. You didn’t ask for opinions but here is one anyway: think about asset allocations and put everything into an internationally diversified fund or ETF. 

Thrugelmir

andys15 said:

Decided to start with high yield shares. 

The question that you need to ask yourself is why other investors are shunning the stock if the yield is that attractive. What's the downside. Every investment has potential negative aspects. Majority of investors only ever look for the upside. 

Diplodicus

Go for growth stocks, andys15. More volatile than high yield stocks but less volatile than crypto (of which I know nothing).

NannaH

when taking the yield from funds  as income -  if the yield taken is 5% but the growth is 10% in any given year,  does the pot grow 5% or 10% ( after yield taken and before charges) ,  I assume it’s 5% ?