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Civil Service Pension legacy lump sum to max out or not
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As others have noted, if you have 2 state pensions so £25k per year kicking in at 67, it's very tempting to just take the lump sum and spend most of it between 60-67, because unless the lump sum is huge you'll still have more income after 67 than before.0 -
Wondering how easy it will be to borrow money for bigger expenditure after retirement. Kitchen or bathroom upgrades, that sort of thing, and whether I need to factor that in to thinking on how much of a lump sum to take.0
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This is a helpful thread as I’m also considering this situation.The other factor that gets mentioned is inheritance. If I die my spouse gets some benefit from my DB scheme (eg a reduced spousal pension) but not the “whole sum”; my (adult) son gets nothing. Consequently I’ve heard people argue for maxing out the lump sum as a way of having assets that can then form part of your estate. Again the challenge is that none of us know the future - you could do this, spend it all and/or your investments do poorly and at age 85 you’re significantly worse off that you would have been had you not taken that tempting lump sum. Or you might drop dead in 5 years and it will have proved a great decision.In my case I’m leaning towards not taking it - my son will benefit from our home once we’ve both gone and I’d rather the security of knowing I’ve got enough to live on every year.2
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