Should I worry re pension

[thisisasurvivor]

Hello all

Would love your feedback on my finances and any ideas

I have my house paid for thankfully

Got 60k of outstanding loans that I'm planning on paying for over the next few years

I am self employed and no pension

I'm 42 and I'm starting to think I will just need to keep working and not retire

I love my job thankfully and get a decent wage from two days work per week

I have not looked into any private pensions etc
Should I?

Also I have two girls aged 4 and 6 so will need to try to help them with uni etc hence why I see myself working beyond 70

Any ideas please

(Grew up poor and realise just how lucky I am to have NO mortgage )

Have you paid a stamp to get the state pension; if yes will this be enough to live on once you are no longer working, if no what are you going to live on? You need to speak to an independent financial advisor to decide how best to pay off your debt, taking out a private pension or how to invest money to get a return for enough to live on.

Have you for your income tax set aside ?

Op can have NI contributions accrued if she is raising children under the age of 12.

Financial advisers do not provide advice on debt repayments. They are essentially sales people who, for a one-off fee (and in many cases an ongoing annual fee), will sell you financial products. The products they sell will very rarely beat the index over the longer term.
This is why it is important to do your own research, even if it is just to assess whether an IFA is actually required, and if they can bring added value.

@cupofstrongtea financial advisors can and do offer advise on debt control and yes they do primarily sell financial products but as the OP appears not to know the best way forward speaking to a FA may be a good start; you don't have to go with what they recommend.

As with state pension, yes you are right ni contributions are topped up but only if you claim child benefit and you need 35 years contributions to get full pension.

My worry if I was the OP would be, where would my income be coming from if I was not working or retired especially if the debt hasn't been cleared.

Fabulous

So so helpful thank you

Yes absolutely agree

Great suggestion

You guys are the best

I have no clue clearly

I need to clear all the debt
Up my hours

Then focus on the best pension going forward

Did you really need a thread to figure this out? 🤔

@thisisasurvivor It's not great that you have no pension provision BUT you own a home outright at age 42 which does somewhat offset this.

But you do now need to start a pension.

Pay in what you can afford, which should hopefully be a fairly decent amount as you have no rent / mortgage costs.

The sooner you start paying in, the sooner it will start to benefit from compounding. Remember you will also benefit from tax relief, which could be very beneficial to you as it sounds like you are a higher rate tax payer.

Sounds like you would benefit from a financial plan, feel free to direct message me if you'd like any help.

You're 42. Start the pension. If you start in a few years you have a massive amount to make up. To get £300k in 25 years is probably £500 a month. Starting in 5 years means maybe £750 a month.

Or as someone else suggested work for the NHS.

Note the poster who said don't worry they didn't have a pension till they were late 40s had an NHS one - they are way better than private ones.

You can get the debt consolidated into a mortgage type rate in a few days.

You should be doing all three in parallel, not saying I'll increase my hours, then I'll clear the debt, then I'll sort the pension.

In regards to pensions you can find a SIPP provider and choose tracker funds that cover different markets. They are often cheaper than choosing funds that use a fund manager.

However as other posters have pointed out you would be far better getting employed by the NHS or another employer even if it is only part-time on your other 3 days a week, then join their pension scheme. You can then pay in additional voluntary contributions.

Hmmm @Sparrowball funny enough yes

So maybe don't comment??

Or can I help you further?? lol 😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😘😧

Start a pension asap. The longer the money gets to grow the better. If you worked one extra day a week and banked that in a pension, plus tax relief within twenty years you will have a lump that can make a real difference to your retirement. The key is to do it now, as growth is key and markets fluctuate. Don’t obsess on the value until nearer the time that you need to access it and if you can put more in as time goes by all the better. Once you’ve cleared your loans maybe you can use that money too. Good luck 🤞🏼

Great

Will take a look now

Thank you

I am on it

Sort of been unsure for so long now

Do not mortgage your home to pay off your loan.

I'm have increased my hours now

So doing 5 days for the next year with the hope I can get rid of the loan

Tackle credit cards first :(

You have all helped so much

Thank you one last question

I used to work in a LA for 7 years

Got a letter today re my pension starting in 2050

It says 5600 per annum
So that's the amount I will get from 2050 per year?

Seems like a lot to me

I was there for only 7 years full time

Just checking !!!!

Silly question I know 🤦🏼‍♀️🤦🏼‍♀️

You have time op and it’s great that you already have a defined benefit pension. You need to go online and check you will get your full state pension when the time comes. Clear debt, build some savings for 3-6 months and put a monthly budget together to manage spending. Look into setting up junior stocks and shares isas for your kids now as a savings pot for their future. Get onto the money board here as there is some great advice there.

Sounds about right. You accrue one 49th of your salary for every year worked in the local gov scheme so 7 years at £38k would yield a pension of £5,500 a year-ish.

It's index linked btw - so your salary then would have been around the equivalent of £38k now if that makes sense.

So within 2 days you went from working 2 days a week to 5. Just like that. Are you still earning £500 per day ?

Also; I noticed that you were very good at replying to posts with "thanks guys" and "taking a note of that" but hardly replied to posters asking for information. Having £75k of non-mortgage debt is huge & must be on quite high interest rates. But you seemed to have skipped that....🤔.

As a financial adviser I'd say leave the pension for now (especially as you seemed to have now found a DB scheme giving you £5,600 pa.....for just 7 years work. Even a very good 1/60th scheme would have meant you would have been on £45k pa during that time.

One last thing. If this is true then I'd also forget about thinking of your children's Uni costs for a good few years. They are the least of your issues.

What a very odd post
lol

Thanks to all the other posters and. Not this one

Imagine someone having the time to come on Mn and make up questions or pretend they don't know about pensions

lol
lol

Everyone else 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏