Pension stuff, how's it all looking ? HAve you prepared ?

[Yorick]

For me, the trouble with sunny place's is they get too hot.

And their insects seem to have an extra 'vicious bastard' gene

No mozzies here.

[Yorick]

We have elderly dependants, so wont make any moves until they've, well, died. Then I think we'd like to just head off in our campervan and have a mooch about and find a place with the right vibe and spend some time there and if its fits, buy a place. There are of course other factors, such as selling our home here, or maybe rent it, but not sure about the landlord thing, but do realise the uk property market is much better than say the Spanish one. TBH I'm not good with planning when its all hypotheticals, so I guess i'll have to how life is at the time...

You know I'm all in favour of moving abroad, but I'd recommend that you rent first, to make sure it suits you.

[Yorick]

It's a big nope from me, I could tell you all about working abroad, but living abroad in retirement isn't for us, in fact in my experience for the majority of people it doesn't last forever, we don't want to spend the rest of our lives away from friends and family.
Even Ronnie Biggs came home in the end

I get that and I think we'd miss family, especially if we had grandkids, but its the winters, I just cant stand the winters...

Lots of folk here initially worried about missing UK families. But they now get family visiting them more than ever

[Pirahna]

Here's my moving abroad story. My mum was Irish, Dad English. They met in London, had my sister and I and when they retired they moved to Ireland. They built a house next to my aunt, who was next to my uncle living in the house the family was born in, so lots of close family support. They've had a few health issues along the way, some serious but they survived until mum was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2021 and given three months to live. She actually lived for six months and I was lucky enough to spend a month with her early on and the last two months of her life. Move on a couple of years and my father was taken ill seven weeks ago, I've been very fortunate to spend the last seven weeks with him, he passed away on Friday. But that's only the end of life stuff. As we age it's all the little bits that I wasn't there for. I spend a few weeks a year in Ireland but without the close family support, and more importantly the help of the care system in Ireland, my dad wouldn't have got as far as he did.

Wifey and I have no children, nieces and nephews are in short supply so we'll have to fend for ourselves when the time comes. Hopefully we'll still have some friends that will help and we'll be able to pay for rides when we can no longer drive, and pay for any care we need. It's a long way off yet but the years fly past. My parents were my age now when they moved to Ireland and that seems to have flown past. Something to think about I suppose.

[Yorick]

Here's my moving abroad story. My mum was Irish, Dad English. They met in London, had my sister and I and when they retired they moved to Ireland. They built a house next to my aunt, who was next to my uncle living in the house the family was born in, so lots of close family support. They've had a few health issues along the way, some serious but they survived until mum was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2021 and given three months to live. She actually lived for six months and I was lucky enough to spend a month with her early on and the last two months of her life. Move on a couple of years and my father was taken ill seven weeks ago, I've been very fortunate to spend the last seven weeks with him, he passed away on Friday. But that's only the end of life stuff. As we age it's all the little bits that I wasn't there for. I spend a few weeks a year in Ireland but without the close family support, and more importantly the help of the care system in Ireland, my dad wouldn't have got as far as he did.

Wifey and I have no children, nieces and nephews are in short supply so we'll have to fend for ourselves when the time comes. Hopefully we'll still have some friends that will help and we'll be able to pay for rides when we can no longer drive, and pay for any care we need. It's a long way off yet but the years fly past. My parents were my age now when they moved to Ireland and that seems to have flown past. Something to think about I suppose.

We have a beautiful apartment in our basement which brings in good money.

When the time comes, we'll rent it to a carer/nurse to help us out.

Money won't be a problem

[Noggin]

It's probably because I've spent the majority of my adult life abroad, so now I'm looking forward to settling in the UK, whilst some of you are looking to escape.

But the missing family thing has been hard at times.
I wouldn't underestimate it, unless you're a particular loaner or don't get along with family.

I've been fine, I don't get along with my family much, but it's been rough on my missus, she's got a very close family and it's been bad for her at times, I only realise how bad now our kids have left home and I miss them like mad.

I thought I'd miss my family (fcuked up as it is) - but, after the last six + years of injury, rehab, surgeries, stress and all the other crap that's happened, I have realised that I am truly on my own when it comes to family. Once I'm able to ride properly for a whole summer here, hopefully I'll make the sort of 'bike' friends I had in the uk. For now, most of my friends are in my computer!!

Add in that after only six years living abroad I really didn't feel that the UK was home any more and I need to sort out how I'm going live in old age out here!!

It's a big nope from me, I could tell you all about working abroad, but living abroad in retirement isn't for us, in fact in my experience for the majority of people it doesn't last forever, we don't want to spend the rest of our lives away from friends and family.
Even Ronnie Biggs came home in the end

I get that and I think we'd miss family, especially if we had grandkids, but its the winters, I just cant stand the winters...

Lots of folk here initially worried about missing UK families. But they now get family visiting them more than ever

I wish! Don't even get many friends visit TBF - must be me!! Cos, whilst winters are cold, summers are NOT!! (Might help if I had a spare room I suppose!! )

[Taipan]

We have elderly dependants, so wont make any moves until they've, well, died. Then I think we'd like to just head off in our campervan and have a mooch about and find a place with the right vibe and spend some time there and if its fits, buy a place. There are of course other factors, such as selling our home here, or maybe rent it, but not sure about the landlord thing, but do realise the uk property market is much better than say the Spanish one. TBH I'm not good with planning when its all hypotheticals, so I guess i'll have to how life is at the time...

You know I'm all in favour of moving abroad, but I'd recommend that you rent first, to make sure it suits you.

I'd definitely want to spend some time looking round to find the right area as I've never been to southern Spain before. We'd also spend some time in the area of a property we'd found assuming we did decide to find one.

I used to say we'd rent our place here, to pay for one there, and given the UK property market is a lot more lucrative than the Spanish one, I still feel inclined to follow that train of thought and of course we'd still have a pathway back should we need it. But if we did find ourselves settled then maybe a permanent move would work? TBH I think the compromise i'd like is to be snowbirds as I love England in the spring and summer. I do like the idea of having a wander around southern Spain and the Algarve in my campervan whilst avoiding the UK winter...

Like I say, its hard to get decisive about anything as we have ties here at present and we're a very close family and there's no way we'd leave the elderly folk at this stage in their lives. But we're enjoying watching A Place in the Sun...

[Yorick]

Last couple of years I've been taking about £15k from my worst performing pension pot. The tax savings pay for my expensive track days.

Just looked today and that pot's made 20% this year. So not gonna touch that one

Need to phone the others on Wednesday to see how they're doing and decide then what to do.

If they're doing OK, the profit in 4 or 5 years will be more than the tax savings.

[Potter]

I think I’ve already said that I’ve kind of turned off most of my attention now on money matters, but I did just check in after reading Yoricks post and my pots are also looking surprisingly well.

I don’t plan on touching it for about ten years so it’s absolutely useless as any kind of measure at the moment, but I’m hoping it’s the start of a few decades of stability, I think we’ve seen enough crashes and economic insanity.

[Count Steer]

Prompted me to have a look too. Some things are looking quite perky.

(Truss and Kwarteng still owe me the price of a nice new car though thanks to their trashing of the bond market. It's picking up a bit but.... ).

[Mr. Dazzle]

I'm back to - and beyond - the Truss and Kwarteng days

[Count Steer]

I'm back to - and beyond - the Truss and Kwarteng days

Yeah, thankfully Truss's 'communists' controlling 'the markets' and the 'deep state' refuseniks didn't manage to trash the normal shares stuff quite so tragically.

[Potter]

I'm back to - and beyond - the Truss and Kwarteng days

Yeah I've bounced back and I'm up about 5%.
It's better than being down but it's 5% in total over about 18 months, so not brilliant, although I was down about 20% at one point, so I shouldn't moan.

A few years ago I probably wouldn't have been grumbling, you have to take the rough with the smooth, but when we've been able to get 6% pa on totally safe things like NS&I Bonds, then I feel a bit cheated at having to watch my money ebb away and then wait to see if it would come back again - it has, but it was unnecessarily stressful.

I'm sure I've posted before but I'd be happy if I could get 5% pa fixed on an NS&I bond for the next twenty-five years - I'm sure most people would as well though

[Yorick]

Just checked 2 pension pots from same company.
One is barely more than 7 years ago.
Other has more than doubled in last 5 years.

Lovely lass on phone just told me i can drag the crap one into the good one and spent about half hour on phone setting up all the online stuff that I need. Very helpful.

[Sunny]

Up 10% since I last looked

[Potter]

There are still banks offering just shy of 5% on fixed deposits over two years, and even some at 4% over five years.

I’m hoping these rate predictions at over 4% for the foreseeable future hold up. Real actual inflation at 2-3% (and not just made up lies) and interest base rate at 4% would be healthy and sustainable if managed.

I’m not greedy, I don’t want unsustainable silly interest and I certainly don’t want to make money from another crazy bull run and the inflation they create. I just want a fair and sensible market.

[Noggin]

I finally got access to the 'pension' I knew I had with an old employer. TBF, I didn't work there long, but wanted to know what was going on.

Can anyone explain any of this??

This means I'll be about three weeks over 60 at their normal date of retirement. If I change that date, does that mean I might be able to take a lump sum sooner??




I'm fully aware that I could ask the pension peeps that run this, but I'm hoping someone here can explain some basics in language that I understand!!! (I'm SERIOUSLY NOT good at this stuff!!) -

What is a lifetime allowance?
Whats the difference between a scheme pension and a dependant's pension?
I guess that if I want to take a cash lump sum I have to change the retirement date?




I appreciate it is small amounts of money but I worked for these guys for less than three years almost 30 years ago!! Probably should have topped it up over the years, but as I'm sure I've said before, I'm already at least 15 years older than I ever expected to get to!!! So, coming at this a bit late


Probably should do a search somehow on any other bitsa pensions, either to amalgamate or to withdraw cash (very useful right now!)

[Count Steer]

What is a lifetime allowance?
Whats the difference between a scheme pension and a dependant's pension?
I guess that if I want to take a cash lump sum I have to change the retirement date?

1. The max amount you can invest (with tax concession) into your pensions in your lifetime. (Tricky to invest at any other time). Don't worry about it.
2. Pensions offer an option whereby you usually get a reduced pension but your dependant gets a 50% pension should they outlive you. It's an illustrative figure, you don't have to choose it/may not have one.
3. I assume 'scheme pension' is their pension management option ie you don't transfer it out into another option like a self managed/invested personal pension scheme.
4. If you are allowed to, which, as far as I know you will be, you can specify an earlier retirement date. The sums in your post are based on the date given so they'll be less if you do. As it's a company scheme probably best to speak to them on that one. In theory you can take a chunk tax free (and a reduced pension) after 55 at the moment in the UK but it's changing.

Dunno if there are any complications with being resident in France.

I think I'd talk to them.

[Noggin]

What is a lifetime allowance?
Whats the difference between a scheme pension and a dependant's pension?
I guess that if I want to take a cash lump sum I have to change the retirement date?

1. The max amount you can invest (with tax concession) into your pensions in your lifetime. (Tricky to invest at any other time). Don't worry about it.
2. Pensions offer an option whereby you usually get a reduced pension but your dependant gets a 50% pension should they outlive you. It's an illustrative figure, you don't have to choose it/may not have one.
3. I assume 'scheme pension' is their pension management option ie you don't transfer it out into another option like a self managed/invested personal pension scheme.
4. If you are allowed to, which, as far as I know you will be, you can specify an earlier retirement date. The sums in your post are based on the date given so they'll be less if you do. As it's a company scheme probably best to speak to them on that one. In theory you can take a chunk tax free (and a reduced pension) after 55 at the moment in the UK but it's changing.

Dunno if there are any complications with being resident in France.

I think I'd talk to them.

Thank you loads. That helps. I will talk to them direct, just wanted to have more understanding beforehand!

[Count Steer]

I've probably oversimplified the Lifetime Allowance (LTA) but there aren't many of us that need to worry about it...me included.

I think the dependants thing depended on whether the dependant is male or female, age etc (ie life expectancy) but as I said it's only something to consider if you have identified a dependant.

Those numbers don't look too shabby considering you weren't there long. The power of compound interest over time eh?