Financial advice

[GColdtimer]

We had a fixed rate mortgage of 5% and was tied in for 10 years (long story, bad advice), however we could overpay quite a bit without penalty so we decided to focus all our efforts on paying it off. We have now paid it off. so are mortgage free at 44 and have savings of about £20k in standard savings accounts and ISAs) with a couple of very crappy dormant company pensions between us which will pay us zip all (both self employed). So we are trying to decide what to do now. We have an income of between £50-£60k depending on how our business fares. Do we start new pensions/pay more in our dormant ones, invest in something, buy a Buy-to-let (in the South East so property not cheap) as our pension. We just don't know.

We need some financial advice but DH wary of IFA (see above) and we neither of us are interested enough in the detail of financial matters to do all the research ourselves, or indeed have the knowledge to be confident of making the right choice.

So how do you go about getting decent long term financial advice?

Have a think about what your long term objectives are, such as when you might want to retire and how much income you will need to support you in retirement, what you might want to be doing and where you might be living. This will help you have more focus when you ask for advice.

Try to get some personal recommendations for IFAs that friends or family might have used. And maybe con tact two or three different ones until you find one that you are comfortable with and with whom you click.

I am a financial adviser and I know that I won't be everybody's cup of tea, in just the same way that there will be potential clients that I meet but then choose not to do business with.

If I were you, I'd go with a pension as it comes from your gross income so it's very tax efficient. Later on, you could always decide to buy a property or invest elsewhere - you'll be able to withdraw 1/4 of your pension pot at 55 tax free. There is also no inheritance tax on it if anything should happen to one of you. I think it'd be definitely worth seeking professional advice re how to allocate your pension fund. Alternatively, you could read up yourselves and look at putting money in a range of funds through a SIPP.

Thank you. I seem to have a mental block on pension matters but will read up!