What do you think about retirement and when will you do it?

[Hollis]

Just checking my old work DC pension. Started it in December 2014. The last contributions made were when I left in November 2019

Your contributions £26.5k.
Other payment (transferring in old pension early on) £16k
Investment growth £36.5k (£10k of this in the last year)

Total £79k

Is that good? The investment growth I mean. I haven’t managed it or even looked at the various funds I chose since I left the job.

The amount is neither here nor there until I can actually take it which is decades away, but that amount of money is easily 3-4 years living costs though I don’t suppose I could access it all as a lump sum without tax liabilities.

That looks good. You really want to check what funds its invested in and what they're charging you. If you are not touching it for several decades you probably want it in a diversified equity fund... (Not that I can give advice on these things)..

 

[petee]

Just checking my old work DC pension. Started it in December 2014. The last contributions made were when I left in November 2019

Your contributions £26.5k.
Other payment (transferring in old pension early on) £16k
Investment growth £36.5k (£10k of this in the last year)

Total £79k

Is that good? The investment growth I mean. I haven’t managed it or even looked at the various funds I chose since I left the job.

The amount is neither here nor there until I can actually take it which is decades away, but that amount of money is easily 3-4 years living costs though I don’t suppose I could access it all as a lump sum without tax liabilities.

you put in 26k and now you have 79k in less than ten years. that sounds excellent.
you're right about the tax liabilities (at least you would be in the states), so when you take it out you'd want to do it bit by bit.

now, reviewing your holdings
1: could be good because you may want to rebalance your investments to maximize your return
2: could give you an ulcer because nobody knows how things are going to go and what if you change things and make a mistake?

whatever you've done seems to be working quite well, so maybe just leave it.

DISCLOSURE i am not a financial manager but am on the brink of quitting work so i've been taking an interest in these things.

 

[MickiQ]

Just checking my old work DC pension. Started it in December 2014. The last contributions made were when I left in November 2019

Your contributions £26.5k.
Other payment (transferring in old pension early on) £16k
Investment growth £36.5k (£10k of this in the last year)

Total £79k

Is that good? The investment growth I mean. I haven’t managed it or even looked at the various funds I chose since I left the job.

The amount is neither here nor there until I can actually take it which is decades away, but that amount of money is easily 3-4 years living costs though I don’t suppose I could access it all as a lump sum without tax liabilities.

A very wet finger wind calculation which you definitely should not rely on leads me to reckon you could take £20k tax free and the rest would buy you a couple of grand a year

 

[Elpenor]

That looks good. You really want to check what funds it’s invested in and what they're charging you. If you are not touching it for several decades you probably want it in a diversified equity fund... (Not that I can give advice on these things)..

I had a look and it’s a mixture of fairly aggressive and volatile equity funds, trackers of different geographical areas. The UK focussed one has done the worse, the US oriented one the best. I’ve had two exceptional years; 2020-2021 and the last 12 months and the others have been poor either limited growth or losses. I suppose that’s investing for you. Not sure about fund charges but can’t imagine I’d have gone for expensive ones though I do recall a letter about one of the funds a while ago which I think I ignored .

I am over a decade away from being able to access the money so am tempted to leave it for another five years or so, presumably at some point it needs to be in something less volatile

 

[Puddy_Tat]

I am over a decade away from being able to access the money so am tempted to leave it for another five years or so, presumably at some point it needs to be in something less volatile

yes - my understanding is that DC pensions schemes generally have a default position of moving funds in to less risky things as you get closer to planned retirement age.

 

[DownwardDog]

I urgently need to solve the mystery of how to pay missed NI years - I'm now wondering about deferring taking my state pension ...
I already regret taking the default tax-free lump sum with my work pension.
2020 was a bad year for making decisions like that.

The fuckers changed the rules last year and you can now only pay six years in arrears. If your "missing" years are pre-2018 you've had it.

It's a phenomenal investment so definitely do it if you can. I paid voluntary Class 2s for 20+ years and the process was miserable before it all went on gov.uk. I calculate that I will get it all back within the first seven months of drawing the state pension.

They also fuck you for the cold weather payment if you're a resident of France because they average in the temperature in Reunion and New Caledonia.

 

[Griff]

Is there a way of checking your NI contributions online? I hate negotiating gov.websites.

Just wondering if I may need to top up mine due to odd years of being out of the country/self-employed etc.

Ta.

 

[2hats]

You will need to create a 'Government Gateway user ID' first.

Check your National Insurance record

Find out if you've paid enough National Insurance to qualify for the full State Pension - check gaps, contributions and credits, get a National Insurance statement, call the helpline.

www.gov.uk

 

[Griff]

Cheers!

 

[Elpenor]

I logged in to see mine out of curiosity and saw this message

The deadline for paying gaps between April 2006 and April 2016 has been extended to 5 April 2025

Doesn’t affect me but if effects you then get on with it and don’t leave it till March

 

[og ogilby]

if I take out what money is left in Q Enterprises in one go, HMRC will sting me for a shitload of tax.
So I will be CEO of a company with no staff and no work to do for a bit.

Depending on your circumstances, there is the option of taking 60k out as a pension contribution?

 

[kalidarkone]

Ove got to go and see a pensions person soon to consolidate my various pensions and I guess when I've done that I can see what my options will be.

I am definitely going down to two days a week ,with the option to do bank shifts.

 

[Griff]

Seems I've paid 36 full years of NI with gaps in '96 (out of country) and the early 2000s (having a shop) and nothing since 'retiring' in 2021. They're also saying I can pay the recent shortfalls of £2400 but not the earlier ones.

Full state pension at 68 ( over a decade away ) is payable with 35 full years of NI. £220 a week.

Informative morning.

 

[og ogilby]

They're also saying I can pay the recent shortfalls of £2400 but not the earlier ones.

Why would you do that if you've already paid enough to qualify for full pension?

 

[Griff]

Why would you do that if you've already paid enough to qualify for full pension?

Which is why I'm not paying any more.

 

[MickiQ]

Depending on your circumstances, there is the option of taking 60k out as a pension contribution?

Never really considered that to be truthful, I whacked as much as I could in a pension whilst I was working so between my pension from 8 years at Q Enterprises, my 25 years final salary scheme from Evil American Megacorp (and the princely sum of £28 a month from my pension before that which I've been drawing since I was 60) plus my state pension I will have a more than generous enough pension to live on in my dotage.
There is enough money left on Q Enterprises books (which has already had corporation tax paid on it) to pay dividends for 3 years (though the third year will be a LOT smaller) to me and Mrs Q. This will nicely cover my youngest daughter's last 2 years at Uni so most of it will get spent on that I imagine.

 

[rubbershoes]

You will need to create a 'Government Gateway user ID' first.

Check your National Insurance record

Find out if you've paid enough National Insurance to qualify for the full State Pension - check gaps, contributions and credits, get a National Insurance statement, call the helpline.

www.gov.uk

Bizarrely it shows I was paying full contributions for a couple of years when I was at school.

 

[marty21]

So, in less than a year, I can go part-time (3 days a week) and take my work pension - currently it's worth about £14k a year - I'll get 3/5s of my current pay plus that pension, and I also get a private pension of about £5k a year (that's the prediction atm) . Still have to wait til 2032 for the state pension though .

Still hoping that the current restructure eases me out - they'd have to give me redundancy, plus pay my pension as it I'd worked to 67 - that would give me about £20k a year. They have just put back the announcement on the restructure - now expected June-ish)

I reckon I still need a Lotto win though.

 

[Griff]

Bizarrely it shows I was paying full contributions for a couple of years when I was at school.

Same here.

I did work in a McDonalds for two days in the Summer holiday, mind. Wonder if I paid it then?
Went on to sell dusters and ironing-board covers door-to-door. A far more lucrative Summer holiday job.

 

[2hats]

Bizarrely it shows I was paying full contributions for a couple of years when I was at school.

NI starting credits for 16-18 year olds? (Ran from 1975-2011).

 

[rubbershoes]

NI starting credits for 16-18 year olds? (Ran from 1975-2011).

That'll be it

 

[Puddy_Tat]

Bizarrely it shows I was paying full contributions for a couple of years when I was at school.

Same here.

NI starting credits for 16-18 year olds? (Ran from 1975-2011).

yes - i mentioned it somewhere on here once, as i was a bit surprised to see i'd been credited for the tax year when i turned 16. i did leave school at easter (as you could then if your birthday was before x date) but that was after the end of that tax year.

 

[Griff]

Not something I was even remotely aware of.

Makes up for my missing few years, which is nice.

 

[Sue]

As of now, I've paid enough years of NI to get the full state pension when I'm old enough. (I'll have been working full time for 30 years come August .) Part-time/summer jobs seem to count though a few years working in another EU country don't though I suspect they should. (Reciprocal agreement and it's not like I paid in long enough there to be entitled to their state pension. Not worth pursuing though, given I've enough years without them.)

 

[freshapple]

Just checking my old work DC pension. Started it in December 2014. The last contributions made were when I left in November 2019

Your contributions £26.5k.
Other payment (transferring in old pension early on) £16k
Investment growth £36.5k (£10k of this in the last year)

Total £79k

Is that good? The investment growth I mean. I haven’t managed it or even looked at the various funds I chose since I left the job.

The amount is neither here nor there until I can actually take it which is decades away, but that amount of money is easily 3-4 years living costs though I don’t suppose I could access it all as a lump sum without tax liabilities.

Percentage wise that looks really good

 

[kabbes]

Excitingly, I requested a sabbatical from my company last week, to start 6 January 2025. With a little bit of Christmas leave, that should make my last day 20 December. Fingers crossed that it will be granted.

And that should be me. I don’t intend to ever return. Although it may yet be that they make me see out my notice period when I quit at the end of the sabbatical — we’ll see. I mean, they can take the horse to water but they can’t make it attend in the office and actually go to meetings.

It suddenly all feels very real.

 

[Silas Loom]

Excitingly, I requested a sabbatical from my company last week, to start 6 January 2025. With a little bit of Christmas leave, that should make my last day 20 December. Fingers crossed that it will be granted.

And that should be me. I don’t intend to ever return. Although it may yet be that they make me see out my notice period when I quit at the end of the sabbatical — we’ll see. I mean, they can take the horse to water but they can’t make it attend in the office and actually go to meetings.

It suddenly all feels very real.

Congrats. Does the Crimson Permanent offer paid sabbaticals, then?

 

[Sue]

Wow, kabbes! What are you going to do with your 'sabbatical'????

 

[kabbes]

Congrats. Does the Crimson Permanent offer paid sabbaticals, then?

No, but it takes me over the payment point for the 2024 bonus year. So the difference between leaving at the end of 2024 and taking a sabbatical until April 2025 is… large

 

[kabbes]

Wow, kabbes! What are you going to do with your 'sabbatical'????

I’m starting a PhD in September so I’m going to be plenty busy!