Does anyone know about pensions? I have a silly question about one but also what about if [shock] you haven't got one AT ALL and you're my age?

[WideWebWitch]

A friend of my dad's persuaded me to opt out of SERPS when I was about 20 or something. She worked for Allied Dunbar at the time. I haven't thought much about it since (eeek, 20 years ago!) Anyway, I've recently received some details of it and it shows that currently I would get a pension of £934 a year. Hmm, big wupp. But it shows the following and I don't understand it:

MANAGED AP CLOSING UNIT BALANCE AS AT JAN 2007
closing unit balance
accumulation managed 3/4 AP 162.5 units value £10,655.27

Now, what does this mean?

And, the big question, can I cash it in? I could REALLY do with £10k! Or is it one of those untouchable things?

Question 2: given that I'm 40 and have no pension other than this poxy thing which in any case I'd happily cash in if I could what should I do about it? Start paying 50% of my salary into a pension scheme is not the answer I'm looking for btw!

TIA and apologies for tedium of question/thread.

Do you have a pension and if so, what will it give you on retirement? Where do I start?

Don't do pensions in huge detail but the £10k is the value of the pot of money you have now which would be used at your retirement date for the pension fund to go and buy a stream of future income, i.e. your actual pension.

I don't think you get £ for £, so if you try and cash it in you wouldn't get £10k.

As to what you do going forward - sorry, haven't a clue. I've also got a policy which would pay me "feckall" in future, but haven't decided what I'm going to do. Probably keep up with my ostrich position to date!

Untouchable I would think. Pensions generally are.

I have a work pension and an AVC that I had to stop when I had DD as no income to pay it!

DH has company pension too. Nothing mega but hopefully enough to get by.

And this house will help, will sell when the kids have flown the nest and go kick back in the sun somewhere!

WWW, I also had a contracted out pension which I hadn't done anything about since I got it. I finally went to see an independent financial advisor - well worth it as I discovered that my money had basically been doing diddly squat for the whole time I'd held the pension, so he transferred it to a new one at no cost to me (obviously he would get commission on this but it struck me as a win-win situation) AND he did all the paperwork, letters, phone calls etc.

My understanding is that you can't touch that money until retirement age, sadly. But if you're looking for some kind of provision for your old age that you could tap into if necessary, what about an ISA or a Buy-to-Let property?

HTH - sure someone more expert will be along soon!

Should also add that I had a couple of other pensions as well, also doing bugger all, which was why I went to see the IFA in the first place - to consolidate them into one - but I'm glad I did in terms of discovering that there are pension funds that perform very well and pension funds that actually lose you money - I didn't know this . Guess where all my money was sitting??

dh and I each have a private pension savings thing which we've paid a tiny amount into per month since we married as impoverished students 6 years ago and which, when it matures, will give us a mini amount per quarter or a 5-figure lump sum each. We'll also each get a degree of state penson, but tbh aren't putting much faith into that. It is utterly inadequate, but the plan has always been to start saving more when we can afford it .

I'm similar age and opted out of serps in 90's .. but opted back in last year .. can't remember why now but it seemed the right thing to do at the time

the money is untouchable till retirement ..

does your spouse have a pension? what are your benefits under that ..

I have small pension from when I worked .. I think it will accrue to a couple of thousand a year max when I 'retire' .. but have done that because DH's scheme is final salary at 2/3rds .. or death in service of 4 x his salary and spouse pension at 1/3 .. which should be adequate

In your position .. I'd just whack as much as I could into ISAs or their equivalent

Oh pants that it's untouchable, £10k I didn't know I had would have been SO NICE!

I've just emailed Zurich to ask them whether it's cashable and if not, can they send me some more info on whatever it is. I think I need to see an IFA don't I? I don't have any spare cash to put into a pension, I did once have a buy to let which was intended as pension pot but sold it to pay for being a sahm But if my contributions are going into this (I've NO idea if they are, maybe not, how would I find out?) then I suppose I ought to find out whether it's a rubbish one or an ok one.

No you can't cash it in. And even if you could you shouldn't. I hate to tell you this, but you probably should be putting 50% of your salary into a pension - you can't rely on dh's wages to fund your whole retirement.

This plan is purely your serps opt out. Your state pension will be made up of 2 elements - basic and SERPS. Because you have opted out you will reciev only the basic state pension, and this fund will replace the SERPS element. the idea is that the growth of markets will mean that the government contributions into your private SERPs plan will provide an income upon retirment equivalent to what your SERPs would have been. You can opt back in - you basically need to decide which you think is going to be more profitable - capital markets (risk of going down as well as up) orgovernment (risk of the bastards completely f*ing up state pensions by the time you retire)

Do you really not have anything else? Were you not part of a company scheme when you used to work in London? Does your current company provide a pension scheme (the answer to that is yes btw - they legally have to so go and find out what it is)

And stop being an ostrich.

am I being stupid too then?

WWW, you should go and see a financial adviser or two. Ideally you need fee-based ones who aren't paid on commission so don't have a vested interest in flogging you products you don't need.

I'm self-employed and got rather nerdily into the whole topic about 5 years ago, though I've calmed down a bit since then. At the time I also had very little if any pension provision, from having done too many part-time and contract jobs.

A fund of £10,000 will give you a pension of naff all, tbh. But I very much doubt that you'll be able to get it out in any case. Do you not have a pension related to any previous employment? If not, you do really need to do something about it, having explored all the options with someone who knows about this stuff. As with all investments, the longer you leave it to grow, the better the end result, so postponing dealing with it is probably not the best idea. ISAs are nice, but with pensions you get tax relief on top, which is particularly valuable if you're a higher rate tax payer, since the Revenue pay an extra 40% on top of any contribution you make.

I do know lots of people in your position, some of whom are planning for the equity in their houses to buy them out of trouble in retirement. But it is a big gamble.

I don't have a pension at all. DH does but I leave him to sort out what its worth and how much he pays in to it each month.

I have no idea what opting out of SERPS means, I suppose I should look in to getting a pension but its one of those things you leave and leave as retirement age seems so far away!

twig I think some of us are, and I include myself in that

but there's no way, no way, that I could save enough to get a decent pension

I'm super sensible with money but there's just no extra for this

I did contribute briefly to a pension in London but was paid off when I left so nothing there.

Current company prob does have one (it's a big co) so yes, I ought to find out about it, will put it on my to do list

Thanks for the explanation and god, I wouldn't dream of relying on dh's salary, it's less than mine. I can't put 50% into anything, 100% of my salary goes on rent/utils/childcare/food/repayments, I worked it out yesterday, it was scary. In a couple of years there may be some spare cash though. And dh has an inheritance coming too so once we've bought a house and paid it off with that then there'll be some cash washing about, enough to start contributing to something. It's all a bit depressing. I will tell my children to start thinking aobut it MUCH earlier. I am suffering from having been a contractor, a sahm, an ostrich and a spendthrift, gah.

Twig - not necessarily. Your dh's plan sounds quite generous. I would say that after you have done ISA's each year, pension top-up's should be your next saving simply because teh ax beaks are so generous - your dh could do a FSAVC or you could do a pension yourself of up to £3k and still get 33% tax breaks even though you aren't earning.

www - I think /link{http://customer.morningstareurope.com/UK/zua/pdf/index.asp?cid=NTJAN00522,&lang=en&curiso=GBP&site=ZU3/this} is the fund you have - performance doesn't lok too bad - though I have to admit I am not up to date with what average returns have been like over the past few years. You are in a managed balanced product - which should be fairly lowish risk, which is probably best given this is your only fund.

At the moment I would say your priority is to look at your company pension. If they allow matching (eg they will contribute 5% of salary to pension, but if you contribute an extra 2.5% they will match it to take your total contribution to 10%) then definately do this - it's worth making sacrifices in your life as they are giving you extra free money. Is dh salaried now as well? If so he needs to check what hi company do as well.

apart from that though, given your current situation I would say that pensions shouldn't actually be your first savings - use ISA's for any spare cash you have , but make sure you review everything with an IFa when you te to the point of purchasing a property and getting a mortgage.

Thanks Prufrock. I've emailed them giving them my new address and asking can I cash it in, to which I now know the answer is almost certainly no but hey, will see whether it's worth joining my co scheme or putting more money into this one.

I don't think you can pt more into this one - contracted out SERPS plans are usually only allowed to accept the govt. SERPS contributions

Will ask about co scheme tomorrow. Dh is a contractor but they are considering a perm offer, we're haggling atm. Will ask him to find out.

I totally agree with Prufrock re checking out the company scheme. Also see if they have an employeee share scheme - they're usually a good bet too

probably in the wrong "topic" here actually.i've just received a "birthday card" from the Unclaimed Prize Register...you know ,one of those that costs £9 to make the call!!!!however,apparently i've won either £20,000,a Panasonic 42"HDPlasma Tv,a £2,000 shopping spree/cash,a Swiss and Austrian Tour for 2,a Sony DVD Camcorder or £250 worth of Premium Bonds! Now,i'm usually the first to throw these away but I wondered if anyone else has ever done this one? It does,however,say on the back that the Swiss tour includes both accomodation and travel but does also require a £75 refundable deposit at time of booking. What does everyone think? Or have I just answered my own question. I get loads of these and usually throw them but....?

OMG!!!!Really apologise . Not only in wrong topic but also on someone else's thread....!!!so so sorry!!!!!

don't do it cutekids - you will lose your £75

I don't have one at all neither does dp nor any national insurance contributions to speak of..I have concluded that I am already living as though a pensioner so will just carry on..doing bits and bobs and being frugal

can't see an alternative really..maybe my children will be well enough of to help out occasionally

dd1 suggested that I learn how to design websites or some such computer orientated thing which i could do into old age even if i was unable to move