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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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Good (and short!) explanation of COPE
There are lots of queries about COPE cropping up regularly. This is one of the better, not to mention shorter, explanations I could find which might help: https://www.wypf.org.uk/pensioner/all-about-my-pension/contracted-out-pension-equivalent-cope-amount/
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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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New board for state pension top-up / Future Pension Centre / voluntary NICs questions
Hi all Regulars on this board will well know how many threads we've seen in recent months about Future Pension Centre-related questions. As a result of a great suggestion from a Forumite (passed on by a Forum Ambassador) we've created a new sub-board for all these types of threads: ➡️ Topping up your state pension ⬅️ If…
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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 me 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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Care home fee annuity versus pension annuity?
Talking to someone who is thinking of buying a care home fee annuity for an elderly relative using the proceeds from the sale of his previous residence, I am left puzzled as to the difference between a care home fee annuity and any other annuity such as that from a pension. Why are there apparently only 4 providers of care…
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Claiming pension contribution tax relief for previous years
19 years ago my wife became disabled, overnight out income was halved so it was a busy time. She opened a pension plan because her employers pension pays out under £2k a year because she was only working for a couple of years. The equivalent of her DLA goes into the pot. As I had to retire soon after we are not wealthy!!…
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Pension recycling rules hit?
Hi! Wondering if anyone has hit or is familiar with my scenario. I checked the Inland Revenue website and their pension tax manual and even spoke to them, but didn't get a definitive answer. My scenario is fairly straightforward in that I have a defined contribution pension pot of around 700k. For the past 7 years, through…
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Interactive Investor SIPP question
I note there is a fee of 12.99 per month. Is this the II "platform fee"? You also have to pay a percentage fee - albeit smallish generally around the 0.2% mark - for the various funds that you decide to invest in??? Trying to do the numbers. My workplace pension offers a fee of 0.3% so by the time the platform fee and fund…
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DB tax free lump sum - a spanner in the works!
I’ve been quiet on here for a couple of years. We have various pensions, I have a pension withdrawal strategy, and everything has been ticking along relatively nicely, but a spanner has just been thrown in the works! My husband is already retired, but will be 65 later this year and will be taking his DB pension from an old…
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Drawdown Notional split?
Just wondering how people manage their investments and drawdown with this. My own fault I know, but I stupidly thought that when I opened my SIPP i'd be able to....... 1) Crystallise an amount of money for up to the next 4.5 years (to take me up to state pension age) and do FAD to take a tax free sum and a monthly income…
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HMRC Trust Registration Service
My wife and I because of our ages decided to start putting our affairs in order and we found we had taken out a Trust Bond in my wifes name in 2004 that upon her death our son would be the beneficiary. We then found out that the trust may have to be registered with the HMRC Trust Registration Service. So I tried to…
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Retirement Query
I'm 57 and am being made redundant soon. I have asked my employer lots of questions, but they are not very supportive and tell me to look on the internet or go to Citizen's Advice, but whilst the Gov UK website allows me to apply for benefits, I can't do that until my redundancy happens. Ideally, what I am looking to do is…
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Paying into a DC pension whilst drawing from the same DC pension pot?
Getting a few ducks in a line, I will get £25k in DB pensions payments across a couple of DB pensions that amount to that sum. I also take £30k UFPLS payment from my only DC pension (so 25% tax free). So in other words, pensions will be my only income. I will be 57 or 58 when I retire (I am 56 now). In this case, can I…
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Tax question regarding accessing 100% of SIPP in one go
I have about 50K in a SIPP. I would like to use it all in one go, to contribute towards moving home. (Sell my flat, and buy a house.) I understand that 25% of the SIPP is tax free. I am currently only on tax free DWP benefits (not working atm), and so I am hoping that I can get a further £12,570 of it tax free? Is this…
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Maximum annual pension contribution (annual allowance?) for tax relief purposes
I'm looking to make a one-off contribution to my DC pension pot. I understand that the maximum that tax relief can be claimed on is £60,000 or your annual income (whichever is lower). Is that correct? And how is annual income calculated? Does it include savings interest? Example: Let's say that my salary for the 24/25 tax…
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COPE
HMRC has advised I have a weekly COPE projection of £50. I tracked down my old contracted out pensions and was informed they had all been transferred into a new singular pension provider. New provider said they don't pay COPE and directed me back to HMRC who can't help. My question is have I lost the money and is there…
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Lump sum pension contribution - making the right investment choices
I am taking voluntary redundancy next month and will be sacrificing part of my severance into my DC workplace pension scheme to save tax, but am restricted to a degree because of the annual allowance. I have calculated that I can contribute around 100k to my pension. I am going to retire so this should be the final (and…
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Pension: Salary sacrifice scheme types
Hello, Hoping for some help, please. I am currently enrolled on my company's salary sacrifice scheme. It seems to be a 'Simple' (and not 'SMART') scheme, though the company says that they nevertheless will pass on all employer NIC savings to the employee. I was under the impression that there were only two types of…
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USS - growth fund
I started with the USS investment builder in 2016. My main aim was to preserve child benefit by
being under the income threshold and also get
some additional pension. I put the funds,
plus employer contribution to DC, in USS growth fund which was marked as high
risk, but potential high return and seemed an easy choice.…
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Anyone cashed in a NEST pension?
Hi, I'm over 55 and have just £1,000 in a NEST pension for a job I diid over 5 years ago. This is not my main pension and I would like to cash it in and close the account to pay for a holiday. Have to say the process was straightforward on their website and have provided the bank statement they asked for. However, there…
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Scottish Widows stakeholder pension, best funds
Hello, Following my divorce I received half of a small pension pot. My share when last valued was almost £40k. I tried to get financial advice but as I hadn’t got £250k to invest, no one was interested as I’d pay to much in fees. I decided to stick with SW, as this has been going on for some time. My question is, which is…
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finding an IFA for Pensions health check - info already consolidated - cost ?
Hi I have searched the internet, reviewed the guide on this website for finding an IFA, tried to use "free goverment services" but.. it still seem arduous for what appears to be a health check/comparison of my existing pensions for a fixed one off fee. In short, I am not looking to transfer out, look for new products, just…
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Pension Release
Hello All, I hope someone is able to help. This is my situation. Myself and my wife are thinking of putting in an offer for a house. We fall short of the asking price by 150k. I was thinking of withdrawing one of my pensions worth 60k in order to reduce the shortfall and therefor save interest on the monthly payments which…
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Should I claim my NHS pension
Hi I do not understand pensions and have a question I was thinking of taking my NHS pension when I reach 60 in June and then continuing to work in my current role. The pension I want to take is the 1995 section. Will this negatively impact me financially. I realise it's a final salary pension which is bad news for me…