Do you have questions about your pensions? Ask PensionBee’s finance and investment expert Becky O’Connor - £200 voucher to be won

[CeriMumsnet]

Pensions are invaluable for our future financial stability and wellbeing, however it can be hard to feel on top of them or know how best to manage them. To help you out, PensionBee has invited their expert to answer your questions around pensions and saving for the future.

• Everyone who shares a question on the thread below will be entered into a prize draw.
• One lucky Mumsnet user will win a £200 voucher
• Becky will be back online in a few weeks to answer a selection of your questions.

About the expert
Becky O’Connor joined PensionBee in January 2023 as Director of Public Affairs. She’s a Personal Finance and Investment Expert and award-winning Journalist with two decades of experience in journalism and communications. Prior to joining PensionBee, Becky was Head of Pensions at Interactive Investor, and previously acted as a spokesperson for Royal London, the mutual insurer. Becky’s also the Co-Founder of the ethical personal finance website, Good With Money; the Author of a book on sustainable investment, The ESG Investing Handbook, Chair of the Ethical Advisory Committee for Castlefield Investment Management and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Here’s what PensionBee has to say
‘We are a leading online pension provider with a mission to make pensions simple, so that everyone can look forward to a happy retirement. We’ve helped thousands of savers feel pension confident by enabling them to combine, contribute and withdraw from their pension, all in one place.’

Thanks and good luck with the prize draw
MNHQ

Insight Terms and Conditions apply

Do I have any rights to withdraw the whole of my pension pot and invest it myself (in property - for a rental income) - if I am not spending it -just 'investing it' would there be any penalties (age 46)

No, you can only move it to another pension.

"Penalties" would be all the back tax.

I am 39.

What is a safe estimate for how much state pension there will be when I retire?

Putting 10% of my salary (employer puts approx 7% so 17% total) in, on a mid/senior level salary (albeit part time) but my aviva calculator still says it’s not enough to guarantee a ‘comfortable’ retirement without the state pension.

Update to above question:

ive just rechecked, I’m no where near the aviva ‘comfortable level (£38k), but also not guaranteed to hit the ‘moderate’ level (£22k). It estimates my pot to be £0.5m at retirement, so state pension makes a huge difference.

Message understood - thought I was a long shot - I just wanted a guaranteed income that would be better than my predicted pension - what penalties ?? what %agee tax 😱 just asking. 🙄

Thank you for taking time to answer sensibly - I will look into this - maybe pension bee can come up with something

What are the options with the lump sum
How do I best invest this
Thankyou

I’m a young widow, can you tell me how I find out if my husband has any pensions from previous employers and what happens to them now please?

What do you predict the state pension age will be for people in their mid 40’s? We want to pension plan but fear the goalposts will be moved again soon.

I've already claimed my Local Government pension, intending to not work again. Hovever due to the cost of living I have decided to try and find some part time work. I am only really qualified for Local Government as they are more or less the only employers of my profession. If I go back to work for my Local Authority can I still draw my pension, and can I also contribute again. They would be different Local Authorities as I moved when I 'retired'

As a teacher I was paying a contracted out rate of NI and wouldnt qualify for full state pension.
I'm 49 and hope to retire at approx 62 (some of my pension still says i can take it from 60).

A...as a transition member is it right that I'm going to have been transferred only to the career average scheme since last year?

B...how many years more.do.i have to pay contributions for to make it to the full.state pension?

Hello I have a full time job with a private DC pension scheme, and a part time job with a LGPS DB pension scheme.
Is it better to use income from my main job to contribute to the LGPS pension scheme as AVCs or open a SIPP?

Can you move your combined pension pot more than once, if you see a better investment deal than your current one ? and can this be done regularly - like you can do with your utilities - who can offer better 'opening' offers.

1. I have two main pensions plus a smaller DB pension from years ago. I want to retire at 55. Would it be best to use one pension up at a time and leave the other until I have finished drawing from the first one. I was thinking of using my smaller DC one from 55-62 and then start on my other pension.

2. Do pensions continue to grow if you start drawing from them? Do they grow more if you don't draw them down?

3. Rather than taking 25% as a lump sum can I just have the 25% tax free gradually as I take a monthly lump sum from them for example if I have £200k in a pension and take £2k per month can I have the first £50k I gradually draw down tax free.

4. How do I pay tax as a pensioner, will this automatically be deducted by the pension provider when I have taken the tax free allowance. If I have more than one pension pot how will they know how much tax I should be paying, i.e. how much I have withdrawn over my tax free allowance?

Why is it so hard to get anyone to help with NHS pension calculations?

I work part time and want to put more into my pension but not sure whether I should do additional pension on my NHs pension or a separate private pension .

Did pensions invested in the stock market regain their value after the budget under Liz Truss Prime Minister - I get annual statements and worry that this has affected my pot

How long does to process take usually to put say 3 or 4 previous pensions into one fund ? - and can they find any lost pensions via your NI number

Do you think that private pensions will totally replace our state pension eventually - if so, what would be the best alternative for our children, to aim for a realistic retirement age

Have you ever experienced a reluctance from an existing pension provider to move a large contribution to another provider, and another... there are so many alerts to bogus pension providers wanting to 'steal' your pot - what safeguards so you have in place over this ? TIA

Thanks so much for your great questions! Becky will be back online on 27 February to answer a selection of them.

The winner of the prize draw is @thinkponk48 - congratulations!

Thank you.

I'm so happy

I have an NHS pension. I’ve been working in the NHS since 2008 and always contributed. Everyone says it’s a good pension but when I’ve checked I can’t make sense of what I’ll have when I retire. Is it a good pension?

I thought Becky was meant to be coming back to the thread today, to answer questions?

Hi @LadyAstor Apologies for the slight delay - Becky will share her answers by the end of the week.