I am relatively clueless about pensions so I do apologise if this is a stupid question.
I am 40 and going to be leaving PAYE employment within the next year.
I will either be a stay at home mum or might set up as a sole trader at some point in the future.
I will not be paying anything further into the pension scheme.
The fund has about 75K at present.
It’s the standard company pension scheme with Mercer capital so after the fees are taken out it is not increasing by much, in fact my companies contribution payments are probably hiding the poor performance of the funds (I don’t look at the details just the balance they send me periodically).
Once I leave PAYE employment I am certain that the balance is going to start going down as the annual fees are going to eat into the balance.
I like to play things safe and want to protect the 75K balance. I am not trying to gain stellar performance.
I noticed that through the post office you can invest in government bonds yielding 40% tax free after 10 years.
If the 75K was invested and left for 20 years, it would return 4% per year tax free which as far as I can tell is way above the performance of my pension. I will be 60 by then and have a lump sum of in the region of E147K.
Is there any way I can take the money out of my pension when I leave work, tax free and put it into government bonds where I am guaranteed a return after 20 years, or is this a stupid idea?
Is 4% per anum tax free a really poor return for a pension?
I am 40 and going to be leaving PAYE employment within the next year.
I will either be a stay at home mum or might set up as a sole trader at some point in the future.
I will not be paying anything further into the pension scheme.
The fund has about 75K at present.
It’s the standard company pension scheme with Mercer capital so after the fees are taken out it is not increasing by much, in fact my companies contribution payments are probably hiding the poor performance of the funds (I don’t look at the details just the balance they send me periodically).
Once I leave PAYE employment I am certain that the balance is going to start going down as the annual fees are going to eat into the balance.
I like to play things safe and want to protect the 75K balance. I am not trying to gain stellar performance.
I noticed that through the post office you can invest in government bonds yielding 40% tax free after 10 years.
If the 75K was invested and left for 20 years, it would return 4% per year tax free which as far as I can tell is way above the performance of my pension. I will be 60 by then and have a lump sum of in the region of E147K.
Is there any way I can take the money out of my pension when I leave work, tax free and put it into government bonds where I am guaranteed a return after 20 years, or is this a stupid idea?
Is 4% per anum tax free a really poor return for a pension?