2008 - Live on £4000 for a full year.

mumzyof2

sophiesmum wrote: »

I love the idea behind it, but would hate resetting all the clocks etc on OH gizzmo's and gadgets afterwards. :eek:

LOL i dont have anything to reset so im lucky that way.
Gone 49 hours

BlueFleur

Re: the pension debate. Am I right in thinking that contributions made to a pension fund straight from your pay (in agreement with your employer) are tax free? So you only get taxed on what is left after the contribution... I'm sure I read something along those lines on the moneywise site, but have had no joy finding the article.

Frugaldom

BlueFleur wrote: »

Re: the pension debate. Am I right in thinking that contributions made to a pension fund straight from your pay (in agreement with your employer) are tax free? So you only get taxed on what is left after the contribution... I'm sure I read something along those lines on the moneywise site, but have had no joy finding the article.

I believe that's how it works, try this page as it has all the figures. There are a few posts earlier on in this thread about how some high earners can [strike]avoid[/strike]/[strike]delay[/strike]/[strike]reduce[/strike]/do something to their income tax liability by doing just that.

Mumzy - wasn't the energy savings day just a few weeks ago here?

mumzyof2

not too sure nyk, my MUm said england wasnt doing it

sophiesmum_2

mumzyof2 wrote: »

LOL i dont have anything to reset so im lucky that way.
Gone 49 hours

Keep up the good work mumzy, think of all the money you are saving:D

mumzyof2

Thanks sophiesmum think i saved £13 something

sophiesmum_2

BlueFleur wrote: »

Re: the pension debate. Am I right in thinking that contributions made to a pension fund straight from your pay (in agreement with your employer) are tax free? So you only get taxed on what is left after the contribution... I'm sure I read something along those lines on the moneywise site, but have had no joy finding the article.

Not sure exctly how they calculate it but know that for approx every £80 me and my employer pay into my pension pot the tax man pays in another £20:D
beats the interest I could get in savings, and I still have my tax free allowance to play with:D . Just need to live long enough to get pension:rolleyes:

BlueFleur

sophiesmum wrote: »

Not sure exctly how they calculate it but know that for approx every £80 me and my employer pay into my pension pot the tax man pays in another £20:D
beats the interest I could get in savings, and I still have my tax free allowance to play with:D . Just need to live long enough to get pension:rolleyes:

I keep thinking that I should start a pension. I've always opted out until now. I figure that once my debt is clear I'm going to turn into a massive savings bunny

whitewing

BlueFleur wrote: »

I keep thinking that I should start a pension. I've always opted out until now. I figure that once my debt is clear I'm going to turn into a massive savings bunny

I still remember my first boyfriend's dad telling us at the age of 18 that we should start looking at pensions. Never did - scared me then, scares me now. I eventually did set one up and then left the company so they sent me a cheque for it. Never sorted out another. Could have had a rich retirement when I look at how much I used to spend on supermarket shopping!

MarkyMarkD

Re all the pension posts (too many to reference individually).

There are lots of points of view about whether to invest your surplus money in a pension, or not.

Plus points for the pension:

- the contributions get tax relief, of up to 40%, depending what rate you pay tax at;
- you can't spend the money until retirement, so it's safely tucked away;
- once 75% of it is converted into an annuity, you know you won't run out of money as it's paid for the rest of your life.

Plus points for not having a pension:

- you can access the savings whenever you like, say if you get unemployed or sick;
- you don't have to pay tax on the capital amount saved (but may have to on the income - depends how you save it);
- you can choose to give it away to others, before or after you die.

If you expect to have a relatively small pension, even if you put as much as you can into it, it may not be worth it as benefits will make up the income to a certain level anyway. But that's depending on future governments maintaining the present system.

But if you are better off, I believe it's worth going for the pension. It's even better if you are going to pay a lower tax rate in retirement than when working. (E.g. 40% tax now, 20% tax then; or 20% tax now, 0% tax then).


I've intentionally not answered the question about whether to buy a house or not. That's a whole separate hill of beans.