British people - do you have a pension?
 

As most of us are self-employed do you have a pension? If so who do you have it with? I really want to get one going but I am having problems with not only picking somebody but trusting a company.

Keep cash under your mattress!!!

;-)

personally, ive never bothered..... i think its probably just aswell to put money in a high interest bearing bank account although you could do better with some kind of investment.

Buy property, make payments. By the time you retire it will be several times more expensive - sell it, have fun.

yeah, I live in London...no chance of affording property here any time soon

Yup, london is madness. So many people never see their pensions that i dont bother. Why not buy property else where and rent out? Nottinghams only 2 hrs away, good value for housing, and i'll show you the sites - both of them ;)

All depends if the uk is a permenant fixture for you I spose.

Other options are buying land in exotic places. I went to honduras recently, you could buy a patch on an island like Utilla for peanuts. In fact a few years ago entire islands out there were going for peanuts - like $50k for a small paradise island.

Trouble is one hurricane too many and u may find your land under the waves :Oh crap

I have no idea about going about getting a mortgage in this country when you are self employed and anyway right now I don't have house buying money. I am 30 though and like the idea of actually being able to retire at some point in my life.

On a side note, I was in Nottingham a couple weeks ago and was surprised by just how much of a city it is..I expected it to be more of a big town. I thought it would have made more of a grab at the tourist market though..almost embarrassed by the tourist spots when it is one of the best known British cities on a world scale.

don't you guys get decent pensions from all the taxes you pay?

Hee hee, yeh they're down playing the whole Robin Hood thing these days (which is a complete load of BS btw) and going for a cafe culture/shopping crowd.

You would have thought so, but pensioners struggle make ends meet in reality.

I always thought Norway had very high taxes too?

Which is a bit of mistake..because all you can do it the castle and the really cheesy robin hood experience thing.. York does thing better :) Really though, as an example, I wanted to see Sherwood Forrest but there wasn't anybody running a bus out to it...even one bus a day in tourist season would make money. A town doesn't have to be ruled by tourism to make money from it.

I did like the city though.

You get something but who wants to have to live off that?

Thats what I mean, I live in "Sherwood" but the forest isnt even the same county i dont think. Ive heard Robin Hood is actaully based on Braveheart, another rogue who hid in the forest - BraveHeart also had a little brother called "Little John" - kinda like a keeping up with the neighbours in the legend dept.

Well if you ever visit again, hit us up and me and the MN guys will take you for a few cheeky beers. :thumbsup

I pay the maximum into an ISA as opposed to a pension. My gripe with pensions is that when you retire you can take about a quarter as a tax free lump sum but the rest has to pay for an annuity.

I have thought about ISA too but I am confused about which one - pension or isa - will give me the best return on my money when I am ready to retire.

Well, in theory it depends on where you invest and your attitude to risk. A lot of pensions are invested into safer funds with less risk, but of course the returns are not exactly spectacular.

What I use is funds network from fidelity to invest my ISA ( www.fidelity.co.uk ) as you can pick from quite a few companies portfolios. And as I am more into the medium to higher risk types of investment Ive picked a range of funds that give me a bit of exposure like a UK smaller companies fund, a European fund, and an India Fund.

If you are interested in fund performances then www.trustnet.com is great for getting the info.

It might be a good idea for you to visit an IFA though to get it all planned for you.

I was looking at Virgin Money's self employment pensions but it is just a matter of trusting somebody and know enough about the different kinds of pensions.

I will check out the links..I used to work for Abbey Life setting up appointments with 'independent' financial advisers...I don't believe any are really independent.

Well if they worked for Abbey Life then they werent independent advisers, but most likely tied agents. I used to work in the industry and polarisation was brought in to help distinguish between independents and tied agents. If you look for a true IFA (the ones with that blue pound sign) at least they can shop around for you. A quick Google brought up unbiased.co.uk, might be worth taking a look there before you dive in, unfortunately I cant remember the name of the association of indepedent advisers...

Sarah. You dont have to buy property in london. but in anohter country.


If anyone wants to make an investment in Baja Mexico, now is the time. Hit me up, and I can connect you with the correct people. Trump has a tower going up, and you can grab a condo for about 250k maybe a little more, when it is done, should be worth about 600k. About a 2 year investment.

I have two properties near there. Both are worth DOUBLE what I paid.

Yeah, everyone wants to make the most money so even if you get a really independent one they'll send you to the one that makes the most money.. like affiliates.

I'm English and have a pension from when I worked for a company. It's independent of employment so its pretty cool.

We are blessed that we work in an industry where you can earn significant residual income/commission without working. This will be my retirement fund.

Yeah, I don't have property money and I don't want to buy something somewhere that I can't keep an eye on it or speak the language. Thank you though.

done that and all was gone when I woke up:1orglaugh

Sarah its very easy..... drop me your email or something if you want some help on this. Incidently London isnt the only place in the UK to buy property and you can make a very nice rental plus captail gain on a good UK property if you buy in the right place.

Nottingham wouldnt be my first choice but i have a friend who is looking to buy there too.....

drop me an email at [email protected] and I will check it in the morning. I know London isn't the only place but I would be nervous about having something I had to maintain that was too far away..my bf's parents live in the merseyside area and even though that area is growing their property is a lot less than down here.

Buy to rent mortgages are the way to go - Hull is the place to buy.

You need a fair deposit though I am affraid :(

Any pension you get here is a bit of a waste, interest is still too low.

Save about 15K (pounds) and get a Buy To Rent in a cheap area (like Hull) - you should get enough on the first property in about 2 years to get another..... then again every 1 - 2 years if you choose well and with just a little luck.

10 years time you could have a nice little portfolio.

I am doing it and least 5 others I know - touch wood everyone of us is doing well out of it.

If your investing in property you should look outside the UK.. some places you are looking at 9-10% return on your investment per year from rental income.

Its not really the rental I have been using - that just pays the mortgage.

Between us in Hull last year we did about 12% in equity - I have a friend in Belfast who did 27%.

The rental is almost incidental.

mortages scare me

It is difficult - but as long as you don't go above about 80% of value you are fine.

If the shit hits the fan you just sell - and that's the end of it.

It sounds a lot of money - but its all 'Monopoly' money - it doesn't really exist.

The 100 pounds cash in your pocket is more of a worry than the 100,000 pounds you have in property.

Renting should scare you.....

Your throwing good money away!

lol...i have an isanely good rent for London. I would never get a mortage even close. In the states I would buy.

Are you renting a room or are you renting a flat like?

At the end of the day, whomever youre paying rent to is probably paying a mortgage and it must be covering their mortgage so in most situations the mortgage is considerably less than the rent not the other way around.