pensions

[Yorick]

Rental property is the best pension. Guaranteed income every month and the property will appreciate in the long term.

Rental can be aggro if you get unlucky. BIL rented out a cottage which was fine until a tenant wrecked it,then buggered off. Before he fixed it up a squatter moved in and has cost him years of legal fees to get back to where he started.

We rented for 15 years. Always did okay as we properly vetted the clients.

Our apartment here is in our basement so no chance they can misbehave

[Count Steer]

Rental property is the best pension. Guaranteed income every month and the property will appreciate in the long term.

Rental can be aggro if you get unlucky. BIL rented out a cottage which was fine until a tenant wrecked it,then buggered off. Before he fixed it up a squatter moved in and has cost him years of legal fees to get back to where he started.

We rented for 15 years. Always did okay as we properly vetted the clients.

Our apartment here is in our basement so no chance they can misbehave

My SiL owns the 2 flats above hers. For years, the tenants have been fine (they're all vetted) and some stayed for a long time, but the last one in the middle flat started out OK and gradually became the tenant from hell. Finally got him out and has had to spend ££s putting the place back in order, replacing stuff he'd dumped, sorting out the unpaid utilities etc etc etc. However, it may not be re-let. The experience was so unpleasant. The whole lot could be on the market soon.

OTOH a neighbour rents out a house he hasn't even visited - just lets the agency deal with everything (pays accordingly but it is hassle free). If it all works OK it's

[Whysub]

I retired 5 years earlier than I planned to, thanks to the total mismanagement and dumbing down of my work.

My pension therefore was for 33 years service (full pension at 40) but worked out it would be enough to live on. Had a decent lump sum in a bank account here which last year earnt 5% interest. I've not touched that in three years.

I'll be comfortable for years, so see absolutely no point in investing to make more (or even lose a load). When I die, my house, money and possessions will go to my brothers and sisters.

Maybe I'm not that financially savvy when it comes to investments, but if I had more, it would make absolutely no difference to the lifestyle I lead.

[Potter]

Maybe I'm not that financially savvy when it comes to investments, but if I had more, it would make absolutely no difference to the lifestyle I lead.

That's the way I feel, I save pretty much everything I earn now (that I don't use to pay bills), my biggest personal disposable income expenditure this week was a pizza last night.

Most of everything I do that costs money these days is things I do to get away from work and get some relaxation, so we've got holidays and flights that are coming up, but that's to visit family and/or get some downtime - things that wouldn't be needed if we were retired and living where we choose.

Financially savvy for me just means beating inflation, it's not about having more, it's about not eroding what you got.

Even though it's against my FAs advice I'm quite tempted to buy an annuity that is guaranteed, at least then you know exactly what you have coming in.

[Supermofo]

Had a look at mine today for the first time since Feb and lost 16k so far. Nice Just one kick in the balls after another at the minute!!

[Mr. Dazzle]

Had a look at mine today for the first time since Feb and lost 16k so far. Nice Just one kick in the balls after another at the minute!!

I feel you

It's a cheap time to be buying into funds, that's what I tell myself.

[Tomcat]

Hi All

I have several pensions running, all standard company programs and I want to combine them to make the most of them etc. Is there a comparison site that tells me which is run best/performs the best? I've had a look but cant seem to find what I'm after. TIA

I did a bit of looking around when I combined all my pension pots but there were so many options and so much small print I ended up just bunging them into the one that made the transfer easiest. I didn't do it until nearly retirement time so my portfolio stayed diversified, as it were, to guard against market shocks. Unless you've got one that is badly underperforming or overcharging there's little to be gained from combining them early on, IMO, YMMV, etc. I also got annuity and transfer values for each - there were a couple that were far better as annuities because they were guaranteed (and the return of new annuities is crap these days, thanks George Osborne and QE)

[Mussels]

I just transferred to a new pension so am looking at combining them but got a warning about the minimum age going up from 55 to 57, so transferring funds will mean I lose the ability to draw from them at 55. I plan so use the 25% tax free lump to pay off my mortgage and then increase contributions to match what I was paying, very tax efficient if I can still do it.

[Cousin Jack]

Maybe I'm not that financially savvy when it comes to investments, but if I had more, it would make absolutely no difference to the lifestyle I lead.

A long while ago I thought I was financially savvy. I invested in a couple of ISAs, 2 different companies managing them, one of them biased to technology, the other broad=based on the Footsie. Can't lose can I ?

Well I did, big time! Both ISAs were £7k at cost, at one stage one was worth a bit over £1k, the other a bit under.

Now I am a rate tart. I move my money around to get the best rate, but only with a govt £85k guarantee. I will never get rich, I may get poorer as inflation bites, but I won't go bust overnight.

[Count Steer]

Maybe I'm not that financially savvy when it comes to investments, but if I had more, it would make absolutely no difference to the lifestyle I lead.

A long while ago I thought I was financially savvy. I invested in a couple of ISAs, 2 different companies managing them, one of them biased to technology, the other broad=based on the Footsie. Can't lose can I ?

Well I did, big time! Both ISAs were £7k at cost, at one stage one was worth a bit over £1k, the other a bit under.

Now I am a rate tart. I move my money around to get the best rate, but only with a govt £85k guarantee. I will never get rich, I may get poorer as inflation bites, but I won't go bust overnight.

That FTSE based one....what the heck happened there?

The lowest in recent years has been about 3500 (2009) you'd have had to buy in at 24500 to lose 6/7ths and it's never been above 8000! Must be some corking dealing charges!!

[Cousin Jack]

That FTSE based one....what the heck happened there?

The lowest in recent years has been about 3500 (2009) you'd have had to buy in at 24500 to lose 6/7ths and it's never been above 8000! Must be some corking dealing charges!!

What happened was the dot-com bubble burst.

Perhaps my memory is faulty too, it was a long time ago, but my recollection was that the techy one was less than £1k, so we left it alone to see what happened. The other fell to an eye-watering value ( my memory says a bit over £1k but I know we sold it when it recovered to about £3-£4k). The techy one has changed names/companies several times but is now worth about £8k. It is now in profit, but the annual rate doesn't look too clever.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Some of my funds have dropped 20% since the start of 2022, its been a right shit storm!

The very worst thing I could do would be to change them now though. I haven't actually lost any money yet, that only happens if I'm foolish enough to sell.

Wind turbines are doing pretty well though

[Count Steer]

Some of my funds have dropped 20% since the start of 2022, its been a right shit storm!

The very worst thing I could do would be to change them now though. I haven't actually lost any money yet, that only happens if I'm foolish enough to sell.

Wind turbines are doing pretty well though

I used to do a monthly summary of all financial holdings. I stopped doing it in January.

(I don't plan to sell anything and am waiting a while before buying anything so why myself? Might do a yearly summary at financial Y/E).

[Mr. Dazzle]

I'm just curious more than anything! Plus there's a app for it, like everything else.

I set myself the rule that I only change where my pension payments go once every year, unless something really drastic happens in the news.

[Count Steer]

I'm just curious more than anything! Plus there's a app for it, like everything else.

I set myself the rule that I only change where my pension payments go once every year, unless something really drastic happens in the news.

If you're paying in monthly you're buying on the dip too so ideally you'd hope the markets stay low while you buy, and rise from retirement onwards. That'd be nice.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Yeah that's the one...I'm buying monthly whatever happens, it all averages out in the end.

[Bigyin]

I will admit i am shit with money but since i retired from plod have done ok with what i had left after clearing all my divorce debt from my lump sum.

I bought into the holiday let business just before Covid hit so made money out of the staycation boom for the past 2 years. As a result of this the prices for holiday let properties has rocketed so i reckon now is the time to bail out as the bubble will probably burst on that so that has been sold at a very tidy profit.

Still need to try and build some money back up so the profits from the holiday let sale are going into a buy to let property as a steady income over the next few years. Wont be a big return but will beat any bank or investment account. Hoping to get a decent long term tenant as housing rental stock where we are is limited and sought after ...time will tell. If it goes tits up i will sell the property and have the cash in an account rather than property assett