Jump to content

And then there was none.


Recommended Posts

34 minutes ago, SteamyTea said:

I have suggested that to keep things readable, we merge all the crowd/P2P/F2F money lending post together as I can't follow it all.

Nick, I've posted that they stay seperate as there will no doubt be a lot of information sewn into each as time goes by. For future searches and readers it's imperative that they stay focussed on the title discipline so they must stay apart. Otherwise we will have one monster thread which requires an inordinate amount of sieving to get the required subject matter. 

As each subject is quite different in many ways, some small, others more significant, we shouldn't merge as it will likely cause confusion and may lead to disinterest in the subject. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

I just thought I would resurrect this old thread to say finances have unlocked.

 

I am still awaiting the small nest egg I was anticipating when I started this thread. That is still locked up in legal and technical bureaucracy and the sheer inefficiency and ineptitude  of the solicitors dealing with that astounds me. I get the feeling a conclusion to that is still months away, and it pains me to think of the fees they will be charging for the "service" (sic) they have given.

 

Anyway the unlocking comes from the fact a few days ago I attained the magic age of 55.  That is the age you can unlock and start doing things with your pension money. So on my birthday I arranged for one small pension fund (the only defined contribution fund I have) to be transferred to a flexible drawdown account and I have taken the tax free 25% lump sum from that.  The rest remains in my drawdown account to be drawn later as I need it, but will be taxable as income should I need to draw on it.  That was not a particularly straightforward process as the provider the fund was with did not offer what I wanted so I had to first transfer it to a different provider, a process I started in January to ensure everything was in place to action it on my birthday.

 

I always thought this was going to be the last source of funding to be unlocked and it still irks me that I had to wait until a specific birthday to access my own money.

 

Ar least now we can start spending again (actually we started spending in February trusting nothing would go wrong and we would have the funds to settle the bills later this month)

  • Like 10
  • Thanks 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, ProDave said:

I always thought this was going to be the last source of funding to be unlocked and it still irks me that I had to wait until a specific birthday to access my own money.

 

 

Great news! I guess there has to be a minimum age you can draw from your pension otherwise people might draw from it in their 20s. It increased to 55 (from 50) in 2010. And at least you can now put your money in a drawdown pot because before 2015 you would have been forced to buy an annuity (or leave it as a defined benefit pension). 

 

 

Edited by newhome
Link to comment
Share on other sites

As we're pretty close to the end of the tax year, have a look and see if you have much leeway left in your basic rate tax band.  If you have, you could draw out enough 'income' from the drawdown to use up that tax rate.  If your earnings are predictable or you're able to manage them, you could then draw out some more as soon as you get past 5th April, again at basic rate tax.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, newhome said:

 

Great news! I guess there has to be a minimum age you can draw from your pension otherwise people might draw from it in their 20s. It increased to 55 (from 50) in 2010. And at least you can now put your money in a drawdown post because before 2015 you would have been forced to buy an annuity (or leave it as a defined benefit pension). 

 

 

An annuity hasn't been compulsory for a long time - drawdown has been available since about 1998, it's just that it was rather more expensive back in those days.  You did still have to buy an annuity after age 75 up until the mid 2000s, but pensions have been more flexible than the mass providers would have you believe for some time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am hoping I can hold off drawing what is left for a few years.  I plan to retire at 60 which is when my largest DB pension starts to pay.  If I stop work then, I will be able to draw most of what's left effectively tax free. In other words I plan to use this to fill the gap between retiring at 60, and reaching state pension age (at which point I will have plenty)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, ProDave said:

I am hoping I can hold off drawing what is left for a few years.  I plan to retire at 60 which is when my largest DB pension starts to pay.  If I stop work then, I will be able to draw most of what's left effectively tax free. In other words I plan to use this to fill the gap between retiring at 60, and reaching state pension age (at which point I will have plenty)

 

Seems like a good plan. I intend to do something similar when I get to 55. I just hope the state pension is still around when we need it to top up at that stage :ph34r:

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

48 minutes ago, ProDave said:

I am hoping I can hold off drawing what is left for a few years.  I plan to retire at 60 which is when my largest DB pension starts to pay.  If I stop work then, I will be able to draw most of what's left effectively tax free. In other words I plan to use this to fill the gap between retiring at 60, and reaching state pension age (at which point I will have plenty)

 

Thats exactly what I did, I too hope the state pension is still around then ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...