Best Investment Towards Retirement

Alison_B

I hope that someone can give me some good advice. I am 40 years old now but I haven't got any type of pension. Not even sure if I qualify for the state pension as I finished work 14 years ago and haven't contributed with NI payments since then. I did get a letter quite a few years ago saying that I could make a payment to top up the contributions but we didn't have any spare money.

Anyway, I am due to come into approximately £40,000 shortly and I want to use this towards our retirement but wondered what was the best thing to do with it.

Towards our pension at the moment, my husband has a pension through work and we own our home.

Thanking you in advance.

YorkshireBoy

Alison_B wrote:

Not even sure if I qualify for the state pension as I finished work 14 years ago and haven't contributed with NI payments since then. I did get a letter quite a few years ago saying that I could make a payment to top up the contributions but we didn't have any spare money.

You can get a forecast of your current state pension entitlement here...

http://www.thepensionservice.gov.uk/resourcecentre/e-services/home.asp

I believe you can get HRP (Home Responsibilities Protection) if you've been in receipt of child benefit for some/all of the 14 years referred to above, so things might not be as bad as you fear.

NeilW

Essentially you need to invest the money.

There are as many opinions as to what makes a good investment as there are people to make them. However what is important to note is that you don't have to invest in a pension plan sold by a financial services firm to have a pension.

Remember that a pension is merely a set of assets that provide an income. It can be anything from an insurance policy, to a house, to a fleet of vintage aircraft.

NeilW