New higher salary

hara____

Some more background on 'assets held' would help people suggest useful options. Especially as you mention doing something that 'makes me safer'. Background such as:

- do you already have a good emergency fund of readily accessible savings?

- have you already been making use of ISA allowances in recent years, even if only cash ISAs?

- it's good that you're in the NHS pension scheme but how much service credit have you already accumulated? 

Depending on the answers to questions like that, you can decide where to direct your additional income.

GrubbyGirl_2

I was in the same position as you, also in the NHS.  First thing I did was make sure I'd got some savings for emergencies.  I then over paid my mortgage and cleared my 25 year mortgage off in 9 years.  When I'd done that I maxed out my ISA allowance.  I personally put them into cash ISA's but in hindsight if I was your age I would probably split between cash and S&S or even all S&S.  After the budget you may not have a choice to go all cash.

The biggest problem I have now is spending money.  After 20+ years of being frugal so I could retire at 60 (which is what I did) with a good pension.  I'm trying to retrain my head to spend a bit more and treat myself but I'm still saving £20k plus a year.  As I don't have children and am not married I don't want to give the government any more than I have to when I die!

Andy_L

DRS1 said:

LB003g0676 said:

I'm 34 and expect to retire once I can't work anymore. But let's say 70. I am in the NHS pension scheme and absolutely intend to remain. It's basically like £1 in for every £3 I earn (though I expect my contribution rate will change now).

Is there sufficient faith in the markets that investment or S&S ISAs are the best bet? I appreciate that's probably the case, it just wasn't something I've invested a load of time looking at.

You are contributing 33% of your salary?  Or 25%?  That sounds quite high.
Given this is the Cutting Tax board the obvious suggestion is to contribute enough to your pension to get your taxable income down below the higher rate tax band.  But maybe you're already doing that and more?

The OP is, almost certainly, including the value of the employers contribution as well as their own

Albermarle

LB003g0676 said:

I'm 34 and expect to retire once I can't work anymore. But let's say 70. I am in the NHS pension scheme and absolutely intend to remain. It's basically like £1 in for every £3 I earn (though I expect my contribution rate will change now).

Is there sufficient faith in the markets that investment or S&S ISAs are the best bet? I appreciate that's probably the case, it just wasn't something I've invested a load of time looking at.

I suspect when you are say 60 and have plenty of money, you will not still plan to be retiring at 70. But you never know.

On the second question, I read somewhere that in the UK alone there is One Trillion Pounds tied up in investments, so quite a lot of people have some faith !
Even a typical middle of the road multi asset fund has gone up about 110/120% in the last 10 years. 
Cash savings maybe about 30% 

monkey-fingers

Andy_L said:

DRS1 said:

LB003g0676 said:

I'm 34 and expect to retire once I can't work anymore. But let's say 70. I am in the NHS pension scheme and absolutely intend to remain. It's basically like £1 in for every £3 I earn (though I expect my contribution rate will change now).

Is there sufficient faith in the markets that investment or S&S ISAs are the best bet? I appreciate that's probably the case, it just wasn't something I've invested a load of time looking at.

You are contributing 33% of your salary?  Or 25%?  That sounds quite high.
Given this is the Cutting Tax board the obvious suggestion is to contribute enough to your pension to get your taxable income down below the higher rate tax band.  But maybe you're already doing that and more?

The OP is, almost certainly, including the value of the employers contribution as well as their own

That's actually what the NHS alone pays into their pension.

The reason that Civil Service salaries are really poor is because they get a 30% pension uplift.

EnPointe

Emmia said:

DRS1 said:

LB003g0676 said:

I'm 34 and expect to retire once I can't work anymore. But let's say 70. I am in the NHS pension scheme and absolutely intend to remain. It's basically like £1 in for every £3 I earn (though I expect my contribution rate will change now).

Is there sufficient faith in the markets that investment or S&S ISAs are the best bet? I appreciate that's probably the case, it just wasn't something I've invested a load of time looking at.

You are contributing 33% of your salary?  Or 25%?  That sounds quite high.
Given this is the Cutting Tax board the obvious suggestion is to contribute enough to your pension to get your taxable income down below the higher rate tax band.  But maybe you're already doing that and more?

And that's money locked up to retirement, it's inflexible in that way.

the value, even of the NHS  pension scheme CARE scheme (2007 or 2015)  is  significant (although potentially not a s good as 1995 section FS  benefits) 

Emmia

EnPointe said:

Emmia said:

DRS1 said:

LB003g0676 said:

I'm 34 and expect to retire once I can't work anymore. But let's say 70. I am in the NHS pension scheme and absolutely intend to remain. It's basically like £1 in for every £3 I earn (though I expect my contribution rate will change now).

Is there sufficient faith in the markets that investment or S&S ISAs are the best bet? I appreciate that's probably the case, it just wasn't something I've invested a load of time looking at.

You are contributing 33% of your salary?  Or 25%?  That sounds quite high.
Given this is the Cutting Tax board the obvious suggestion is to contribute enough to your pension to get your taxable income down below the higher rate tax band.  But maybe you're already doing that and more?

And that's money locked up to retirement, it's inflexible in that way.

the value, even of the NHS  pension scheme CARE scheme (2007 or 2015)  is  significant (although potentially not a s good as 1995 section FS  benefits) 

It is. I have a CS pension which is similarly valuable.

But I'm not sure I'd prioritise additional pension savings over investments that would/could offer me choices and flexibility in the future - investment to allow early retirement for example.

Of course that means someone can't avoid the higher rate of tax via increasing their pension contributions.... Swings and roundabouts.

LB003g0676

monkey-fingers said:

Andy_L said:

DRS1 said:

LB003g0676 said:

I'm 34 and expect to retire once I can't work anymore. But let's say 70. I am in the NHS pension scheme and absolutely intend to remain. It's basically like £1 in for every £3 I earn (though I expect my contribution rate will change now).

Is there sufficient faith in the markets that investment or S&S ISAs are the best bet? I appreciate that's probably the case, it just wasn't something I've invested a load of time looking at.

You are contributing 33% of your salary?  Or 25%?  That sounds quite high.
Given this is the Cutting Tax board the obvious suggestion is to contribute enough to your pension to get your taxable income down below the higher rate tax band.  But maybe you're already doing that and more?

The OP is, almost certainly, including the value of the employers contribution as well as their own

That's actually what the NHS alone pays into their pension.

The reason that Civil Service salaries are really poor is because they get a 30% pension uplift.

I think the breakdown is as follows:

14.38% employer contribution
9.4% central contribution
12.5% employee contribution (though this contribution flexes based on your earning)

36.28% overall - so  I was including my contribution.

DRS1

LB003g0676 said:

monkey-fingers said:

Andy_L said:

DRS1 said:

LB003g0676 said:

I'm 34 and expect to retire once I can't work anymore. But let's say 70. I am in the NHS pension scheme and absolutely intend to remain. It's basically like £1 in for every £3 I earn (though I expect my contribution rate will change now).

Is there sufficient faith in the markets that investment or S&S ISAs are the best bet? I appreciate that's probably the case, it just wasn't something I've invested a load of time looking at.

You are contributing 33% of your salary?  Or 25%?  That sounds quite high.
Given this is the Cutting Tax board the obvious suggestion is to contribute enough to your pension to get your taxable income down below the higher rate tax band.  But maybe you're already doing that and more?

The OP is, almost certainly, including the value of the employers contribution as well as their own

That's actually what the NHS alone pays into their pension.

The reason that Civil Service salaries are really poor is because they get a 30% pension uplift.

I think the breakdown is as follows:

14.38% employer contribution
9.4% central contribution
12.5% employee contribution (though this contribution flexes based on your earning)

36.28% overall - so  I was including my contribution.

Is the 12.5% paid by salary sacrifice?
If so is your new higher salary the amount AFTER the sacrifice?
If it is then you can ignore the contributions when calculating how much you should personally contribute to another pension scheme (such as a SIPP) to get your total taxable income below the higher rate threshold.

Of course you may not want to do that - money in an ISA is readily available at any age whereas money in a pension is not available until you get age 55, 57 or 58 depending on what the rules are at the time.

And you could choose to make extra contributions to the NHS scheme instead.

As an aside what the employer contribution rate is under a DB scheme is largely irrelevant to you.  What really matters is what benefits the scheme promises to pay when you retire (or die).

Albermarle

Emmia said:

EnPointe said:

Emmia said:

DRS1 said:

LB003g0676 said:

I'm 34 and expect to retire once I can't work anymore. But let's say 70. I am in the NHS pension scheme and absolutely intend to remain. It's basically like £1 in for every £3 I earn (though I expect my contribution rate will change now).

Is there sufficient faith in the markets that investment or S&S ISAs are the best bet? I appreciate that's probably the case, it just wasn't something I've invested a load of time looking at.

You are contributing 33% of your salary?  Or 25%?  That sounds quite high.
Given this is the Cutting Tax board the obvious suggestion is to contribute enough to your pension to get your taxable income down below the higher rate tax band.  But maybe you're already doing that and more?

And that's money locked up to retirement, it's inflexible in that way.

the value, even of the NHS  pension scheme CARE scheme (2007 or 2015)  is  significant (although potentially not a s good as 1995 section FS  benefits) 

It is. I have a CS pension which is similarly valuable.

But I'm not sure I'd prioritise additional pension savings over investments that would/could offer me choices and flexibility in the future - investment to allow early retirement for example.

Of course that means someone can't avoid the higher rate of tax via increasing their pension contributions.... Swings and roundabouts.

The OP indicated he was not looking for early retirement, even mentioned working until he was 70 !
In that case the age restrictions on pension withdrawals would affect him.