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michael 5:54 Sun Mar 26
Taking your pension at 55 advice please.

Been at the same company for 35 years.Manual job,back and hips are in poor shape.55 now may be able to take a small lump sum to take off the mortgage.And a pension that would enable me to go to a 4day week.Spoken to a couple of financial advisors,all they have done is tried to flog me something.Any advice welcome also the usual abuse I’ll take.

oioi 6:06 Sun Mar 26
Re: Taking your pension at 55 advice please.

Financial advisers always try to flog you something. You can sort it yourself. Your pension fund will have a website that will explain the 3 or 4 options available to you. Just pick the one that suits you. Don't part with any cash for advice.

Mike Oxsaw 6:10 Sun Mar 26
Re: Taking your pension at 55 advice please.

Circumstances differ but I took mine at 55.

Lump sum (which I pissed up the wall) and an annuity that covers my living expenses.

Kept working until I qualified for my state pension at 67.

What I didn't need I squirrelled away from the prying eyes who seem really keen to tell me on what I should spend my money rather than save it for things I wanted.

oioi 6:16 Sun Mar 26
Re: Taking your pension at 55 advice please.

BTW

If you take a lump sum and keep working be careful not to move into a higher tax bracket. Might be better to take it in instalments.

Northern Sold 6:17 Sun Mar 26
Re: Taking your pension at 55 advice please.

Me and Mrs Soldo going through the same thing at the mo... myself with a Civil service one that I can take early with no pens and the missus with 2 pensions from her old company when she worked in the City... we decided with hers to do a Drawdown... we stayed with same company (Aviva) for ease... not a lot between the companies too be honest... one thing we never knew was that her first pension we managed to get 38% tax free lump sum rather than the usual 25%... bit of a piecemeal exercise sending off all the P60's but worth it... the second newer pension was the usual 25% tax free lump sum... the remaining money will be moved into a drawdown account... and used if and when...

Northern Sold 6:21 Sun Mar 26
Re: Taking your pension at 55 advice please.

Quite a few of my mates (that have hit 55) and have been able to get their old company pensions etc all seem to have used Pensionbee...

Mike Oxsaw 6:25 Sun Mar 26
Re: Taking your pension at 55 advice please.

oioi 6:16 Sun Mar 26

Good point. I should have made it clear that, apart from 5 months work in the UK since I took the pension/annuity, all my income was earned abroad.

Sounds like the O/P wants to keep working in the UK, so my advice should probably be filed under "Teapot, Chocolate", for now.

Jasnik 6:28 Sun Mar 26
Re: Taking your pension at 55 advice please.

I can;'t take mine at 55 as Id have to pay a hefty tax in US.

So leaving it where it is, then think about it again when nearer 60!.

But I am sure some of these companies are taking more then it is making so probably end up with nothing.

BRANDED 6:31 Sun Mar 26
Re: Taking your pension at 55 advice please.

I would say that you should decide what kind of life you would like to have and what you need to live on.
What do you need the lump sum for?
How much of a regular pension income do you need?

Once you’ve worked that out do the hard maths.

lab 6:36 Sun Mar 26
Re: Taking your pension at 55 advice please.

Spend your money and have fun . There’s no pockets in a shroud.

Nurse Ratched 6:42 Sun Mar 26
Re: Taking your pension at 55 advice please.

Thanks for starting this thread, Michael. There's probably quite a few of us at this stage in life, wanting advice.

oioi 6:46 Sun Mar 26
Re: Taking your pension at 55 advice please.

Tricky part is estimating at what age you expect to die. I've budgeted to 90. After that I'm broke but guess that I won't need much, anyway the kids can put their hands in their pockets if I need a few bob.

charleyfarley 8:24 Sun Mar 26
Re: Taking your pension at 55 advice please.

So many things to consider took early retirement at 50 because the offer was very good at the time
It meant I had to wait for 5 years before I could get any money got a few jobs in between and then at 55 got a dirty great lump sum and an index linked pension
What drove me to take it even though I wasn’t ready to, was I didn’t feel the offer would be bettered in the future and without being morbid have known people to wait and then get very little time to enjoy it
Good luck

Gary Strodders shank 8:40 Sun Mar 26
Re: Taking your pension at 55 advice please.

I took a lump from my old P&O pension when I hit 55 last year and now get around £300 a month which makes life a bit easier.
I wasn't intending to unlock it but started to look into it over the lockdowns and decided I might as well do it.

Yorkammer 8:56 Sun Mar 26
Re: Taking your pension at 55 advice please.

Another consideration is inheritance tax. If there's any left over at the end and you have enough assets to attract inheritance tax, what's left in pension funds is not taxed. So if you had £100K left in savings your estate would pay £40K tax leaving £60K for your nearest and dearest. If you left £100K in a pension fund they would get the full amount. Obviously rules could change by the time you snuff it.

Kaiser Zoso 9:07 Sun Mar 26
Re: Taking your pension at 55 advice please.

If there is any way you can afford to reduce or eliminate work, take it

Bungo 9:21 Sun Mar 26
Re: Taking your pension at 55 advice please.

I was lucky and managed to find a financial chap who is both honest and extremely knowledgeable. Before Putin sent the world tits up financially, he achieved an average growth of 17% p.a on my stuff for the previous 5 years.

Finding a decent one would appear to be the trick. Mine was via a personal recommendation but beyond that I wouldn't claim to know how to sort the wheat from the chaff.

Good luck!

David L 9:26 Sun Mar 26
Re: Taking your pension at 55 advice please.

Yorkammer 8.56 - wait until fucking Labour get in....

Nurse Ratched 9:42 Sun Mar 26
Re: Taking your pension at 55 advice please.

Bungo

Do you mean you let 'your bloke' invest your pension, or your savings?

Helmut Shown 9:47 Sun Mar 26
Re: Taking your pension at 55 advice please.

I was told by a senior manager that "I had the wrong mind set as I had joined the company before 1970" even though he had never met me before. It was more like that my pension would have been to expensive for the company if it went to full term. So I took redundancy at 48 and lived on my lump sum I got for my redundancy for a few months until I got another job in telecomms. I got a much better wage there plus my pension at 50. I went on some decent holidays and never looked back.

Bungo 10:02 Sun Mar 26
Re: Taking your pension at 55 advice please.

Nurse Ratched 9:42 Sun Mar 26

Several consolidated pension pots, and some savings.

He makes suggestions/recommendations now and then, some of which I understand. I then say 'yes' and it seems to have worked well so far.

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