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

Jack_green said:
Ok if you have an account with Lloyds and an account with Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Scottish Widows and a few others.
This is what I mean by related, these are all related to one another, yet look separate.

Your combined money is over 85k.
You lose anything over 85k, the fsfc protection only covers this amount.

If the does happen don't expect to get your 85k In a year or so, it could take 10 years or more (this depends on the level of accumulated industry's lose, if the lose is to big they too can go bust).
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correct when it comes to bank accounts, not correct when it comes to pensions... FSCS covers 100% of pensions in the case of bank meltdowns.
www.fscs.org.uk

Pensions

You could be entitled to compensation if your pension provider fails or if you have been mis-sold a pension. Read our pension advice and see if we can help.
www.fscs.org.uk
 
Jack_green said:
Ok if you have an account with Lloyds and an account with Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Scottish Widows and a few others.
This is what I mean by related.

Your combined money is over 85k.
You lose anything over 85k, the fsfc protection only covers this amount.

If the does happen don't expect to get your 85k In a year or so, it could take 10 years or more (this depends on the level of accumulated industry's lose, if the lose is to big they too can go bust).
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FSCS, not fsfc.
You are covered up to 85K on deposits yes, per bank/banking group.
Pensions are generally covered with no upper limit, but if they were a SIPP operator then there can be limits of 85K that apply. Pensions are the most complex products that FSCS cover. They have a pension checker tool on their website to see if yours would be covered.
 
It wouldn't make pensions worthwhile if 85k was limit really.

It I had 85k in a bank account though that would be daft! Missed opportunity for investment.
 
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Freefaller said:
I'd love to put 60k in. But I also want to have some money for holidays and living in the here and now. Good advice though if you can afford it.
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I don't put as much in as I could. No way I'm sacrificing the "good years" to the extent of FIRE type stuff when I probably won't be able to do the things I love when I'm older.
 
413x said:
I don't put as much in as I could. No way I'm sacrificing the "good years" to the extent of FIRE type stuff when I probably won't be able to do the things I love when I'm older.
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100% I'm taking advantage of being on a reasonable salary to put as much as I can. As my next role I will likely step down in salary for a bit of an easier life.
 
Freefaller said:
100% I'm taking advantage of being on a reasonable salary to put as much as I can. As my next role I will likely step down in salary for a bit of an easier life.
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For me I can't see retirement being fun. Well, I'll need to work well into it.
Ideally I'd cut down days or something.
I certainly don't want to retire early to live on a shoe string.


From what I've seen most normal people's retirement (ie average) is pretty lonely, grim and dull. Just pottering around house etc.
I'd rather work longer but afford to do things like holidays etc.

Its hard to visualise the future. Both personally and big picture. I mean, air travel could be banned/majorly taxed if climate change gets really bad. Or world could go to ****. Or could get a terminal disease.


So yeah I've made the decision to retire later (if ever) and do more stuff along the way.


Scrimping and saving now, to retire early... And then scrimp and save does not appeal to me.

If I was on 100k it might be different. But on my good but not mega salary there's no way I'd retire early AND have a full retirement
 
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From someone rapidly approaching 60, the idea of pottering around a smaller house with a little flower garden and a vegetable patch sounds bloody good to me.

Currently seeing which of my private/works 4-5 pension pots can be amalgamated into Euro based funds so that I don’t get bent over by exchange rate fluctuations every month. I have no expectation of my state pension being able to buy more than a daily baguette if HMG ever pays out.
 
I think the main thing is how people want to live their lives.
For me, I party hard in my teens and 20s..
started saving in my 30s..
asset building in my 40s...

I don't mind not going on holiday a year or two now to be able to put more money a side for future me.. had a lovely two weeks off in Greece only to come back to two weeks of backlog work.. so... :/

I plan to retire early (as soon possible) and do a lot of travelling :)
 
Yeah everyone is different. I'm planning for the future but very much living for the now. I plan on doing NED sort of roles as I approach retirement. Keep a bit of cash coming in but also share my experience and help people succeed.
 
slinxy said:
I think the main thing is how people want to live their lives.
For me, I party hard in my teens and 20s..
started saving in my 30s..
asset building in my 40s...

I don't mind not going on holiday a year or two now to be able to put more money a side for future me.. had a lovely two weeks off in Greece only to come back to two weeks of backlog work.. so... :/

I plan to retire early (as soon possible) and do a lot of travelling :)
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I'd need too much money to travel in retirement. Ie.. My wage won't be enough to retire and do that stuff.

My next holiday is 4k. There's no way if I retired early I could earn enough to pay for stuff like that and retire.
 
413x said:
I'd need too much money to travel in retirement. Ie.. My wage won't be enough to retire and do that stuff.

My next holiday is 4k. There's no way if I retired early I could earn enough to pay for stuff like that and retire.
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It depends on how you want to travel/holiday...
If you staying in 5* hotels, flying back to the uk after each stay etc... then it's going to cost loads..
if you boarder hopping, travelling light.. it only cost 15 euros for a boat trip between Greece and Turkey.

You can look at renting your home out while you are away, stay away form the the hookers and gucci belt stores...
also what people don't often factor in is the cost of living in the uk.. no need to car insurance or the weekly shop... I think my weekly shop is 80 pounds alone, a meal in a normal place in europe is about 20 eurros inc tip.
 
slinxy said:
It depends on how you want to travel/holiday...
If you staying in 5* hotels, flying back to the uk after each stay etc... then it's going to cost loads..
if you boarder hopping, travelling light.. it only cost 15 euros for a boat trip between Greece and Turkey.

You can look at renting your home out while you are away, stay away form the the hookers and gucci belt stores...
also what people don't often factor in is the cost of living in the uk.. no need to car insurance or the weekly shop... I think my weekly shop is 80 pounds alone, a meal in a normal place in europe is about 20 eurros inc tip.
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At that point might as well retire abroad. That is another option.
Sell up and live like a king in a much cheaper country where it's warm. Half a million from. Selling a house + pension etc could go a long way in a lot of places.
 
413x said:
At that point might as well retire abroad. That is another option.
Sell up and live like a king in a much cheaper country where it's warm. Half a million from. Selling a house + pension etc could go a long way in a lot of places.
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Well that's what a lot of people used to do... I see no issues living aboard... but BREXIT huh...
 
ChrisD. said:
Not really, you get a bit of info in their annual summary but everything appears to be smoke and mirrors. I've never actually tried calling them though.

Apparently their fund fees are negotiated with your employer so it's worth ringing them to see what they are, and if necessary transfer them out to your own supplier. It's something on my list to do.
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Ahh, I figured as much. I can kind of work it out by looking at the employer paid amount and then comparing it against the shown current valuation but like you say it seems a bit smoke and mirrors compared to the other providers.

We're on a 0.33% management fee deal and I moved my fund to the aggressive one but yeah I think I could do with researching moving it elsewhere as well. I just feel my other ones do better.
 
slinxy said:
Well that's what a lot of people used to do... I see no issues living aboard... but BREXIT huh...
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Yeah. Mainly older people taking opportunities from the young.

Wish more of the younger generation voted so we could have kept all those benefits
 
I found out that claiming back owed tax on pension contributions has a back date limit of 4 tax years. I think I may have lost money on that one as I had a previous job where I think I should have been doing self assessments to reclaim some. Again, just didn't know about this stuff at the time.

I think advice about pensions from employers (for me) has generally been poor. Anytime a decision has been required by me where they move provider or the type of fund etc, my workplaces have done sort of pension sessions to try to "help" with it all. However, every time anyone asks a question - even if you go HR/finance dept. individually - results in the standard response of "we cannot give you financial advice" and that you need to seek that out yourself.

I think it would be good if financial education were to be taught now at a time when it's people's job to learn...at school.
 
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