O/T Pensions and Anniities

Are thes all that they are cracked up to be..?

I'm hoping to finish work at 55! When you can take your "Pot".

But after paying in so much of my monthly pay to get a tidy income, the annuities being offered make things seem not worthwhile..Becoming so disillusioned with everything the so-called experts saying they are a worthwhile option.

Interested to hear what everyone's 'take-up' is on this ?

Whatever you do take professional advice - with respect, football forums are not the place to discuss such important matters to you personally.

Are thes all that they are cracked up to be..?

I'm hoping to finish work at 55! When you can take your "Pot".

But after paying in so much of my monthly pay to get a tidy income, the annuities being offered make things seem not worthwhile..Becoming so disillusioned with everything the so-called experts saying they are a worthwhile option.

Interested to hear what everyone's 'take-up' is on this ?

People are often unrealistic with their expectations, you have to pay in for as long and as much as possible for decent defined contribution pension. If you are retiring at 55 you would need your pot to last around 25 years, so depending on how much you would need you would have to have built up a substantial sum of money.

You don't have to buy an annuity, you could leave the money invested and drawdown the money from your pot yourself, which most people prefer these days.

A pension is still the most tax-efficient form of savings, you can take 25% of your pot tax free and when saving claim tax relief at your highest marginal rate, so a higher rate tax payer saving £500pm into a pension would only pay £300 the other £200 would be paid buy the government, you can't do that with an ISA.

Whatever you do take professional advice - with respect, football forums are not the place to discuss such important matters to you personally.

Agreed, but like everything else, people will give you a nudge in the right direction and cover the basic principles.

Whatever you do take professional advice - with respect, football forums are not the place to discuss such important matters to you personally.

It wasn't a take on personal matters..it was a General question on the subject of Annuities.

Whatever you do take professional advice - with respect, football forums are not the place to discuss such important matters to you personally.

It wasn't a take on personal matters..it was a General question on the subject of Annuities.

Annuity rates aren't great and the earlier you retire the worse they are as they have to last for longer and you will have had less time to build up a decent-sized pension fund. There are other options, the best thing is to pay in as much as you can afford to and build your pot up as much as you can, then at 55, you can see if it's enough to retire on, if not carry on working until it is enough, very few people can retire at 55 without a massive drop in standard of living without a final salary pension scheme.

Pensions are still a very tax-efficient war to save for your retirement though, so don't dismiss them.

Are thes all that they are cracked up to be..?

I'm hoping to finish work at 55! When you can take your "Pot".

But after paying in so much of my monthly pay to get a tidy income, the annuities being offered make things seem not worthwhile..Becoming so disillusioned with everything the so-called experts saying they are a worthwhile option.

Interested to hear what everyone's 'take-up' is on this ?

My advice to you would be very careful. If someone offers you something that sounds too good to be true, walk away. Plenty of "experts" out there who will be more than happy to relieve you of your savings.

Whatever you do take professional advice - with respect, football forums are not the place to discuss such important matters to you personally.

It wasn't a take on personal matters..it was a General question on the subject of Annuities.

Annuities rates are dire at the moment and probably will be for the foreseeable future

I retired early, invested “my pot” and drawdown money from this as and when I need it.I am more than happy about how it has worked out so far

You definitely need to take financial advice which is not cheap but can invaluable when making these big decisions (My financial advisor was outstanding he explained everything in minute detail)

Don’t get despondent there are so many different options out there and am sure you will find something that suits you

One thing I have been surprised about is how little I need to spend each week compared to when I was working
No more wasting money on new suits, shoes and spending £5/6 a day on lunch and expensive car parking near office etc etc etc

Me and my wife now go tend to go out during the day rather than evenings..meals out, cinema tickets, theatre etc etc are all cheaper during the day and beaches and “touristy” things are always less crowded during the week than on weekends.. my personal cost of living has definitely reduced since I retired

Whatever you do take professional advice - with respect, football forums are not the place to discuss such important matters to you personally.

It wasn't a take on personal matters..it was a General question on the subject of Annuities.

Annuities rates are dire at the moment and probably will be for the foreseeable future

I retired early, invested “my pot” and drawdown money from this as and when I need it.I am more than happy about how it has worked out so far

You definitely need to take financial advice which is not cheap but can invaluable when making these big decisions (My financial advisor was outstanding he explained everything in minute detail)

Don’t get despondent there are so many different options out there and am sure you will find something that suits you

One thing I have been surprised about is how little I need to spend each week compared to when I was working
No more wasting money on new suits, shoes and spending £5/6 a day on lunch and expensive car parking near office etc etc etc

Me and my wife now go tend to go out during the day rather than evenings..meals out, cinema tickets, theatre etc etc are all cheaper during the day and beaches and “touristy” things are always less crowded during the week than on weekends.. my personal cost of living has definitely reduced since I retired

Whilst pensions provide a tax efficiency whilst you are paying in and funding your pot, annuities basically result in you handing over your capital to an insurance company who then give the same sort of return a bank building society would if you invested that money only you no longer have your money!

Many factors to consider including other income and capital as well as attitude to risk. Though anyone without a final salary pension scheme able to retire at 55 has made some very wise financial decisions already.

This is why people are claiming miss sold pensions? I have a nhs pension but got pressured into changing it before I retired! Any gvmnt pension is solid gold never give it up for private enuaties! Feel sorry for those now who have to save hundreds pounds a month without knowing how much they will get when retire.

Most people "selling" pensions are not old enough to understand how the compulsion to buy an annuity is the disadvantage it is.

Most pension arrangements do now allow you to take more of your own money as cash rather than the 25% previously referred to which was the norm for a very long time.

Many older people forced to buy an annuity with the money they have saved will feel aggrieved with annuities as you literally get next to no more of a return and don't have your capital anymore.

Most people "selling" pensions are not old enough to understand how the compulsion to buy an annuity is the disadvantage it is.

Most pension arrangements do now allow you to take more of your own money as cash rather than the 25% previously referred to which was the norm for a very long time.

Many older people forced to buy an annuity with the money they have saved will feel aggrieved with annuities as you literally get next to no more of a return and don't have your capital anymore.

It’s been a long time since people were required to buy an annuity Annuities at this time are poor value and have been for many years However in the 80s you could get annuities that would buy you an annual pension on £100k between 10k and 15 k pa Great value then
I transferred out o& my final salary pension fund For the following reasons
My wife had passed away and did not need a widows pensions
All my kids were out of full time education and over 25
My tax free cash was only £80 k in final salary scheme by transferring it at 55 I will have £300k cash and pension on top
So not always bad to transfer out just depends on your circumstances

But you must take advise Good advise costs but bad advice will cost you more in the long run

I don’t know much about annuities etc and I’m only 47, can u draw all the cash out in one go if you want? 250k in one hit etc?
A pension might only give you 10k a year with that but you can buy a house for around 250 and rent it out for 1600 a month, like I do.....

I don’t know much about annuities etc and I’m only 47, can u draw all the cash out in one go if you want? 250k in one hit etc?
A pension might only give you 10k a year with that but you can buy a house for around 250 and rent it out for 1600 a month, like I do.....

The answer is yes but it is not straight forward You can have 25% of it tax free the rest you will have a tax charge so you will no5 get the £250k Remember pension get tax relief on the way in but can be taxed on the way out if you tax more than the zero personal allowance rate which I believe is £12500

I don’t know much about annuities etc and I’m only 47, can u draw all the cash out in one go if you want? 250k in one hit etc?
A pension might only give you 10k a year with that but you can buy a house for around 250 and rent it out for 1600 a month, like I do.....

Yes 25% tax free 75% added to your income for that year and taxed accordingly, so it doesn't normally make sense to take it out until your income is minimal.

The thing that scares me with any pension is trusting the people you give your money to ,to look after it and invest it properly ,i always think of the steel works in Cardiff that done all there workers out of there money ,

Pensions are a busted flush, by the time I get to retirement (I'm in my 30's) there will be no money left in these funds to pay people anything, hence why the government are making you auto enroll etc these days rather than actively enroll and the state pension is rising year on year, 68 for me as it stands.

I'm not paying into any pension and making my own provisions, purely on the basis that I believe half the pension will go bust in the next 20-30 years and the government have already set a precedent by refusing to bail out those that have already failed.

Pensions are a busted flush, by the time I get to retirement (I'm in my 30's) there will be no money left in these funds to pay people anything, hence why the government are making you auto enroll etc these days rather than actively enroll and the state pension is rising year on year, 68 for me as it stands.

I'm not paying into any pension and making my own provisions, purely on the basis that I believe half the pension will go bust in the next 20-30 years and the government have already set a precedent by refusing to bail out those that have already failed.

You are talking about old-style company pension schemes, yes some of them wrong as the directers raided the schemes at times of hardship, there is protection in place for proper pensions now, although you do have to be aware of chancers and the odd scam pension investing in Cape Verde property and daft schemes like that.

RV casual you've absolutely nailed it.younger people have no chance in my opinion of ever getting a decent pension.there's a generation of people who have been living on decent pensions for the last 20 /30 years.especially public sector cant see that happening in the future.

RV casual you've absolutely nailed it.younger people have no chance in my opinion of ever getting a decent pension.there's a generation of people who have been living on decent pensions for the last 20 /30 years.especially public sector cant see that happening in the future.

Unfortunately Tony Blair’s tax grab from pension funds in the 90s made it harder for companies with final salary scheme to keep on be funded Rather than penalising employers with no scheme for employees he had a go at final salary schemes believing all had massive surpluses

Pensions are a busted flush, by the time I get to retirement (I'm in my 30's) there will be no money left in these funds to pay people anything, hence why the government are making you auto enroll etc these days rather than actively enroll and the state pension is rising year on year, 68 for me as it stands.

I'm not paying into any pension and making my own provisions, purely on the basis that I believe half the pension will go bust in the next 20-30 years and the government have already set a precedent by refusing to bail out those that have already failed.

You are talking about old-style company pension schemes, yes some of them wrong as the directers raided the schemes at times of hardship, there is protection in place for proper pensions now, although you do have to be aware of chancers and the odd scam pension investing in Cape Verde property and daft schemes like that.

It's simple maths though mate, you can't have people putting in 50k over their working life and then taking out £250,000 in pension pay outs.

It's just not sustainable as we are now finding out with people being asked to work longer and pay in more to bridge the gaps.

At some point it's just going to go kaboom.