Pension saving and advise

Markvirgo70

Hi

Im 53 married and have 2 pension pots and the state pension with 32 years contributions (no reason to belive it won't get to the 35 years needed)

My income from work is around £48000 pa and I have buy to lets income around £11000 pre tax/mortgage/insurance etc

Pot 1 is an old pension with £13,221

Pot 2 is my current work pension with £18,985

I currently pay in around £650 via salary sacrifice

I have no mortgage owed on my own house.

what are my options to optimise my pension without paying too much income tax?

Ayr_Rage

At your age in the transitional group, you may need more than 35 years for the state pension.

Have you actually check on the HMRC site ?

pip895

Upping the pension contribution to get yourself out of 40% tax would be first and significantly more if you can.

Dazed_and_C0nfused

Im 53 married and have 2 pension pots and the state pension with 32 years contributions (no reason to belive it won't get to the 35 years needed)

Why do you think you need 35 years?

My income from work is around £48000 pa and I have buy to lets income around £11000 pre tax/mortgage/insurance etc

Mortgage payments have never been tax deductable and even mortgage interest can no longer be deducted now.  Although a 20% tax credit is available in some instances.

Knowing your taxable profit would be more useful.  Along with where you're resident for tax purposes?

I currently pay in around £650 via salary sacrifice

Salary sacrifice means you aren't actually paying anything, that's why no tax relief is added to the contributions, as they are employer contributions.

On your level of income though increasing salary sacrifice is going to the best option as you avoid both tax and NI on the amount sacrificed.

xylophone

Check your state pension forecast here.

https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

Pat38493

Based on the limited information 
- check your state pension forecast on gov.uk as the 35 years is only for people just starting out on their career.  You might need anything between 33 and 49 years from examples quoted here,
- look to increase your pension contributions to get your taxable income below the 40% limit to tax maximum tax relief at the least. 

Do you have any other savings?  If not your pension provision looks very low so far  it without further info about your entire situation can’t say more. 

Brie

I currently pay in around £650 via salary sacrifice

per month?  presumably!!

basically more details required!  But at 53 you have room to make things better.

ewaste

Are any of your Pensions Defined Benefit e.g. is Pot1 actually an old deferred DB pension due to start paying £13k at Age 60 or 65?

artyboy

Pat38493 said:

Based on the limited information 
- check your state pension forecast on gov.uk as the 35 years is only for people just starting out on their career.  You might need anything between 33 and 49 years from examples quoted here,
- look to increase your pension contributions to get your taxable income below the 40% limit to tax maximum tax relief at the least. 

Do you have any other savings?  If not your pension provision looks very low so far  it without further info about your entire situation can’t say more. 

Pat - I've mentioned this a few times already, but my own SP was fully paid up by no more than 29 years of contributions. It may even have been less, but that was the first time I got a forecast so don't think there's any way to check for certain.

Point being the spread of years needed during the transitional period can be very very wide from one person to the next!

Albermarle

Pot 1 is an old pension with £13,221

Pot 2 is my current work pension with £18,985

Considering your age/salary/income from rent, these pots are rather small.
Of course we do not know your full circumstances, history etc. 
However probably worth pointing out that even if you grow the pots to £100K, it will only produce a sustainable income of around £4Kpa.
Of course you have other plans to fund your retirement, but just that to get a decent pension income you need to build up quite a large amount.