Where to start - looking for financial advice

[Kammer1]

I have been meaning, for a number of years, to get proper pension advice. Heads in sand too long. Husband 53, I'm 55. Both have workplace pensions but haven't had them very long. In addition, I have several other tiny pension pots from previous jobs. Need to discuss whether to consolidate them all. And need to face the reality of how little we will have to retire on.

How do I go about finding someone to sit down with us and talk us through the options? We are not very knowledgeable about pensions but are in a safe position otherwise with money: manageable outgoings and have savings. No debts other than the reasonable mortgage.

Also, our sons will be off to university in September 2024 and Sept 2025, so we'll need to inform ourselves of what we'll be paying there.

My workplace offers advice but it's quite expensive and aimed at the big earners, of which I'm not one!

Ideally we'd meet someone face to face (we live in SE London, work in central London) but I guess online would be ok.

Have you started off by looking at your contributions record on HMRC to check it's correct and having a chat with the Future Pension Centre?

So you have some of the numbers that you'll need.

https://www.gov.uk/check-national-insurance-record

https://www.gov.uk/future-pension-centre

Contact a reputable company that will offer a first meeting for free or speak to your bank. They will have financial advisers.

Try,

As former posters say; start with your State pension contributions forecast.
Round up all the private pension paperwork and make an appointment with Pensionwise - it's free and some areas will have face-2-face.
Look at http://www.gov.uk/student-finance
Encourage your DCs to get weekend/holiday jobs so they can save a little - especially if they have expensive tastes!
Some university towns and cities have very expensive accommodation - Bristol, Brighton and London, others less so - do your research as the shortfall in costs will need to be covered by you! This could be as much as £500 per month per child!

Thanks for your replies. I'll try the Government ones - I have done a pension forecast a couple of times but always good to check again, and get my husband to do the same.

I really do want to do have someone talk me through it though as I have limited brains and patience for this kind of thing. I don't mind paying (within reason).

@Rocknrollstar - the problem is, how do I know what a reputable company is? And presumably banks aren't independent? I've tried emailing a couple of local places before and they just don't even bother to reply.

There's a free government service!

www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/pension-wise

Financial advice can often be very expensive and not always worth it unless you have a lot of money.

Have you heard of Pete Mathews and the Meaningful MONEY Podcast and YouTube videos? He is a financial advisor and does a great series of financial podcasts without recommendations of products. I would start there and there is a Facebook group for this too.