Success Stories - Pensions

bluenose1

Mine is more good luck than anything else. I have been  enrolled in works DB pensions since 18 with no choice but to be in them, albeit a lot of that part time. 
By chance went to a Pension talk in work at age 52, and as an aside one of the Accountants said if he had any spare money he would throw it in his pension. I thought that’s strange why would he do that.
Then after a lot of research, had the lightbulb moment and I have been contributing the max allowed since then.
Just a shame I hadn’t been aware of this earlier.
I am 57 and still working, though could go any time financially now, nice not to have to worry about being made redundant and paying the bills etc, though now suffering from OMY syndrome…..
Cant believe how many clever people my age I work with my age and older who don’t see merit of increasing their contributions and instead put in savings etc. 

Yankee24

Dad always told me every pay rise.  Half into pension.  Blindly followed this from the age of 21. 

The luck-  I ended up 24 years in a final salary scheme, that I could take at 50 where I had also been contributing 25% on top.   Took it at 50, £27k a year plus another 150k in a sipp.   Still working, just have great holidays and help the kids.  I am a woman, had various mat leaves and part time… always upped my pension accordingly to keep me in lower tax brackets.

The work- I do the money in the family.  Husband not interested. He had a more checkered work history—, 4 redundancies, 3 years off in between jobs,  a few short term contracts.  I never let him stop contributing to a pension, even lied about how much redundancy money was left at the time.  He has about £350k stacked away and £150 in isas.  I have always used an ifa to keep me honest, as husband is lovely but not interested. If I had started spending, moving house etc we would have had nothing.  The ifas we have partnered with have been worth every penny.  

We were so comfortable, we were able to pass in inheritance to kids now…. We didn’t need that money at. 55.  I’ll work till 57, then We are downsizing, up pricing back into london.  

L9XSS

Yankee24 said:

Dad always told me every pay rise.  Half into pension.  Blindly followed this from the age of 21. 

The luck-  I ended up 24 years in a final salary scheme, that I could take at 50 where I had also been contributing 25% on top.   Took it at 50, £27k a year plus another 150k in a sipp.   Still working, just have great holidays and help the kids.  I am a woman, had various mat leaves and part time… always upped my pension accordingly to keep me in lower tax brackets.

The work- I do the money in the family.  Husband not interested. He had a more checkered work history—, 4 redundancies, 3 years off in between jobs,  a few short term contracts.  I never let him stop contributing to a pension, even lied about how much redundancy money was left at the time.  He has about £350k stacked away and £150 in isas.  I have always used an ifa to keep me honest, as husband is lovely but not interested. If I had started spending, moving house etc we would have had nothing.  The isas we have partnered with have been worth every penny.  

We were so comfortable, we were able to pass in inheritance to kids now…. We didn’t need that money at. 55.  I’ll work till 57, the. We are downsizing, up pricing back into london.  

Wise words from your father & great at a young age of that you listened and acted. My son is 30 this September. He has done well after leaving school and getting a good job in the banking sector, a mix of salaried positions, freelance and then back to salaried. I have always guided him with discussions “over lunch” regarding investments, ISAs & pensions. At 26 he had a mortgage and was paying into a company pension and had a SIPP. He is on the path to becoming financially independent (hopefully in his late 50s early 60s) just like his father. Like you I have a “very strong DB” pension payable at 60, and a SIPP that should hit 205k.That and working for a few more years will see me very comfortable from 62 onwards.

sho_me_da_money

COVID and the Russia situation massively impacted the stock market and economy as a whole. Anyone that has been loading their pots from 2020 til now (and perhaps until 2025) will likely see some serious gains when the trend turns bullish. It is already showing signs of trickling back up.

Andyjflet

Interesting thread..

At 55 I really wasnt sure my pension was performing so have taken a personal pension advisor who charges me very little, he manages much larger funds usually but is a friend of a friend.

I have £140k in a DC pension plus another one at around £18k, the plan is to use the small one to bridge the gap from 65 to 67 when state pension kicks in, I've managed to knock off my projected retirement to 65.I've no intention of retiring too early but, my partner is older than me so may try to retire at 62/63, I now work for a bank and paying 8% while they pay in 12.5%, I need to milk this for as long as possible.

I also have a small DB pension paying around £5k per year payable at 65.

I now don't own a house, I've sold up and put the money into ISA and other accounts, around £80k, its enough to buy something or at least a decent deposit in about 12mths time BTL, this also gives me a retirement property should I need to move out as my partner owns her home outright. 

Forecast is around £40k per year total taking me to around 85yo and still leaving £100k surplus. 

Albermarle

sho_me_da_money said:

COVID and the Russia situation massively impacted the stock market and economy as a whole. Anyone that has been loading their pots from 2020 til now (and perhaps until 2025) will likely see some serious gains when the trend turns bullish. It is already showing signs of trickling back up.

Since 01/01/20 the S&P 500  and a typical global index fund is up 30%, so Covid and Ukraine have not had a significant negative effect on shares. It has though  caused some turmoil in the bonds/gilts markets, although a lot of that can be traced more back to the GFC in 2008.

zooks

After badgering the forum with ignorant pension questions over the last few years I have now made the leap and retired.

I'm 56 and have retired from 35 years doing a full shift work stressful job that I wasn't enjoying. The money was great but also addictive and came at a cost to my long term health.

My wife is also 56 and still works part time because she enjoys her job and want to carry on for a few more years.

I took a reduction on my DB pension for going 7 years early which was an acceptable compromise for the extra years of retirement gained.

After my mortgage was paid off I took advantage of my employers AVC scheme which allowed me to maximize my PCLS without commutating too much of my yearly pension.

I have had some luck in the fact that when I started planning to go early there was hardly any decent interest to be earned on saving which for now is not the case. Also due to my ex employers pension tests applied to previous years service I ended up in a better position than I thought I would which was a nice bonus.

So to cover the next 11 years to state pension for us both (if it still exists) I have a pension of £32k/yr and a PCLS of £215k

We have probably the same in savings and no mortgage so its looking good.

Once I finished work I realized just how much work had a hold on me physically and mentally and I haven't looked back.

Queen_of_the_Hive

Hey, superb thread! So here's my story.

I'm very much currently JAM but have always paid something into my pension even if it was a £1. Pre kids I was working full time for an employer on a relatively good DC pension scheme but since having kids my working life has mainly been part time low salary. I'm also divorced too which has had a major impact on my financial situation. In married life I owned a house, but now I rent where I live with my partner in an expensive area.

In my current situation i'm working part time whilst also recieving rental income on a little home I own outright & my partner who is already semi retired has a small holiday let which he rents out for a modest amount.

My pension pots inc LISA is worth 124k which compared to most is very small but I am working on making increases where I can. Some of the things I do:

* 10% annual increase in personal monthly pension payments into one of my pots (I have already added this into my budget - its something I do in January every year). Current payments are £180 p/m + tax

* Increase the amount paid into LISA every January. This is a very modest pot but I try to chuck extra 'change' into it when I can. Currently adding £30 + gov bonus

* This coming year i'm going to make a small % increase to works pension contributions (maybe 0.5%). I'm quite limited in this though as I need my salary for regular monthly expenses.

* I get a very small bonus from work each December - aim to invest this into the LISA.

* I review my pensions each month when I review my various money pots.

* Regular check on fees paid for the pots & where these are invested and change as needed. 

* My pensions are set currently at high risk as I still have a while to go before retirement.

Myself i'm nearing 43 and in a job I could quite happily carry on doing for a long time. It fits quite nicely into my lifestyle, good team etc. The pay isn't great but I actually like working so I don't see myself retiring as such.

With my partner we are potentially going to move home and buy a property together - this is going to be quite a big deal for me as this will give us a bit more stability rather than the rental situation. Hope to keep the property I rent out as an ongoing source of monthly income and potentially somewhere to live or sell as some pension income later on.

I have a small amout of savings in S&S ISA which is contributed to every month too.

My thoughts are, I don't have a lot but I try to make the most of what I have x

Ciprico

zooks said:

After badgering the forum with ignorant pension questions over the last few years I have now made the leap and retired.

I'm 56 and have retired from 35 years doing a full shift work stressful job that I wasn't enjoying. The money was great but also addictive and came at a cost to my long term health.

My wife is also 56 and still works part time because she enjoys her job and want to carry on for a few more years.

I took a reduction on my DB pension for going 7 years early which was an acceptable compromise for the extra years of retirement gained.

After my mortgage was paid off I took advantage of my employers AVC scheme which allowed me to maximize my PCLS without commutating too much of my yearly pension.

I have had some luck in the fact that when I started planning to go early there was hardly any decent interest to be earned on saving which for now is not the case. Also due to my ex employers pension tests applied to previous years service I ended up in a better position than I thought I would which was a nice bonus.

So to cover the next 11 years to state pension for us both (if it still exists) I have a pension of £32k/yr and a PCLS of £215k

We have probably the same in savings and no mortgage so its looking good.

Once I finished work I realized just how much work had a hold on me physically and mentally and I haven't looked back.

Don't depend too much on the "decent interest" available now... if you're getting 6.2% interest and inflation is 7/8% every day you're getting poorer, before you even spend a penny. 

zooks

Ciprico said:

zooks said:

After badgering the forum with ignorant pension questions over the last few years I have now made the leap and retired.

I'm 56 and have retired from 35 years doing a full shift work stressful job that I wasn't enjoying. The money was great but also addictive and came at a cost to my long term health.

My wife is also 56 and still works part time because she enjoys her job and want to carry on for a few more years.

I took a reduction on my DB pension for going 7 years early which was an acceptable compromise for the extra years of retirement gained.

After my mortgage was paid off I took advantage of my employers AVC scheme which allowed me to maximize my PCLS without commutating too much of my yearly pension.

I have had some luck in the fact that when I started planning to go early there was hardly any decent interest to be earned on saving which for now is not the case. Also due to my ex employers pension tests applied to previous years service I ended up in a better position than I thought I would which was a nice bonus.

So to cover the next 11 years to state pension for us both (if it still exists) I have a pension of £32k/yr and a PCLS of £215k

We have probably the same in savings and no mortgage so its looking good.

Once I finished work I realized just how much work had a hold on me physically and mentally and I haven't looked back.

Don't depend too much on the "decent interest" available now... if you're getting 6.2% interest and inflation is 7/8% every day you're getting poorer, before you even spend a penny. 

True. That's why I said for now. Might not last long but not too long ago I'd struggle to get <1% so 6% is OK.

Fortunately my DB pension is index linked although capped.