How much savings to be a MSE?

[Deleted User]

Bob2000 said:

simonsmithsays said:

As in any forum and walk of life there is a huge mix of personalities, savings, education, portfolios and circumstances on here.

But the core you refer to I reckon have the following in common:

- Do a lot of the opening (and admin of opening) as an interest or hobby.

- Have plenty of time on their hands to both open the accounts and record on here.  Often the dedicated threads are heaving with their, unrelated, day to day movements.

I'd suggest you don't worry about others.  Do what's right for you and your circumstances and pick and choose the advice and products as suits you.

There are some terrifically helpful and knowledgeable forumites on here.  There really are.

For some MSE and saving each and every penny is, for me, a little unhealthy.  Spending hours chasing complaints and arguments for little monetary reward and then relaying confrontational experiences back here.  I do hope they've got other activities and hobbies in their lives than just money.

There are also some that won't post at all. They just take the goodness. 

Then there are others who get banned time and again for infringements, arguments etc.

Good luck on your journey.

Yes l love taking in the goodness.
I can only work within my circumstances and so far I'm  doing OK. I'll  never be rich but I've  got more than l had 18 months ago.

I'm not rich but I'm surprised at how much I've boosted the coffers since joining here.

A lot of it is putting the groundwork in but some of it is sheer common sense, so many people miss out on decent rates because a) they can't be bothered or b) they 'like their bank' (my best friend has this off to a tee).

But acorns into oaks etc etc

[Deleted User]

GazzaBloom said:

The thing I wonder, when I see people chasing interest rates up and down the high street, is whether they have maxed out their pension contributions first. We can pay in up to £60K while working and the tax benefits are far greater than a few percentage points of interest on savings from net pay. You can even pay in £2,880 into a pension when not working and get £720 (25%) top up from HMRC straight off the bat and you can repeat that every year. With many pension providers you can choose to keep cash or a cash equivalent fund inside your pension, alongside investment funds.

I have been accumulating cash for retirement this year and chose to do this within my pension using salary sacrifice contributions. The cash earns BOE base rate and does not appear to be subject to the pension annual management charge. Yes, it's potentially subject to income tax on the way out but strategic use of tax free lump sum and annual allowance gives some flexibility. I have accumulated far more cash this way than I would have with net pay.

The only cash we keep outside of my pension is our emergency fund which is held in a cash ISA with the same bank as our current account earning 2.53% and I'm not bothered with moving it around to gain a couple of hundred quid extra a year, growth isn't it's purpose.

I'm probably hopelessy out of the loop here but having started a pension at the age of 25 with an intended retirement age of 50, I was rather miffed to find that had been moved to 55 without me having a say.

I don't know what pension returns are like right now (I once knew someone who invested over 200k through 20 years and got........205k) but for me I decided long ago that my pension could take a running jump and any money I saved would be guaranteed.

I'm fairly confident my pension would not be earning 8% or 10% as some savers do and I'm more than happy putting 20k a year into an ISA - I would not want to put another penny into a pension.

And just as importantly - within my control and NOT at the behest of governments or pension companies who tell you what you are allowed and when.

Bobblehat

Albermarle said:

Bobblehat said:

GazzaBloom said:

The thing I wonder, when I see people chasing interest rates up and down the high street, is whether they have maxed out their pension contributions first. We can pay in up to £60K while working and the tax benefits are far greater than a few percentage points of interest on savings from net pay. You can even pay in £2,880 into a pension when not working and get £720 (25%) top up from HMRC straight off the bat and you can repeat that every year. With many pension providers you can choose to keep cash or a cash equivalent fund inside your pension, alongside investment funds.

I have been accumulating cash for retirement this year and chose to do this within my pension using salary sacrifice contributions. The cash earns BOE base rate and does not appear to be subject to the pension annual management charge. Yes, it's potentially subject to income tax on the way out but strategic use of tax free lump sum and annual allowance gives some flexibility. I have accumulated far more cash this way than I would have with net pay.

The only cash we keep outside of my pension is our emergency fund which is held in a cash ISA with the same bank as our current account earning 2.53% and I'm not bothered with moving it around to gain a couple of hundred quid extra a year, growth isn't it's purpose.

Out of interest( ), what would your advice be to say ... someone who has already retired and find themselves with a unexpected modest amount of savings from inheritance (or other) after they have retired?

It would depend on your financial/income situation before receiving this inheritance. There is never any one size fits all answer. 
For example do you have low cash savings, or high cash savings already?
Would you like to use the money to boost your annual income, or keep it to pass on one day etc
Do you need a holiday, new car maybe?

I think you have hit the nail squarely on the head! My question was genuinely trying to see if GazzaBloom could offer me advice that was new to me. It was also intended to ask if his post was appropriate to people like me who have already retired. Maybe, just maybe, chasing interest rates up and down the high street is a valid pastime for those in their later years who have the time and suddenly find themselves with a modestly large injection of cash (God rest his soul!). Rate chasing may also be a valid strategy for people in other circumstances too?

Bob2000

[Deleted User] said:

Bob2000 said:

simonsmithsays said:

As in any forum and walk of life there is a huge mix of personalities, savings, education, portfolios and circumstances on here.

But the core you refer to I reckon have the following in common:

- Do a lot of the opening (and admin of opening) as an interest or hobby.

- Have plenty of time on their hands to both open the accounts and record on here.  Often the dedicated threads are heaving with their, unrelated, day to day movements.

I'd suggest you don't worry about others.  Do what's right for you and your circumstances and pick and choose the advice and products as suits you.

There are some terrifically helpful and knowledgeable forumites on here.  There really are.

For some MSE and saving each and every penny is, for me, a little unhealthy.  Spending hours chasing complaints and arguments for little monetary reward and then relaying confrontational experiences back here.  I do hope they've got other activities and hobbies in their lives than just money.

There are also some that won't post at all. They just take the goodness. 

Then there are others who get banned time and again for infringements, arguments etc.

Good luck on your journey.

Yes l love taking in the goodness.
I can only work within my circumstances and so far I'm  doing OK. I'll  never be rich but I've  got more than l had 18 months ago.

I'm not rich, but I'm surprised at how much I've boosted the coffers since joining here.

A lot of it is putting the groundwork in but some of it is sheer common sense, so many people miss out on decent rates because a) they can't be bothered or b) they 'like their bank' (my best friend has this off to a tee).

But acorns into oaks etc etc

I'm guilty of just that always looked at my main bank for what they had to offer and usually  left my cash in them. When l think back over the last  few years, yikes!

But since coming across this forum 18 months ago....
I've been proactive, not well off by any means, but I definitely have more cash saving than some. 
I've got only a few thousand  that l can spare but already made more in the last  12 months than the last five years.
Regular Savers are brilliant, and I'm already planning  to recycle  my spare cash for 2025.

BTW I'd  be happy if my acorns grow into saplings.
 

GazzaBloom

Bobblehat said:

GazzaBloom said:

The thing I wonder, when I see people chasing interest rates up and down the high street, is whether they have maxed out their pension contributions first. We can pay in up to £60K while working and the tax benefits are far greater than a few percentage points of interest on savings from net pay. You can even pay in £2,880 into a pension when not working and get £720 (25%) top up from HMRC straight off the bat and you can repeat that every year. With many pension providers you can choose to keep cash or a cash equivalent fund inside your pension, alongside investment funds.

I have been accumulating cash for retirement this year and chose to do this within my pension using salary sacrifice contributions. The cash earns BOE base rate and does not appear to be subject to the pension annual management charge. Yes, it's potentially subject to income tax on the way out but strategic use of tax free lump sum and annual allowance gives some flexibility. I have accumulated far more cash this way than I would have with net pay.

The only cash we keep outside of my pension is our emergency fund which is held in a cash ISA with the same bank as our current account earning 2.53% and I'm not bothered with moving it around to gain a couple of hundred quid extra a year, growth isn't it's purpose.

Out of interest( ), what would your advice be to say ... someone who has already retired and find themselves with a unexpected modest amount of savings from inheritance (or other) after they have retired?

When do you want to spend the money?

GazzaBloom

Bobblehat said:

Albermarle said:

Bobblehat said:

GazzaBloom said:

The thing I wonder, when I see people chasing interest rates up and down the high street, is whether they have maxed out their pension contributions first. We can pay in up to £60K while working and the tax benefits are far greater than a few percentage points of interest on savings from net pay. You can even pay in £2,880 into a pension when not working and get £720 (25%) top up from HMRC straight off the bat and you can repeat that every year. With many pension providers you can choose to keep cash or a cash equivalent fund inside your pension, alongside investment funds.

I have been accumulating cash for retirement this year and chose to do this within my pension using salary sacrifice contributions. The cash earns BOE base rate and does not appear to be subject to the pension annual management charge. Yes, it's potentially subject to income tax on the way out but strategic use of tax free lump sum and annual allowance gives some flexibility. I have accumulated far more cash this way than I would have with net pay.

The only cash we keep outside of my pension is our emergency fund which is held in a cash ISA with the same bank as our current account earning 2.53% and I'm not bothered with moving it around to gain a couple of hundred quid extra a year, growth isn't it's purpose.

Out of interest( ), what would your advice be to say ... someone who has already retired and find themselves with a unexpected modest amount of savings from inheritance (or other) after they have retired?

It would depend on your financial/income situation before receiving this inheritance. There is never any one size fits all answer. 
For example do you have low cash savings, or high cash savings already?
Would you like to use the money to boost your annual income, or keep it to pass on one day etc
Do you need a holiday, new car maybe?

I think you have hit the nail squarely on the head! My question was genuinely trying to see if GazzaBloom could offer me advice that was new to me. It was also intended to ask if his post was appropriate to people like me who have already retired. Maybe, just maybe, chasing interest rates up and down the high street is a valid pastime for those in their later years who have the time and suddenly find themselves with a modestly large injection of cash (God rest his soul!). Rate chasing may also be a valid strategy for people in other circumstances too?

If you are interest rate chasing then it suggests growth on your money is important to you. For growth, investing will be far more beneficial than interest earned on cash if you are prepared to take some risk.

Albermarle

[Deleted User] said:

GazzaBloom said:

The thing I wonder, when I see people chasing interest rates up and down the high street, is whether they have maxed out their pension contributions first. We can pay in up to £60K while working and the tax benefits are far greater than a few percentage points of interest on savings from net pay. You can even pay in £2,880 into a pension when not working and get £720 (25%) top up from HMRC straight off the bat and you can repeat that every year. With many pension providers you can choose to keep cash or a cash equivalent fund inside your pension, alongside investment funds.

I have been accumulating cash for retirement this year and chose to do this within my pension using salary sacrifice contributions. The cash earns BOE base rate and does not appear to be subject to the pension annual management charge. Yes, it's potentially subject to income tax on the way out but strategic use of tax free lump sum and annual allowance gives some flexibility. I have accumulated far more cash this way than I would have with net pay.

The only cash we keep outside of my pension is our emergency fund which is held in a cash ISA with the same bank as our current account earning 2.53% and I'm not bothered with moving it around to gain a couple of hundred quid extra a year, growth isn't it's purpose.

I'm probably hopelessy out of the loop here but having started a pension at the age of 25 with an intended retirement age of 50, I was rather miffed to find that had been moved to 55 without me having a say.
It has been 55 for a LONG time, in fact it is moving to 57. It would be unusual for an individual to have a say in pension legislation to say the least.!

I don't know what pension returns are like right now (I once knew someone who invested over 200k through 20 years and got........205k) but for me I decided long ago that my pension could take a running jump and any money I saved would be guaranteed. Pension returns depend a lot on how the pension is invested but typically would in the region 6% on average each year. So over 20 years you would expect £200K to become something over £400K.

I'm fairly confident my pension would not be earning 8% or 10% as some savers do and I'm more than happy putting 20k a year into an ISA - I would not want to put another penny into a pension.
Good luck on getting 8 to 10 % in a normal savings account !

And just as importantly - within my control and NOT at the behest of governments or pension companies who tell you what you are allowed and when.

If you are employed then the employer has to contribute to your pension, and you get tax relief on your contributions. So a lot of what goes into the pension is free money, so you would have to be crazy to turn it down.

GazzaBloom

[Deleted User] said:

GazzaBloom said:

The thing I wonder, when I see people chasing interest rates up and down the high street, is whether they have maxed out their pension contributions first. We can pay in up to £60K while working and the tax benefits are far greater than a few percentage points of interest on savings from net pay. You can even pay in £2,880 into a pension when not working and get £720 (25%) top up from HMRC straight off the bat and you can repeat that every year. With many pension providers you can choose to keep cash or a cash equivalent fund inside your pension, alongside investment funds.

I have been accumulating cash for retirement this year and chose to do this within my pension using salary sacrifice contributions. The cash earns BOE base rate and does not appear to be subject to the pension annual management charge. Yes, it's potentially subject to income tax on the way out but strategic use of tax free lump sum and annual allowance gives some flexibility. I have accumulated far more cash this way than I would have with net pay.

The only cash we keep outside of my pension is our emergency fund which is held in a cash ISA with the same bank as our current account earning 2.53% and I'm not bothered with moving it around to gain a couple of hundred quid extra a year, growth isn't it's purpose.

I'm probably hopelessy out of the loop here but having started a pension at the age of 25 with an intended retirement age of 50, I was rather miffed to find that had been moved to 55 without me having a say.

I don't know what pension returns are like right now (I once knew someone who invested over 200k through 20 years and got........205k) but for me I decided long ago that my pension could take a running jump and any money I saved would be guaranteed.

I'm fairly confident my pension would not be earning 8% or 10% as some savers do and I'm more than happy putting 20k a year into an ISA - I would not want to put another penny into a pension.

And just as importantly - within my control and NOT at the behest of governments or pension companies who tell you what you are allowed and when.

there's a whole lot of misconception there regarding pensions.

[Deleted User]

Albermarle said:

[Deleted User] said:

GazzaBloom said:

The thing I wonder, when I see people chasing interest rates up and down the high street, is whether they have maxed out their pension contributions first. We can pay in up to £60K while working and the tax benefits are far greater than a few percentage points of interest on savings from net pay. You can even pay in £2,880 into a pension when not working and get £720 (25%) top up from HMRC straight off the bat and you can repeat that every year. With many pension providers you can choose to keep cash or a cash equivalent fund inside your pension, alongside investment funds.

I have been accumulating cash for retirement this year and chose to do this within my pension using salary sacrifice contributions. The cash earns BOE base rate and does not appear to be subject to the pension annual management charge. Yes, it's potentially subject to income tax on the way out but strategic use of tax free lump sum and annual allowance gives some flexibility. I have accumulated far more cash this way than I would have with net pay.

The only cash we keep outside of my pension is our emergency fund which is held in a cash ISA with the same bank as our current account earning 2.53% and I'm not bothered with moving it around to gain a couple of hundred quid extra a year, growth isn't it's purpose.

I'm probably hopelessy out of the loop here but having started a pension at the age of 25 with an intended retirement age of 50, I was rather miffed to find that had been moved to 55 without me having a say.
It has been 55 for a LONG time, in fact it is moving to 57. It would be unusual for an individual to have a say in pension legislation to say the least.!

I don't know what pension returns are like right now (I once knew someone who invested over 200k through 20 years and got........205k) but for me I decided long ago that my pension could take a running jump and any money I saved would be guaranteed. Pension returns depend a lot on how the pension is invested but typically would in the region 6% on average each year. So over 20 years you would expect £200K to become something over £400K.

I'm fairly confident my pension would not be earning 8% or 10% as some savers do and I'm more than happy putting 20k a year into an ISA - I would not want to put another penny into a pension.
Good luck on getting 8 to 10 % in a normal savings account !

And just as importantly - within my control and NOT at the behest of governments or pension companies who tell you what you are allowed and when.

If you are employed then the employer has to contribute to your pension, and you get tax relief on your contributions. So a lot of what goes into the pension is free money, so you would have to be crazy to turn it down.

I don't

I have a (relatively) small amount of money in there that thanks to government or financial legislation I cannot touch till I'm 55.

Wow folks thanks for that.

See ya later.

[Deleted User]

GazzaBloom said:

[Deleted User] said:

GazzaBloom said:

The thing I wonder, when I see people chasing interest rates up and down the high street, is whether they have maxed out their pension contributions first. We can pay in up to £60K while working and the tax benefits are far greater than a few percentage points of interest on savings from net pay. You can even pay in £2,880 into a pension when not working and get £720 (25%) top up from HMRC straight off the bat and you can repeat that every year. With many pension providers you can choose to keep cash or a cash equivalent fund inside your pension, alongside investment funds.

I have been accumulating cash for retirement this year and chose to do this within my pension using salary sacrifice contributions. The cash earns BOE base rate and does not appear to be subject to the pension annual management charge. Yes, it's potentially subject to income tax on the way out but strategic use of tax free lump sum and annual allowance gives some flexibility. I have accumulated far more cash this way than I would have with net pay.

The only cash we keep outside of my pension is our emergency fund which is held in a cash ISA with the same bank as our current account earning 2.53% and I'm not bothered with moving it around to gain a couple of hundred quid extra a year, growth isn't it's purpose.

I'm probably hopelessy out of the loop here but having started a pension at the age of 25 with an intended retirement age of 50, I was rather miffed to find that had been moved to 55 without me having a say.

I don't know what pension returns are like right now (I once knew someone who invested over 200k through 20 years and got........205k) but for me I decided long ago that my pension could take a running jump and any money I saved would be guaranteed.

I'm fairly confident my pension would not be earning 8% or 10% as some savers do and I'm more than happy putting 20k a year into an ISA - I would not want to put another penny into a pension.

And just as importantly - within my control and NOT at the behest of governments or pension companies who tell you what you are allowed and when.

there's a whole lot of misconception there regarding pensions.

And I'm perfectly happy without contributing.

Misconception or not, its a solid gold fact that I was told that no matter what MY plan was, the plan I had set out (and no doubt millions of other peoples), to be told that despite all that, circumstances beyond my control were pushing those plans back 5 years......

5 whole extra years I cannot take a penny out for myself.

That was it for me. Absolute farce.

I've never regretted it and never will.