Pension fund performance - do you monitor yours, how is it doing, do you actively change it?

SheepBeast said:
Does anyone have an tips about whether or not to combine old pensions into one?
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I consolidate all pensions from previous companies into my sipp.
I like that because it's easy to manage, more investment choice, lower fees, and doesn't depend on some random pension company I didn't even want to use.
Some pensions have a protected pension age which you lose if you move it, so check first.
 
This, if true will hit me badly:

Your work pension may be affected​

A third of private sector employees and a tenth of public sector workers use a salary sacrifice scheme for their pension savings.

These workers give up a portion of their salary in return for their employer paying the equivalent amount into their pension. The benefit to both employer and employee is that they make savings in national insurance.

A £2,000-a-year cap on the amount that can be put into pensions through this salary sacrifice arrangement will be in place from April 2029. More can be put in, but it will be taxed.

Employees would still get income tax relief on their pension contributions, external, but some argue the move will reduce pension saving incentives.
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www.bbc.co.uk

Isas, cars and pensions: How the Budget affects you

The Budget delivered by Chancellor Rachel Reeves will affect you and your finances. Here's how.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

Thou it's three years away and that's plenty of time to re-negotiate a new payment scheme or get a different job that will offer shares rather than cash as payment.

Hopefully it's just a load of rubblish or it get's dustballed..
 
slinxy said:
Thou it's three years away and that's plenty of time to re-negotiate a new payment scheme or get a different job that will offer shares rather than cash as payment.
Hopefully it's just a load of rubbish or it get's dustballed..
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It's written differently on different sites.
I think the correct one is: National Insurance will be paid on SS contributions over 2k.
 
My employer doesn't pass on the NI savings anyway, so as long as they don't make their matching less generous it shouldn't be too bad. I'll have to pay an extra 2% on most of the contributions. Pretty stupid, though - policy should be used to encourage desired behaviours.
 
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pallys said:
It affects the higher rates the same I think because higher rate payers also fall in and surpass the basic rate.
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Do you mean as in if they salary sacrifice to the point where they don't pay higher rate tax? Surely though, it's a comparison of currently 2% NI savings at higher rate vs 8% NI savings at basic rate.
 
If it’s only NI tax on contributions, I need to do the maths but it may work out better to put 2k into a company pension, then the additional amount into a SIPP… claim the additional taxes back and put the returns into a stocks and shares ISA. That way the money isn’t locked away till the official retirement age.

Just got to factor in the cost of running a separate SIPP and ISA vs the discount you get from fees on a pension.

I can see this getting rolled back , just before the election.
 
Well if you don't salary sacrifice you pay NI on it anyway, so there's no benefit to changing behaviour. You'll be paying the NI and can't avoid it. The point of the change was it equalises those who could use salary sacrifice and those who couldn't because their company didn't offer it.

Really mad at how the news is reporting this change. They're all spreading misinformation. Most people will not understand the change properly and will take incorrect actions because of it.
 
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Basic rate taxpayers are unlikely to salary sacrifice. If it is used as a tax avoidance scheme by the few then it would attract the eagle eye of a Labour Chancellor eager for a few quid from a source unlikely to cause much left wing sympathy or loss of voters.
 
Hagar said:
Basic rate taxpayers are unlikely to salary sacrifice.
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That's not true, loads of employers use salary sacrifice pension schemes. Probably more likely to be used in larger companies rather than small ones though.

Someone on average wage contributing 5% won't be affected by this, but we all know 5% isn't anywhere near enough to save for retirement, so it will effect those who have realized this and are putting more away.
 
Yeah quite a lot of companies use salary sacrifice as it just makes sense to. We're a small company and we use it as it saves the employees and employers money (though not for much longer of course)
 
If a company has a large number of a higher and advance salary earners, it’s probably better for the government for them to use salary sacrifice rather than generating all that paperwork and tax returns for them to use a SIPP.
 
slinxy said:
Would be interested on how you are planning to pot up your retirement funds. e.g. 1 year in to savers 2 years in to Cash ISA etc... I'm no where near retirement myself and I'm just canvassing ideas.
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Planning to cover the 5-6 year until State Pension age by drawing slowly from ISAs (have around 80k available) and topping up to the max 16k tax free draw down limit. The aim being to not pay tax at all during that period... Nothing complicated or that requires paying somebody 1% a year to manage for me!
 
This is probably a stupid question.
But when you look at your pension and it says return +38% does that include money you have since put in or is it purely interest?
 
robj20 said:
This is probably a stupid question.
But when you look at your pension and it says return +38% does that include money you have since put in or is it purely interest?
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What the money you or your company have put in has grown by.

Eg you and your employer have put in 1000 and you now have 1380, that’s 38%
 
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