New Job and Pension

[crimsonlake]

Wondering if anyone can offer any advice.
Late 50's and I am about to start a new job which has a workplace pension. My issue is that I already have a small teachers pension that I will be able to take in a couple of years. Really wondering if there is any point in paying in to a new pension for however long I remain at this new place of work, whether it be 1 year or until I actually reach retirement age? Or is opting out even an option? Tia.

Thank you to all who took the time to reply it is much appreciated and yes it a Hargreaves Lansdown SIPP. I have browsed their site over the years, even spoken to them, I make notes, leave it for yonks, come back to it and cant make out my notes or remember a thing. I seem to have a mental block when it comes to pensions, in fact most of my friends seem to have the same problem so we go round in circles.
Once again thank you.

Find out your fund value and make an appointment with pension wise.

If you start a pension now your employer will have to pay in also (providing you earn over £10k a year). When you get to 55 you can draw it out as a lump sum but 75% of that will be taxable depending on your earnings for that year.

If it's not going to be much, you could just leave it and it will be paid to your beneficiary when you pass away and you could use it as a sort of funeral fund. I have a small pension which I don't need (partly because I'm too young and partly because I have a government pension). I plan to leave this to my DC to cover any funeral costs. It's only 7k so hopefully they will have some change from that to do as they wish.

OP. Pensions really aren’t that complex. Only if you are mega rich and have additional tax charges like the life time allowance to worry about

I’m assuming your teachers pension is a final salary type pension.

I’m also assuming any other pensions you have are defined contribution pensions.

1. Do not opt out of your new employers pension scheme. It’s free money from your employer, plus tax relief from government (yes, more free money).
2. Not clear from your post what you have in your SIPP or what funds you are invested in. You aren’t a sophisticated investor. You don’t need a SIPP or to pay SIPP charges. Your workplace pension will be in a well diversified ready made fund (you can probably choose a different risk if you wanted to). Your charges will also be far less as they are charge capped due to auto enrolment legislation. Consider transferring your SIPP into your workplace pension. Your new provider will talk you through process. No need to pay adviser fees to do it. It’s pretty simple.
3. Consider above for any other dc pension pots
4. Don’t touch your pension at 55 if you don’t have to. Even the 25% tax free. Let it grow! (See point 5)
5. Annuities offer pretty low value for money if you only have a small pension pot. You will have state pension plus your teachers pension as guaranteed income. Use your other savings such as isa first and pension last to top up your income. Rule of thumb for saving tax efficiently is pension first. When withdrawing money, pension last.

Mintbiscuit so you are saying basically not take the 25% of my SIPP nor the annuity it brings which works out less than £20.00 a week, I am 58 years old.
I have never noticed any SIPP charges as such and no idea what it is invested in. I tend to check it annually and it does not appear to have grown much this year.
I do not have an ISA, have no clue about them either.
I have a small amount of savings which have been dwindling due to the erratic nature of supply teaching. Hence the reasoning behind drawing an annuity rather than using up my savings.
Are you suggesting transferring my SIPP in to my teachers pension or my new workplace?

Can you live on your salary from new job after contributing to pension?

If yes, don’t withdraw anything from pension/SIPP/don’t take annuity.

Do as mint says.

You can also look into a service line pensionbee, but leave your teacher pension alone.

NoSquirrels, as I am mortgage free I probably can. I have been mulling it over for a few years and was getting to the stage where I really needed the annuity even more since I took a lump out of my savings to purchase a second hand car which I needed. My plan was to take the 25% out of my SIPP to replace the savings used.

NoSquirrels that is the issue really as the job is pro rata and a lower rate of pay than teaching so although I probably can survive on the pay after contributing to a work place pension I do not want to find myself still struggling despite working.

What amount fo you envisage yourself living on? With this pension planning & taking money out now, you could put yourself in a very difficult position later. Do you know what the state pension is?