Retirement

You shouldn’t pay anything like 5k to look after them . Shop around .

 

My advice would be to take more drugs and party harder in your youth so that you don’t have to worry about pensions.

 

Someone I know reckons that the £ is on the verge of the crest of a slump, in other words a CRASH.. Not sure where he gets this from, never said...Anyone heard something similar?

 

Sounds like the son of a friend of mine...Chases birds, a couple of dodgy relationships, drinks like a fish, vapes 24hr of the day....Stroke at the age of 47, in a care home....Sounds like a good career move to me.

 

You certainly have a better chance of winning the million if you give yourself 50,000 chances to do so, but sometimes someone with a fairly modest investment can still scoop a big prize and on the odd occasion the biggest prize.

The wife and I have got some, she's done fairly well this year,I've done poorly...It's sheer luck

 

Agree, more you buy the better the chance. With £2k investment, the chance of winning really big are pretty remote. A bit like winning the Euro mills.

 

I wouldn't consolidate any of them due to transfer fees and financial advice fees, I'd leave the two biggest ones where they are if you have already cashed 25% tax free and draw them. I'd then cash in all four of the smaller value pensions regardless of tax, you've saved more than this tax on not paying fees, if they are low value and then manage that cash through an ISA paying monthly interest or set up a portfolio of high yield shares under a stocks and shares ISA giving tax free dividends, I do this myself as a hobby and the dividends spread quite nicely through the year as supplement income, Phoenix Group, Legal & General and Taylor Wimpey all pay over 8% dividends pa.

 

It very much depends on the type of pensions. If they are final salary schemes, I'd leave them separate and let them do their thing. Ones linked to the stock market, I would definitely shop around as I consolidated mine some years back and it cost me nothing.

 

Agree, leave anything final salary alone, other private pension values fluctuate with global stock markets which are close to record highs so pots should be full, ripe and ready to cash in if it fits your personal circumstances, a better situation than if you reach the right age just after a crash and your pot is half empty.

 

I consolidated various pensions and ISAs onto a managed financial platform. There's a cost but it's performed better over time than the products were doing under my relatively clueless management.

It gives the obvious advantage of having professional financial management of your money and allows you to have up to date tracking of investment performance.

 

Same here. I'm balls deep in Dutch tulips and phone card shares. Not sure the bounce back is going to happen.

As an aside, I get occasional statements from my meagre private pension investments and they're barely going to cover the air I breathe. Should have invested it in cocaine and hookers and at least had the memories.

 

Best advice is, don't ask for advice on a football forum !

 

* Cuh, 'What's mine is mine, what's yours is negotiable'. Stalin.


The views expressed in my posts are not necessarily mine.

 

Long story short. I think the key is to work out how much you need for essentials and get accounts so they're separate from 'fun money' and as automated as possible, as once they're covered, you can be far more relaxed about anything else.

 

If you have c. £100k that needs sorting then £5k is outrageous. I assume if you stick with the advisor there would be ongoing fees as well.

As others have said, if any of the 6 are final salary (defined benefit) pensions, then it's most likely best just to leave them were they are and (as OM said) "let them do their thing" i.e. pay you a fixed amount (*) every month or quarter with certainty just like an annuity (* with annual inflation related increases). As mentioned earlier, they also provide some security for your spouse/ partner as they provide a spouses pension if anything happens to you, typically 50% of what you receive.

Assuming then that there are several others pensions that are money purchase (defined contribution) type pensions, it would likely make sense to consolidate them all into a SIIP with say Vanguard, AJ Bell (or similar), choosing a low cost, globally diversified fund such as Vanguard LifeStrategy 60 or AJ Bell Balanced Fund. Just look on their websites and they explain what they are. Do check for exit fees from your current pension providers, but, that said, it's unlikely to be an issue, and as you are over 55, they are anyway capped at 1% maximum, but may well actually be without any exit fee anyway (mine and my wife's were). As they are defined contribution schemes you don't have to take and pay for financial advice (as would be the case if they were final salary schemes above £30k or with guaranteed benefits that you were transferring).

Once consolidated in somewhere like Vanguard or AJ Bell, it's a doddle to manage them. You can drawdown how ever you want, to suit your needs and to optimise your tax situation (eg to limit withdrawals so you don't fall into a higher tax bracket for example).

Any remaining tax free cash that's still in those pensions could a) just be left so that every time you make a drawdown withdrawal a part of it is paid tax free to you, or b) be taken out and put into Stocks & Shares ISA's (same sort of funds with Vanguard or AJ Bell) or in Cash ISA's (see Zopa or Chip for examples of decent, flexible cash ISA providers). I did the latter for simplicity and so I had my hands on the money so to speak. £20k limit per year on how much you can put into ISA's, but you can use your allowance and also put some in your wifes / partners name too if needed.

Of course, only you can decide if you think it's worth paying the £5k, and ongoing charges, to have it managed for you. Maybe it is worth it if you really don't want the hassle or headache. All I'm saying is that, unless you have complications (tax wise, inheritance planning wise, etc) then it really is so easy to do it yourself and to avoid paying such money to financial advisers.

Good luck. Think they call it 'first world problems"