Where to get free, independent pension advice in my 40's

Bostonerimus1

OP, no one will give you free advice, but if you ask your questions here people won't be able to stop themselves from offering their opinions.

What are your goals? How much does your employer add to your pension and how is it invested. If your pot will be 124k when you retire you won't have a very comfortable retirement as inflation will have increased living costs. You should be looking to contribute at least 10% (15% is better) of your gross wages to your pension...I know that's tough given all the other things you have to pay for, but if you did that and got 8% annual return from an equity heavy pension portfolio you could end up with 250k pension pot. At today's annuity rates that would buy you a lifetime annual income of 18k to add onto SP. Would that be enough for you? Or you could look at drawdown which you be around half that amount to make sure you survive market ups and downs.

Marcon

Grumpy_chap said:

Not paying for professional advice may be a short-sighted economy.

Waiting another ten years until 50 before sorting out retirement plans may be challenging as the interim growth has been lost.

Normally I'd be the first to agree, but given the modest sums involved, it's unlikely OP is going to benefit that much from actual advice, given how much a proper fact find/advice session could cost. 'Interim growth' is going to happen regardless (you can bet your life OP is in a default/lifestyle fund) for someone in their mid-40s.

Simply finding out the facts in relation to her current pension, and paying in more if she can afford it, would go a long way to helping. 

Marcon

MallyGirl said:

if you want some entry level reading then I often recommend the book:
DIY Pensions: A Simple Guide to Pensions, SIPPs & Retirement Planning by John Edwards.
You may well be able to get it from the library.
Once you have a grip on some of the basic concepts and terminology you will get more out of some of the videos and blogs that get mentioned.

You are in the company pension so that is a positive - are you contributing enough to get the maximum you can from your employer?

Be aware that this was published in 2017 and hasn't been updated since. It looks as if he self published on Amazon; if so, updating would have been straightforward (at least in terms of the physical process involved in changing the words in the book - actually rewriting the content is another matter!). It's currently unavailable on Amazon, so with luck the author might be updating even as I write...

theoretica

One thing to do early on is find the details of your employers scheme and confirm if you can get more out of them - if you increase your contributions above the minimum, do they match it?  If they do, yay, free money - you really want that! 

CurlySue2017

kempiejon said:

Housing is a whole other subject. I preferred renting and obviously a lottery win is not a solution but if you can make a pensions provision you could hope to buy a house, perhaps a modest one in Burnley or Middlesbrough?

We already live in one of the cheapest areas of the country (in the NW) so there would be no point in moving to a cheaper location, assuming that's why you have mentioned these two places.  

LHW99 said:
Although you and your partner keep finances separate, you presumably share some bills (food, rent, utilities...?), perhaps pai from a joint account?.
If you expect to continue to be together, it is worth both of you working out your pension provision. If one of you ends up with much more than the other, that could make things difficult, apart from the idea that working together in financial decisions usually works better, and can mean somewhat lower bills - eg food shopping for two isn't necessarily twice as expensive as shopping for one.

I really didn't want to go into this because it attracts a lot of judgement from people but.....
My OH doesn't work and hasn't for a while now.  This is our choice and is not going to change in the foreseeable future.  So he has no income at all, he is not entitled to any benefits so we both live off my income alone.
This makes the budget very tight indeed, but as I say it's our choice for our own personal reasons.

Someone asked what my goals are.
Basically I just want to be able to afford a roof over my head as I get older, that's all.  I've always lived frugally, my parents were poor but we never went without so I don't need lots of "stuff", just the necessities and I'm happy.  We live a very simple life and are happy with it, but getting older has started to creep into my thoughts.

Just to add I messed up the quoting, so the italics is just to make the quoted post stand out from my reply

cfw1994

theoretica said:

One thing to do early on is find the details of your employers scheme and confirm if you can get more out of them - if you increase your contributions above the minimum, do they match it?  If they do, yay, free money - you really want that! 

Definitely do this.
Also try to find out what the scheme is, and what the funds are invested in.  Sometimes they are super-cautious by default, and when you have some years to go it may be worth looking closer at that.

It is good that you are looking into this now 👍

Do you have any spare money you can invest for the long term?

Pensions are good to build up, but so are ISAs - my suggestion would be to chose a low cost “all of world” S&S (stocks and shares) ISA, like a Vanguard LifeStrategy one.  My preference for long term would be the LS100.
ISAs give you a pot of money you can draw on at any time, whereas pensions can only be accessed at a certain age (perhaps 57 for you?)

I know you are not wanting judgment on your situation, and I am not judging…..but if your OH has no income or benefits, how do you keep your finances separate?  Surely you are paying for everything?  

Getting some fiscal help in any partnership feels important to me 🤷‍♂️

CurlySue2017

cfw1994 said:

theoretica said:

One thing to do early on is find the details of your employers scheme and confirm if you can get more out of them - if you increase your contributions above the minimum, do they match it?  If they do, yay, free money - you really want that! 

Definitely do this.
Also try to find out what the scheme is, and what the funds are invested in.  Sometimes they are super-cautious by default, and when you have some years to go it may be worth looking closer at that.

It is good that you are looking into this now 👍

Do you have any spare money you can invest for the long term?

Pensions are good to build up, but so are ISAs - my suggestion would be to chose a low cost “all of world” S&S (stocks and shares) ISA, like a Vanguard LifeStrategy one.  My preference for long term would be the LS100.
ISAs give you a pot of money you can draw on at any time, whereas pensions can only be accessed at a certain age (perhaps 57 for you?)

I know you are not wanting judgment on your situation, and I am not judging…..but if your OH has no income or benefits, how do you keep your finances separate?  Surely you are paying for everything?  

Getting some fiscal help in any partnership feels important to me 🤷‍♂️

Thank you for not judging We keep finances separate for the exact reason you give here, I pay for everything.  He has had money / debt problems in the past which is why we never got any joint accounts or anything that could link us financially back then, because I didn't want to risk my excellent credit history by linking in with his, which is extremely poor.  And now that he is not working, it seems pointless so we have just kept things the way they are. 

Marcon

CurlySue2017 said:

I really didn't want to go into this because it attracts a lot of judgement from people but.....
My OH doesn't work and hasn't for a while now.  This is our choice and is not going to change in the foreseeable future.  So he has no income at all, he is not entitled to any benefits so we both live off my income alone.
This makes the budget very tight indeed, but as I say it's our choice for our own personal reasons.

Someone asked what my goals are.
Basically I just want to be able to afford a roof over my head as I get older, that's all.  I've always lived frugally, my parents were poor but we never went without so I don't need lots of "stuff", just the necessities and I'm happy.  We live a very simple life and are happy with it, but getting older has started to creep into my thoughts.

It's nobody's business but yours - but sometimes giving a bit more info than you'd planned originally gives scope for answers to branch out a bit, too!

I guess you've looked into the housing situation pretty thoroughly, but in case you've not yet thought of it, have you considered a mobile home or tiny house? Both trends seem to be growing in popularity in the UK and if you google you'll get lots of info on each type. They are vastly cheaper than their regular counterparts and if you have an excellent credit history, you might just be able to borrow - and afford repayments - on one of these?

CurlySue2017

Marcon said:

CurlySue2017 said:

I really didn't want to go into this because it attracts a lot of judgement from people but.....
My OH doesn't work and hasn't for a while now.  This is our choice and is not going to change in the foreseeable future.  So he has no income at all, he is not entitled to any benefits so we both live off my income alone.
This makes the budget very tight indeed, but as I say it's our choice for our own personal reasons.

Someone asked what my goals are.
Basically I just want to be able to afford a roof over my head as I get older, that's all.  I've always lived frugally, my parents were poor but we never went without so I don't need lots of "stuff", just the necessities and I'm happy.  We live a very simple life and are happy with it, but getting older has started to creep into my thoughts.

It's nobody's business but yours - but sometimes giving a bit more info than you'd planned originally gives scope for answers to branch out a bit, too!

I guess you've looked into the housing situation pretty thoroughly, but in case you've not yet thought of it, have you considered a mobile home or tiny house? Both trends seem to be growing in popularity in the UK and if you google you'll get lots of info on each type. They are vastly cheaper than their regular counterparts and if you have an excellent credit history, you might just be able to borrow - and afford repayments - on one of these?

It's finding that balance between giving enough information but not waffling or revealing too much

This could be very useful, thank you so much.  We have given thought to van living or similar but discounted that because as we get older, that could present a whole other bunch of other problems.  So although it would be a dream for me, I'm not sure it would be practical as we get older.  I will definitely look into the other options though, we muddle along very well together so living in a small space is not a problem

ETA: I understand that you can draw down some of your pension when you reach a certain age - is it possible to use this money towards funding a small property, or is that not allowed?

Marcon

CurlySue2017 said:

Marcon said:

CurlySue2017 said:

I really didn't want to go into this because it attracts a lot of judgement from people but.....
My OH doesn't work and hasn't for a while now.  This is our choice and is not going to change in the foreseeable future.  So he has no income at all, he is not entitled to any benefits so we both live off my income alone.
This makes the budget very tight indeed, but as I say it's our choice for our own personal reasons.

Someone asked what my goals are.
Basically I just want to be able to afford a roof over my head as I get older, that's all.  I've always lived frugally, my parents were poor but we never went without so I don't need lots of "stuff", just the necessities and I'm happy.  We live a very simple life and are happy with it, but getting older has started to creep into my thoughts.

It's nobody's business but yours - but sometimes giving a bit more info than you'd planned originally gives scope for answers to branch out a bit, too!

I guess you've looked into the housing situation pretty thoroughly, but in case you've not yet thought of it, have you considered a mobile home or tiny house? Both trends seem to be growing in popularity in the UK and if you google you'll get lots of info on each type. They are vastly cheaper than their regular counterparts and if you have an excellent credit history, you might just be able to borrow - and afford repayments - on one of these?

It's finding that balance between giving enough information but not waffling or revealing too much

This could be very useful, thank you so much.  We have given thought to van living or similar but discounted that because as we get older, that could present a whole other bunch of other problems.  So although it would be a dream for me, I'm not sure it would be practical as we get older.  I will definitely look into the other options though, we muddle along very well together so living in a small space is not a problem

ETA: I understand that you can draw down some of your pension when you reach a certain age - is it possible to use this money towards funding a small property, or is that not allowed?

If you're in your mid-40s now, then the minimum age at which you can access your pension will be 57 (or possibly a little older), unless your own health deteriorates to the point where you won't be able work again. If that happens earlier access may be possible, if supported by medical evidence - hopefully it won't ever apply.

What you do with your pension money once you take it out of the pension is entirely up to you. Just be aware of something known as 'deliberate deprivation of assets' if you need state-funded help with care fees later in life - although buying somewhere modest to live is hardly going to put you in that category!