Self employed pensions

[mishfish]

Hey

I’ve been operating self employed for the last 2.5 years whilst my children are young. I still have two that arent at school full time.

I intend to continue being self employed rather than return to employment as I enjoy the flexibility and I’m making ok money at the moment on massively reduced hours.

I need to start saving into a pension though. I don’t have any breaks in the NIC contributions but I believe I’m going to need to make additional savings as whilst we are lucky to live in a house with a assured tenancy, who knows what will happen in old age?

Ideally we would like to buy somewhere and have it paid off by the time we retire, but at the moment we barely have enough spare cash for a take away once a month!

Can anyone point me in the direction some pension info that would be useful for me? Or even recommend a provider who is suitable for self employed people?

You can pay into the same work place pension scheme of self employed

Have a look at Royal London for starters. Fairly priced and and a range of investment options without being overwhelming.

I have a SIPP through fidelity. I pay in lump sums when I choose, or you can pay monthly.

I make contributions into the same pension that I had with a previous employer. It was the easiest way to sort it out quickly. I just contacted Standard Life and they arranged it very quickly.

It sounds like you need some proper financial advice though. How will you afford to make pension contributions if you can't afford a takeaway?

If you’re under 40 you can open a Lifetime ISA and the government pays in and extra 25%, although there are rules as to when you can withdraw the money - either to buy first home or at retirement age

I agree with sunseed. The Royal London governed range is good for this.

@cloudtree it’s the childcare that’s making us struggle at the moment but from September the 30 hours funding kicks for one of our toddler which will mean that though our childcare bill is the same, both the toddlers will be at nursery for 30 hours a week, which will free up more hours for me to work.

Thank you, I’m going to start checking them out.

I did not start paying into a pension till I was in my late 40's
as I could not afford it before that.

I did my finances in this order

1. Clear debt (early 30's)
2. clear mortgage (late 30's early 40's)
3. build savings buffer (late 40's)
4. pile money into my SIPP (now)

and I'm now putting a good of money into my SIPP each month
not that I plan to stop working anyway

I am with Talk on this. I would get yourselves a property first and prioritise a pension only after that.