Pension options for a 54 year old

Evie1962

Registered User
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19
Hello all

I’m just looking for a bit of advice in regards to my pension. Like many women of my age (54) I left the workforce for a while to mind my children. I had a tiny preserved pension from the bank which I subsequently amalgamated with a defined contribution scheme run by my next employer. I was in that scheme for 12 years, but have now left that employment. My former employers have sent me a form asking what I want to do with the pension contributions. The fund is now worth just under 67k.

My options are to do nothing and receive a pension in 2027 of about 3k in today’s money. I might have been able to transfer the fund to a new pension scheme but that’s a non-runner as my new employer does not have one. I thought I could transfer the funds to a PRSA but it seems that I can’t do that either as the 67k is too large an amount. I read it that it would need to be under 10k to do this. On my letter of options it mentions a Pension Transfer Bond which I know very little about. Could anyone enlighten me? I know it’s a single premium instrument but no more than that.

I might mention my overall financial state for the record. My husband -aged 60- is on a small public service pension of 21k and I earn 25k. We have €150k in savings – a small mortgage of 6k which will be paid off in the next 18 months, and a house worth €450k approx. We have one dependent aged 13 – the rest are all sorted!

I’m wondering would I go for the Transfer Bond or start a new PRSA? I have only about 11 years of working life left as I want to retire at 65. I’ll be eligible for a contributory state pension at 68 so it would be a few years after retirement before that kicks in.

Any advice most welcome. The years have crept up very quickly!
 
Keep the old occupational fund where it is (in many cases the employer covers the administration cost and the costs are often lower as well) and start a low cost PRSA for saving now on top of that.
 
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