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Pensions Planning: The NUMBER
The NUMBER is how much income you need to "live comfortably" So What's your number? Very important for pensions planning, to know what you are aiming for. My Number? (for a couple) I calculated: £22,000 based on Food £5,000 Car/transport £5,000 Bills/Utilities £4,500 Holidays/Leisure £4,500 Clothing/Cash/Xmas/Other £2,000…
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Success Stories - Pensions
This is a bit of a light topic where the idea is to highlight what successes you had with your pension pots. Example - I contributed X and accumulated Y by Z year. Total appreciation was 'x' percent. Just trying to learn the following that could inspire a range of people - those with no pension, those who started late etc.…
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Acronyms etc..
Hello to all. As a fairly new forum user I would appreciate someone posting a key to the acronyms and arcane terms used when discussing pension issues. Thank you in advance.
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Pensions, Annuities & Retirement Planning Sticky
Welcome to the new Pensions, Annuities and Retirement Planning sticky! 👋 📖 Here are some Forum threads you may find useful (if there are any you think have been missed, please do let us know): * Can I cash in my pension? * Early-retirement wannabe * It's time to start digging up those Squirrelled Nuts!!!! 📝 And here's some…
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I asked ChatGPT to simply and sort out my investments
I have been looking at sorting out the isa/pension investments for me and my OH as they are currently across 3 providers (Vanguard - OH, interactive investor (me) and L&G (me) (ex-employer master trust in drawdown). Total approx £1m and not really used for day to day as decent DB in play. My allocation for the last 5 years…
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Looking to boost pension and not pay tax on savings
Im a 56 self employed carpenter and have £10800 in a people's pension. I have £20000 in ISA £53000 in cahoot savings account £15000 in RBS current account I have a further £45000 coming soon for inheritance. Im thinking of topping up my pension to get more tax free savings Is this the best option for me thanks
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Did DWP ask you to pay voluntary NIC
If you claimed your state pension after 2016, the DWP may have illegally asked you for voluntary NIC to increase your qualifying years. The DWP limit contributions in the years prior to 2016 to 30 years. This is against the Pension Act 2014, which says that 35 or more qualifying years earned prior to 2016 result in a full…
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Small pots v ISA ?
Hi. I have a couple of old small pension pots of no more than 5,000 pounds. I am 58. Would it be feasible to take my amount tax-free and put it in a cash ISA as he's doing little or nothing where it is. Not very pension wealthy or pension wise so will be interested in opinions. Many thanks
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State Pension and tax code 2026/27
Couldn't make my mind up if better in the Cutting Tax board or here but decided here. New tax codes are arriving for 2026/27. If on the full new state pension it should show 51 weeks of new rate of £241.30pw plus 1 week of old at £230.25pw. Total should therefore be £12,536. Assuming no other deductions/allowances, tax…
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Providers that preserve protected pension age on transfer in?
Hi all, I'm about 3 years away from retiring and I've discovered that my main DC pension with Aviva (a TK policy) doesn't provide FAD. I'd need to contact them every time I want to make a withdrawal apparently. However, it does provide a protected pension age of 55 which will be really useful. Aviva's fees aren't super…
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Mortgage, pension dilemma
I’m 65 in December and currently planning to work until 67. I took out a small mortgage just over 2 years ago for £50k, there is currently £29k left to pay at £968 month, the rate is 5.85% I have savings which I’m considering to use part to pay the mortgage off. The money that I’d be saving monthly on the mortgage I’ll…
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The Pensions cashback and incentives discussion thread
Lots of coverage on incentives for current account switching, but none that I've seen for pensions. I kind of get it - bank accounts are a well oiled process, don't involve long waits, differing paperwork requirements, and potentially large sums needing to move. But given that the demographic of this board is made up of a…
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claim tax relief on pension: impossible! I need a professional...
Dear all, I've been trying to claim tax relief on my pension contributions for month with no luck. I've followed this page: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-tax-relief-on-your-private-pension-payments after having contributed some considerable extra amount to my private pension for 3 years (within the tax-free allowance…
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Private pension withdrawal for pensioner with only State Pension income: tax return / emergency tax?
My mum is 68 and has around £3,600 in a small Vanguard private pension. Her only income is: The full State Pension (which counts as taxable income) [EDIT: £11,973 per year as a single woman] Personal Independence Payment (PIP) (which does not count as taxable income) She has no other income or pensions, no pension credit,…
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Taking second AVC
I work in local government and when I turned 58 I started to pay quite large monthly sums into a cash AVC. At 60 I took flexible retirement, took my pension, and 100% of my AVC as a tax fee lump sum. I continued working ( part time) and rejoined the LGPS, and started a new AVC, into which I pay most of my new part-time…
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Class 2 not offered although fulfil the criteria ??
I have lived and worked abroad from end 2000 to current year with two periods of unemployment. Prior to moving, I worked in the UK for 13 years and up to 6 weeks before my move to France (because of searching for a place to live in France and organising house sale and removal in the UK). I sent my CF83 beginning March 2025…
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Late Retirement (despite financial independence)
Im hoping to retire early but seeing some people clearly working on through their later years (that arguably they dont need to do financially) has made me wonder about the psychology of those that keep working by choice into their late 60's, 70's and beyond. I recently worked for a Investment firm who's CEO (recently…
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Gifts from surplus income and the 7 year rule
I need some help to clarify my thinking please? I have been gifting from surplus income for 5 years now. If I continue to make regular gifts in the years ahead and each tax year goes beyond the 7 year IHT rule, can I ignore the gift value for that year as "gifting from income" and just treat that value as being outside the…
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Self employed pension contributions & income tax question
Hi, I'm 55 and have been self employed for the last 2 years but have not yet put anything into a pension. I have a modest final salary pension pot of about £85k from a previous job and several small pots totalling about £8k. I expect my tax liability for 25/26 to be around £3-£5k Can I take drawdown from my existing…
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Should I draw down max cash from personal pensions pots to utilise personal allowance this tax year?
Hi all, apologies in advance for long post/explanation! Hoping for some feedback and advice about my personal pension pots and whether it would be a good idea to draw down as much as possible over the next couple of years. This area is not something that I’ve paid much attention to up to now, because I also have several…
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Widow's Teachers final salary pension calculation
How is the survivor pension worked out for a widow, if her teacher husband died when reired and claiming his teacher pension, and was in the old final salary scheme. His service started in tbe eighties. What formula is used to calculate widow's tp. Thanks
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Drawdown plan
Please can you critique my drawdown plan? 1: Basic needs are covered by partners defined benefit pension plus an Index Linked Bond Ladder covering between retirement and State pension age. 2: Nice to have’s, holidays new cars etc etc are to be covered by a SIPP pot plus S&S ISA’s (x2 one for me one for my partner) 3: We…
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Early-retirement wannabe
I would like to create a topic (don't see it at the moment - other than the NUMBER thread). Who is aiming for early retirement (or who has retired early already)? When did you begin planning and what drove the decision? What is the strategy for getting there? How much of a relative decline in income are you prepared to…
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Consolidating various money purchase pensions
Hello all I'd welcome some general advice, the situation is as follows: My wife and I both have defined benefit pensions that will be our main pensions but in addition to these we both have several money purchase pension pots and I'm trying to work out what to do with these pots. We don't want/need to take annuities with…
Got questions about boosting your state pension by checking your record with the Future Pension Centre and making voluntary National Insurance contributions?
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Most recent: State Pension Forecast and Buying Years by DRS1
20 February at 8:13PM
