Pension plans/retirement

[Izzy]

10 minutes ago, m4DD0gg said:

Private pension 5 and 5 with employer and property portfolio. 

O.K. Warren Buffett 

[Rogstanley]

8 hours ago, ozleicester said:

Just remember, your private superanuation/pension is not safe, it is invested in the stock market, if that crashes and burns (eg loses 4.5% last night!) your money crashes with it!

On the other hand if it's even reasonably well invested it would have been going up steadily for almost ten years.

 

Stock markets are well overdue a proper correction. I'm hoping for more falls. Would love the FTSE to get back down into the 5,000's.

[ozleicester]

40 minutes ago, Rogstanley said:

On the other hand if it's even reasonably well invested it would have been going up steadily for almost ten years.

 

Stock markets are well overdue a proper correction. I'm hoping for more falls. Would love the FTSE to get back down into the 5,000's.

If you are touching 60/65 and your superannuation has just lost 5% of its value, you might question why you invested for 30 years.

[Rogstanley]

12 minutes ago, ozleicester said:

If you are touching 60/65 and your superannuation has just lost 5% of its value, you might question why you invested for 30 years.

If you're about to retire you shouldn't be heavily exposed to equities. I don't know how superannuation works but a lot of uk pensions these days automatically move money to lower risk assets as the person approaches retirement. If it's not done automatically then you can (and should) do it yourself. 

 

I'm not saying it's without risk but as long as you take the time to understand those risks and take appropriate actions then history shows being invested in the stock market is a good way to grow your wealth over the long term.

[Bellend Sebastian]

1 hour ago, ozleicester said:

If you are touching 60/65 and your superannuation has just lost 5% of its value, you might question why you invested for 30 years.

If you'd been invested for 30 years, whilst disappointing, a fall in its value of that amount would be a relative drop in the ocean relative to the returns it should have received over that timescale.

 

The stock market falls won't affect final salary scheme members and like Rog said, most money purchase/defined contribution scheme members will have 'lifestyled' funds anyway so are insulated from a big part of the risk if they're anywhere near retirement. Even if they're not, it's only really an issue for those wanting to buy an annuity, but the rates on them are so shite these days not that many do

[simFox]

Bloody hell, just closed accounts, maxed my ISA, got wife to open one, all set to start investing and this:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/feb/06/stock-markest-carnage-ftse-london-europe-falls-plunge

 

Think I might wait or just buy a house to rent after brexit. Anyone got a crystal ball?

[Bellend Sebastian]

8 minutes ago, simFox said:

Bloody hell, just closed accounts, maxed my ISA, got wife to open one, all set to start investing and this:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/feb/06/stock-markest-carnage-ftse-london-europe-falls-plunge

 

Think I might wait or just buy a house to rent after brexit. Anyone got a crystal ball?

I'd take the stock market over the property market any day.  Probably because I understand it more

 

 

[Babylon]

4 minutes ago, simFox said:

Bloody hell, just closed accounts, maxed my ISA, got wife to open one, all set to start investing and this:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/feb/06/stock-markest-carnage-ftse-london-europe-falls-plunge

 

Think I might wait or just buy a house to rent after brexit. Anyone got a crystal ball?

Investing is the long game, don't get spooked by ups and downs. I perhaps wouldn't go chucking in a huge lump sum at the moment. But regular monthly investment month after month means sometimes you'll buy low, sometimes you'll buy high and it all evens itself out over time.

[Bellend Sebastian]

Babs is right. Don't even do it if you're not prepared to invest for at least 5 years.  If you're prepared to go longer than this, so much the better

[simFox]

Might be a good entry point once the dust clears, but I think I'll give it a miss this month see where we are in April.

[Babylon]

15 minutes ago, simFox said:

Might be a good entry point once the dust clears, but I think I'll give it a miss this month see where we are in April.

Just start drip feeding. I use halifax who have regular investment facility, you set up a DD every month, they take the cash and then it gets invested in whichever shares or funds you want for just £2 per transaction. I just started out putting in £50 a month and just kept upping it as I felt more secure and understood what the hell was going on.

 

Best advice as well is.... don't watch the prices daily. When I first started out I'd get spooked almost every other day I was swapping and changing shares / funds all the time and it cost me a fortune in transaction fees and missed ups. Just chuck it in and try to ignore it, it can take years before you start seeing the benefit.

 

I was looking through a portfolio that a relative has managed the other day by a FA. All they do is spread it out across loads of different funds, some UK, some Europe, some global, some mostly equity, some mostly bonds. Not rocket science, they just hedge their bets and spread the money across lots of different markets.

[Turbogre]

I've got 4 pensions with 4 different jobs i've had, no idea how much i actually paid into any of them and no idea how i find out?

[CollinsLCFC]

13 minutes ago, Turbogre said:

I've got 4 pensions with 4 different jobs i've had, no idea how much i actually paid into any of them and no idea how i find out?

Contact the pension provider and request the information. Ask for contribution history, valuation basically anything and everything.

[Turbogre]

4 hours ago, CollinsLCFC said:

Contact the pension provider and request the information. Ask for contribution history, valuation basically anything and everything.

I'm assuming it's the Leicester City Council as that's who i used to work for?

[Bellend Sebastian]

14 minutes ago, Turbogre said:

I'm assuming it's the Leicester City Council as that's who i used to work for?

Were all your jobs for the council? I assume you'll have been a member of their final salary scheme, in which case, lucky old you

[VLC86]

Had my statement through from work today, says I will get a whopping £430 a month if I keep up the way I am.

 

So naive with this stuff, didn’t realise if I upped the amount my work would put in a far higher % so I’ve done that now.

[CollinsLCFC]

3 hours ago, Turbogre said:

I'm assuming it's the Leicester City Council as that's who i used to work for?

Quite possibly. Give the pensions department a call and give your details.

[jonthefox]

8 hours ago, simFox said:

Might be a good entry point once the dust clears, but I think I'll give it a miss this month see where we are in April.

Surely now is a good time to start. The price of stocks being low ( or lower) at the minute.

[jonthefox]

Ok here's another question for you. As of next month i'm going to be a little bit better off. Nothing major , but about £150 a month better off. 

I have a pension but no isa. Where's best to put the money?. 

[Bellend Sebastian]

7 minutes ago, jonthefox said:

Ok here's another question for you. As of next month i'm going to be a little bit better off. Nothing major , but about £150 a month better off. 

I have a pension but no isa. Where's best to put the money?. 

What're you trying to achieve? ISA is better for access if you're not at an age where you can dip into your pension (currently 55).

 

ISA good for shorter term (but still minimum 5 years if investing in anything other than cash), don't pay any tax on withdrawal or have to declare anything about them.

 

Pension best for longer term saving purely because of tax relief on contributions

Edited 6 February 2018 by Bellend Sebastian

[ozleicester]

Another shambles on the US stock market last night... i acknowledge stocks are a societal necessity today... just a reminder for younger folk to realise, its not all up.

Edited 6 February 2018 by ozleicester

[Guest MattP]

4 minutes ago, ozleicester said:

Another shambles on the US stock market last night... i acknowledge stocks are a societal necessity today... just a reminder for younger folk to realise, its not all up.

Hardly a shambles, some early worry followed by a huge recovery.

 

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-stocks/wall-street-roars-back-in-whipsaw-session-idUSKBN1FQ1OZ

[Turbogre]

Just contacted the Leicester Council, was given a link to go on and register, now need to wait for a pin number to be sent out to me, then i can see all my pensions online. 

[Babylon]

19 hours ago, jonthefox said:

Ok here's another question for you. As of next month i'm going to be a little bit better off. Nothing major , but about £150 a month better off. 

I have a pension but no isa. Where's best to put the money?. 

Depends on what your current situation is in terms of what you have in the bank (enough for a rainy day), whether you could need access in the future, or whether you're happy to just lock it away for a decade.

 

If you've got some cash saved and are putting away a decent amount into a pension, pay off your mortgage and credit cards if you have any. Then, put it in a stocks and shares ISA.

Edited 7 February 2018 by Babylon

[cambridgefox]

Slightly unrelated but to do with investments.

 

we have put money away in a jump fund(Witan Investment Trust) for my daughter and it’s done better than we expected .its in our name(wife’s and mine).

just before the last election we cashed in just under half as we were playing it safe if there was a sudden drop in shares.

we put this in our National savings.

my wife is self employed for the NFU and has to give details of investments etc

Because each month we send a dd and they buy shares ,over 17 years every month the share price differs.

 

Q1 How do you work out the capital gains as each month the share price is different and we have taken under half out of the total holding.

Q2 We put it in National Savings( in my wife’s)

Alrhough the investment was in joint names the withdrawal funds are in her savings.

Does this mean she is liable for the Capital Gains or is it halved as theoretically half was mine.

@Babylon you seem the man in the know!

@Bellend Sebastian

 

 

Edited 11 February 2018 by cambridgefox