retirement planning / investing

wake1

Hi

Having been good at saving but poor at investing / planning and only in recent years started paying into a SIPP. I wanted to get some opinion on what I should do with excess cash to help my retirement /semi retirement. 
 I'm  self employed, 49 , married with no children and my financial situation is as below.

I may have to help my brother to  pay off his house as he has some problems, will be around 100k and i'm considering keeping the ISA's for long term  as well as putting more into the SIPP. So aside from an emergency fund I have some cash that I could put to use .

 Im also considering scaling back on a stressful contract so have considered using some of the spare cash savings to buy a property to rent out to take pressure off. I will still work but would like to create a situation where if I struggle to get work its not the end of the world.

115k left on the mortgage at 1.49% for a couple of years at which point it will be around 85k

265k - cash isas
450k cash savings
-all around 5%
plus an unmortgaged buy to let which pays around £900 p/m (worth around 200k at the moment)

25k in a SIPP which im adding to 

150k in business 

Looking for an unbiased opinion or some ideas that I might not have thought of...

Thanks

Marcon

wake1 said:

Hi

Having been good at saving but poor at investing / planning and only in recent years started paying into a SIPP. I wanted to get some opinion on what I should do with excess cash to help my retirement /semi retirement. 
 I'm  self employed, 49 , married with no children and my financial situation is as below.

I may have to help my brother to  pay off his house as he has some problems, will be around 100k and i'm considering keeping the ISA's for long term  as well as putting more into the SIPP. So aside from an emergency fund I have some cash that I could put to use .

 Im also considering scaling back on a stressful contract so have considered using some of the spare cash savings to buy a property to rent out to take pressure off. I will still work but would like to create a situation where if I struggle to get work its not the end of the world.

115k left on the mortgage at 1.49% for a couple of years at which point it will be around 85k

265k - cash isas
450k cash savings
-all around 5%
plus an unmortgaged buy to let which pays around £900 p/m (worth around 200k at the moment)

25k in a SIPP which im adding to 

150k in business 

Looking for an unbiased opinion or some ideas that I might not have thought of...

Thanks

Getting some proper advice from an independent financial adviser?

Mark_d

I would seriously consider putting £50k of your cash savings into premium bonds, as the prizes are tax free.  If you can transfer your cash ISA savings to a S&S ISA then you could invest in a fund which would deliver much better returns than cash.

Keep_pedalling

I would certainly be prioritising a pension over another property especially as you are deep into IHT territory and will currently be paying significant IT. What about your wife? Does she have any pension arrangements. Are any of these savings joint savings? Does she also have significant savings?

wake1

Keep_pedalling said:

I would certainly be prioritising a pension over another property especially as you are deep into IHT territory and will currently be paying significant IT. What about your wife? Does she have any pension arrangements. Are any of these savings joint savings? Does she also have significant savings?

the 150k i have in the business i intend to keep feeding into the SIPP - im a bit concerned about putting big lumps in at a time in case theres a big drop. at the moment my sipp is probably performing similarly to cash if not worse after feed but keen to make use of the tax advantages and get the amount invested up as much as in the next few years. My wife doesnt really have much in the way of savings

wake1

Mark_d said:

I would seriously consider putting £50k of your cash savings into premium bonds, as the prizes are tax free.  If you can transfer your cash ISA savings to a S&S ISA then you could invest in a fund which would deliver much better returns than cash.

ive had some premium bonds since the 80's and have never won anything but will look into that

Keep_pedalling

wake1 said:

Keep_pedalling said:

I would certainly be prioritising a pension over another property especially as you are deep into IHT territory and will currently be paying significant IT. What about your wife? Does she have any pension arrangements. Are any of these savings joint savings? Does she also have significant savings?

the 150k i have in the business i intend to keep feeding into the SIPP - im a bit concerned about putting big lumps in at a time in case theres a big drop. at the moment my sipp is probably performing similarly to cash if not worse after feed but keen to make use of the tax advantages and get the amount invested up as much as in the next few years. My wife doesnt really have much in the way of savings

Unless she is a high earner it is a bit foolish for you to have all the interest associated with your non-ISA cash savings co ing to you. If she has a very low or no income it is madness. You really should be transferring at least some of that to her, taking advantage of her ISA allowance, and starting a SIPP for her. 

wake1

She isnt a high earner at the moment no - and yes I am foolish when it comes to this stuff - have been too focussed on the business

Keep_pedalling

Using the starting savings rate your wife could earn up to £17,570 tax free with some of these savings in her name

https://www.gov.uk/apply-tax-free-interest-on-savings

With the amount involved, you would probably be wise to consult an IFA for some professional advice.

If you don’t both have wills and or LPA in place that should also be a priority.

wjr4

Your pension NEEDS to be your priority. How much are you earning? Is it a limited company? If yes, why are you not maximising your pension contributions? 

DIYPhil

I would transfer some of your cash into your SIPP and make the maximum contribution for the current tax year and the three previous tax years. You may need an IFA to calculate how much you can pay. You’ll likely benefit from significant tax relief, depending on how much you’ve paid into your SIPP over the last four tax years. Going forward, make maximum contributions, again taking from your cash savings if needed. Suggest this book which I’ve found very useful - Pension Magic - www.taxcafe.co.uk