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

[slinxy]

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.

No one teaches you this stuff.... it's how they keep the poor - poor...
By all means, I was taught how to do a budgets, balance sheets etc, heck I could programme an application to do it while at collegue and that's what a lot of finance departments know to that level or a higher level but no one told me about pensions, investments, isa etc.

If they teach financial intelligence, politics and eithics at school, a lot of political parties would be in trouble.

financial advise is just that... advise, it takes someone with experince to give suitable advise to someoneone. There's forecast and backdating software now a days that can show you how your "plan" may fair in the future or would have worked in the past.

no matter what company I've worked for, no one has sat me down and explained the pension scheme or how to make the most of it. You ask around and most of the people that's in it themselves don't know. They are just going for the "we are in the same boat" mentally if that person is ok.. then I will be...

Legally a lot of people that work in finance selector won't... it's like a lawer giving out free legal advise, they can get sued if a legal agreement is not in place covering them from such actions.

 

[413x]

No one teaches you this stuff.... it's how they keep the poor - poor...
By all means, I was taught how to do a budgets, balance sheets etc, heck I could programme an application to do it while at collegue and that's what a lot of finance departments know to that level or a higher level but no one told me about pensions, investments, isa etc.

If they teach financial intelligence, politics and eithics at school, a lot of political parties would be in trouble.

financial advise is just that... advise, it takes someone with experince to give suitable advise to someoneone. There's forecast and backdating software now a days that can show you how your "plan" may fair in the future or would have worked in the past.

no matter what company I've worked for, no one has sat me down and explained the pension scheme or how to make the most of it. You ask around and most of the people that's in it themselves don't know. They are just going for the "we are in the same boat" mentally if that person is ok.. then I will be...

Legally a lot of people that work in finance selector won't... it's like a lawer giving out free legal advise, they can get sued if a legal agreement is not in place covering them from such actions.

I go on and on about it.
Can't understand why with all the crap you get taught at school there couldn't be time devoted to personal finance.

It would be best at gcse/6th form.

But there's nothing more universally useful in life than this.

 

[moon man]

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.

My daughters the same not a right wad like me she did a month in NZ over Xmas and done longer in south America ect.
I do think you would absolutely love the Camino though, pretty life changing, cost me £1200 Inc spend and travel for the best part of 2 months (walk took 33 days iirc)

 

[jaybee]

This week I've tracked down 4 different old pots. 1 with legal and general, and 3 with Standard life.

The standard life ones all with the same employment period look like this:
1: DC type pension flexible retirement plan spanning 2004 - 2012
2: DC type pension flexible retirement plan spanning 2012 - 2013
3: "Contracted In Money Purchase" - This one just has one single transaction in 2007 that says "transfer payments" and £600.

Any ideas what the number 3 one is above and how it came about?

I remember the company changing the pension scheme one time, probably around 2007. The pot 2 is because the company rebranded under a different name and we came under a European head office instead of UK.

 

[booyaka]

This week I've tracked down 4 different old pots. 1 with legal and general, and 3 with Standard life.

The standard life ones all with the same employment period look like this:
1: DC type pension flexible retirement plan spanning 2004 - 2012
2: DC type pension flexible retirement plan spanning 2012 - 2013
3: "Contracted In Money Purchase" - This one just has one single transaction in 2007 that says "transfer payments" and £600.

Any ideas what the number 3 one is above and how it came about?

I remember the company changing the pension scheme one time, probably around 2007. The pot 2 is because the company rebranded under a different name and we came under a European head office instead of UK.

If I was stabbing in the dark - It would have been a contracted out payment of NIC contributions, maybe just one year. Since Contracting Out disappeared in 2011 from memory, they had to be renamed the plans as CIMP's not COMP's

Lots of schemes around that time were contracted out schemes and Std Life used to separate the NIC contribution and the normal employer/employee contributions into 2 separate plans as historically you couldn't use your Contracted Out money to get tax free cash, it was only income/pension. That's all gone now so effective In/Out money is all the same now.

 

[EvilRob]

I put most of my wages into my pension, I then keep a portion in cash and shares.

You can only put 60k but you can't go below your tax free allowance. £72570 is the limit, what you can earn if you want to survive on tax free wage allowance.

It is very important not to go over 84k, if you do you need to look for another provider that is not linked and port over the cash.
Shares are normally returned but I still don't trust the system.

If you place 60k then you should open up new accounts with unrelated providers.

Very interesting approach. Would you mind walking through your current age, retirement age and investment->retirement income plan?

 

[413x]

I believe my total pension pot is only... 70k..I'm 38... RiP retirement!
I think I've found them all.


Oh. Just an FYI.
I forgot about a big one.. A 44k one. And one of the details was "beneficiaries" and it was listed as my ex!

Obviously I set it up at the time, didn't think much of it.. Never changed it.

Make sure you check this!

 

[ddoubleep]

RTFT

Tax on your private pension contributions

Tax you pay and tax relief you get on contributions to your private pension - annual allowance, lifetime allowance, apply for individual protection

www.gov.uk

"

Claiming tax relief yourself​

In some cases, you need to claim tax relief on pension contributions yourself. You’ll need to make a claim if:

• "

This was good to know as only recently found out that any workplace pension contributions that were relief at source can be added to the tax return including the 20% relief to further get you under the 40% threshold thus leaving any further amount to get you under going into a SIPP.

Example or watching this

 

[Vanquish-Storm]

I do check mine from time to time and shed a little tear - not sure why I check as I wont be retiring any time soon!

It is interesting to see how the money (or lack of it) is going though

 

[NotAGolf]

I believe my total pension pot is only... 70k..I'm 38... RiP retirement!
I think I've found them all

I'd estimate that is better than a decent chunk of the population at that age.

Oh. Just an FYI.
I forgot about a big one.. A 44k one. And one of the details was "beneficiaries" and it was listed as my ex!

 

[413x]

I'd estimate that is better than a decent chunk of the population at that age.

Looks like the average UK pension pot at retirement is 70k!

Thats shocking.

With home ownership falling, pension age increasing, future is going to be really grim for many.
I guess if you can work you'll just have to.
And if you can't? I guess it's a life in benefits. Can't imagine what the benefits Bill is going to end up at.

I'm guessing not good!

 

[Moley]

I believe my total pension pot is only... 70k..I'm 38... RiP retirement!
I think I've found them all.


Oh. Just an FYI.
I forgot about a big one.. A 44k one. And one of the details was "beneficiaries" and it was listed as my ex!

Obviously I set it up at the time, didn't think much of it.. Never changed it.

Make sure you check this!

You have 30 years to grow that pot. If you don't add to it yourself but invest in something that gets you 6% annualised growth (global index funds) it'll be circa £400k when you're 68.

 

[danlightbulb]

I believe my total pension pot is only... 70k..I'm 38... RiP retirement!
I think I've found them all.


Oh. Just an FYI.
I forgot about a big one.. A 44k one. And one of the details was "beneficiaries" and it was listed as my ex!

Obviously I set it up at the time, didn't think much of it.. Never changed it.

Make sure you check this!

You're ok.

I was 40 when I reconfigured my pension funds in 2020 and I had around £80k then. Upped my contributions substantially since then and being in better funds I now have £140k and still probably 20 - 25 years left contributing.

The bigger your pot gets the more it grows. Most of the growth is back ended which is why market performance just before retirement matters so much.

Just got to pay in as much as you can (I'm 12% at the moment with my employer putting 6%), and hope the funds perform well. With a good wind it's possible for me to reach a million. Probably won't happen but it could.

 

[413x]

I'm in process of moving stuff out of garbage funds and into good ones.
Fortunately I checked the 40k one and it's done really well. But it's not a typical aviva/lgen job.
The others are all quite small. So although they've been languishing it's not hurt too much. I think I've found 7 individual pots.

Tbh I've only really been able to contribute well since buying house. As that's when salary increased enough too.
I've just started putting in 7 (5 matched).

As said. I don't want to compromise my good years too much. So I'm not going crazy.


The house will be paid off too. And don't need to worry about leaving anything when I go. So hopefully I can get on track without missing out on the now.

 

[EvilRob]

As said. I don't want to compromise my good years too much. So I'm not going crazy.

Is upping pension contributions a bit really going to lead to a significant compromise though?
One tactic I used was upping my % contribution with part of each pay rise. It didn't "feel like" I was giving up anything then compared to my previous income and I still got some extra take home.

 

[OldKitMan]

You're ok.

I was 40 when I reconfigured my pension funds in 2020 and I had around £80k then. Upped my contributions substantially since then and being in better funds I now have £140k and still probably 20 - 25 years left contributing.

The bigger your pot gets the more it grows. Most of the growth is back ended which is why market performance just before retirement matters so much.

Just got to pay in as much as you can (I'm 12% at the moment with my employer putting 6%), and hope the funds perform well. With a good wind it's possible for me to reach a million. Probably won't happen but it could.

I'm a few years older than you and was on target to hit 1m when I was 62, been doing some numbers recently and think I could retire quite well at 59 with an estimated 784k.

FWIW my pot was £140k in 2020 and has grown by £100k since then 20-21 was a v good year, 21-22 meh, 22-23 terrible, 23-24 going very well.

I seem to have reached the point where the increase in value by growth is bigger than my contributions which is pleasing.

 

[413x]

Is upping pension contributions a bit really going to lead to a significant compromise though?
One tactic I used was upping my % contribution with part of each pay rise. It didn't "feel like" I was giving up anything then compared to my previous income and I still got some extra take home.

Its a fine balance.
For me I need to put some in an isa for access to next house/unforseen emergencies etc etc.
Then I need a chunk for living life
And a chunk for pension.

I'm still not used to my current salary so finding a balance is tricky.

I've increased my pension 2pc to. 7.

This is my biggest spend year since buying house so I'm reluctant to put too much in at the moment.

 

[rodders]

I've just chucked £10k into my pension to being me down to £50k taxable gross.

I've upped my contribution to 8% as well.

See how it goes.

 

[413x]

I've just chucked £10k into my pension to being me down to £50k taxable gross.

I've upped my contribution to 8% as well.

See how it goes.

I'm having a mental fight about how much of that over 50k chunk to put into my pension.

Not all of it.. But that 40pc hit is hard to swallow.

 

[rodders]

I'm having a mental fight about how much of that over 50k chunk to put into my pension.

Not all of it.. But that 40pc hit is hard to swallow.

I also have child benefit to think of too.
And as mine was all over time money, I wasn't too keen loosing 40pc and paying back all the child benefit, which would have been another £2k.

If you don't need the money, put it all in. With all the tax relief, it's a good money maker.

I used to just take the money and pay back the child benefit, but when you see how much you actually get, it kinda makes you feel a bit sick!