Using savings to maximise PRSA

[Bradbury1]

I am joining a public service job and the state pension that comes with it, albeit off a small enough salary 30k per annum.

I have savings of 200k in State Savings with half at 10% int and half at 16% int, both subject to being in savings for 10 years. About 8 years left on each.
If I don't need to start accessing the money for another 10 years until I turn 60 is there financial sense in the following;
Open a PRSA and put 15k to 20k of my salary into it and supplement my monthly spending money by drawing it out of my 200k savings?
The logic being that I get the tax saving on the PRSA and also may get a better return on the invested PRSA than the state savings.

Is there any sense in exploring such an option?

 

[bstop]

It is certainly worth considering. You should use the funds from the state savings in the 10% scheme first. You would need to set up an AVC PRSA. If you are confident enough to work out you own choice of funds and risk rating you could search for an execution only discount broker on this site and get your AVC PRSA set up with lower fees.

 

[ginslia]

Not sure your plan will work as you describe. not an expert- but I see 2 issues:
1) If you are 50 now, you can get tax relief on max 30% of your salary going into a pension, so only 9k per annum.
2) If you have a public sector job, and you can avail of whatever work pension scheme is on offer for that employment, you can’t contribute to a separate pension scheme unless you have additional earned (employment) income not covered by your main scheme.

you can make AVC to whatever scheme is offered through work, using the max above minus any contributions required to the main scheme

 

[Dave Vanian]

2) If you have a public sector job, and you can avail of whatever work pension scheme is on offer for that employment, you can’t contribute to a separate pension scheme unless you have additional earned (employment) income not covered by your main scheme.

...with the exception that you can choose to set up a PRSA AVC with a provider of your choice. It would operate as an AVC and would be linked to the main public service pension scheme in terms of overall contribution limits, retirement age etc.