Please point me in the right direction for the eager but clueless

Albermarle

Brie said:

If not and it's not enough, would it be then better for someone at my stage in life to opt out and simply pump as much as possible into a Defined Contribution Scheme

No - because you'd be doing all the paying into the scheme.  yes there's the tax breaks you get but you would miss out on the extra that your employer kicks into it as well.  Now I'm assuming that you mean opting out of a work scheme and having just a private pension.  There's nothing wrong with a DC work pension because they will also have the employer paying ££ into to it for your benefit.  

As above, opting out of any employer pension scheme is usually a very bad idea.

Getting_greyer

I'd have a think about what income you would need and like in retirement. Work out the deficit from the state pension and then look at potentially salary in some different type jobs and work out what pension you could accrue from there.

My personal take is that the best pension is to have both DB and DC. The DB gives you certainty, and the DC gives you options to retire before NPA and or pass on full amount etc. If I could have only one, I'd try and maximise a DB scheme.*

Public sector pensions are very good, even after the 2015 reforms. I'm considering civil service in couple of years. Pay may be less but the package & pension is a massive draw for me. In public sector you contribute towards a safe, inflation proof pension and can also make additional contributions into a DC pot.

It might be different if you're gonna be high earner, to the point you could save the annual allowance each year it may be a different story. 

Most of the public sector schemes have a basic calculator you can Google and  put some figures in to see what you could get, though they all have slightly different accrual and contributions rates.

* based on my preference.

Spint

MallyGirl said:

...Having them separate allows you to do different things with the 2 pensions - such as leaving the DB alone and living off the DC if you retire before the retirement age of the DB.

Apologies but I'm still learning! I can see with the NHS DB there is an option to retire early albeit reduced income, however, if you retire early but as you say leaving the DB alone, do you get more from the DB if you leave it until the national retirement age rather than taking the option of early retirement, even though you're no longer contributing to it anymore?

I'm sure that would be the case with other types of pensions as it's just as if you're leaving money in a savings account, but not sure if that applies to a DB as well. Hope my thinking makes sense and thank you!

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Spint said:

MallyGirl said:

...Having them separate allows you to do different things with the 2 pensions - such as leaving the DB alone and living off the DC if you retire before the retirement age of the DB.

Apologies but I'm still learning! I can see with the NHS DB there is an option to retire early albeit reduced income, however, if you retire early but as you say leaving the DB alone, do you get more from the DB if you leave it until the national retirement age rather than taking the option of early retirement, even though you're no longer contributing to it anymore?

I'm sure that would be the case with other types of pensions as it's just as if you're leaving money in a savings account, but not sure if that applies to a DB as well. Hope my thinking makes sense and thank you!

It's not really like a savings account.

As a general rule if you take a DB pension early the reduction applied will aim to give you the same pension overall.

So say it was £10,000 at NPA.  After 25 years you would have received £250,000

But you took it 3 years early and got say £8,800.  After 28 years you would have received £246,400.  A very similar amount.

Inflation protection would impact that slightly but the principle is that if you choose to take the pension early you will get slightly less as you are essentially asking for it to be paid for longer.

daz378

Doesn't  apply  to OP   but would you ever advise someone whose started very late say late 50s from accruing  extra pension...that would pay a low pension...but disbar them from getting pension credit and other benefits?