Retirement, how much?

Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
When I return to my home planet I intend to leave bugger all in the bank personally.

Best make sure you spend it before you need nappies again, otherwise the care home/state will have it all.
 

Ming the Merciless

There is no mercy
Location
Inside my skull
Has your FA told you that the 2021/2022 year top up only gives you half as much extra per week than previous years? MrsD looked into this the other week. Previous top up years gave approximately 30% return on capital. This year is only 15%. She decided not to pay the extra £800 as it would take over 6 years to get the capital back and would only make about £2.50 a week difference on the SP.

Not sure where you get that from? It’s purely the number of qualifying NI years divided by 35 multiplied by £179.60 per week (or whatever the max state pension increases to each year). For each additional year you add you get 1/ 35 x £179.60 = £5.13 more per week. If you pay the £800.80 you’ll get that back in 3 years of state pension payout.

https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/how-its-calculated
 
Last edited:

Ming the Merciless

There is no mercy
Location
Inside my skull
As @Alex321 says it is effectively free as I'm only paying based on the value of my pension and also I'm the client not my wife.

I've checked it all online and understand exactly what we have to do financially. You'll know each individual year has a date by which one must pay the additional year. We have five years to pay with last payment dates from 2022 through to 2027.

Mrs P get her SP in September. What I cannot fathom, and my FA is unsure, is do we have to pay all five years before April 2022 in order for her to receive the maximum SP from September or can we spread it over the five years. The website suggests it's a five year spread but when something is too good to be true it needs checking. My FA is doing it and we will be calling the Helpline as well. I'll want it in writing from the DWP.

Belt and braces I know but this is worth £1300pa so getting it wrong isn't an option.

You can’t contribute additional NI to increase state pension once you reach state pension age. You need to make any additional contributions before she reaches that age.
 
Location
London
My, what are you suggesting?

Maybe a decent IFA could arrange for a hit to be put out on me at the calculated date & time. You know, as a part of their "all inclusive" servic

My, what are you suggesting?

Maybe a decent IFA could arrange for a hit to be put out on me at the calculated date & time. You know, as a part of their "all inclusive" service. ;)
I did once suggest this to an IFA. In Windsor I seem to recall.
 

Ming the Merciless

There is no mercy
Location
Inside my skull
Blimey, this makes my head spin.

I thought it easy, requiring only iron discipline. Save a load, shovel money into a pension, divorce a wealthy woman and receive a nice settlement, buy a house and then (not by design, but it's how it turned out) not live in it much save the rental income and then eventually sell it for 4 times its purchase cost.

Don't fritter it away, and when the time came for circumstances to pressure me out of work I ended up with an income 200 sheets more a month than when I was working and remain backed by a considerable liquidity.

Beyond a conscious decision to save very hard for bank/pension, and not to pith it up the wall on new cars and rubbish, I didn't really have a plan. It was pretty straight forward making sure thatneach monthnInwas better off than the last. I can't help thinking that if I'd started messing about with annuities and shizzle instead id not be able to afford to retire until the 3rd Tuesday after I'd died.

Oh it can be easy. Just depends on what you’ve done, where you find yourself, and whether advisors are your thing. It doesn’t have to be complicated.
 
Best make sure you spend it before you need nappies again, otherwise the care home/state will have it all.
By having a reasonable sum of money if you do need care you have a chance of a half decent care home rather than the awful places that are mostly available at minimum cost funded by social services.

I have given my kids a lot of money while they are young enough to benefit most from it. The rest is for me and my wife and they can have what's left, if anything.
 

Dirk

If 6 Was 9
Location
Watchet
Not sure where you get that from? It’s purely the number of qualifying NI years divided by 35 multiplied by £179.60 per week (or whatever the max state pension increases to each year). For each additional year you add you get 1/ 35 x £179.60 = £5.13 more per week. If you pay the £800.80 you’ll get that back in 3 years of state pension payout.

https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/how-its-calculated
If you retired before 2016, when the new SP came into force, you needed to top up your NI contributions in order to qualify for the new larger state pension, otherwise you would be on the old, lower SP. The top ups work out at around £7 - 800 for each year from when you retired up to when you reach SP age.
MrsD had already paid up to 2021 and was going to pay for years 21/22. She reaches SP age this April. She enquired about paying it this week, and was told that the £800 payment would only increase her SP by £2.38 a week - not the £5+ her previous yearly payments had guaranteed. This was from HMRC.
 

Ming the Merciless

There is no mercy
Location
Inside my skull
If you retired before 2016, when the new SP came into force, you needed to top up your NI contributions in order to qualify for the new larger state pension, otherwise you would be on the old, lower SP. The top ups work out at around £7 - 800 for each year from when you retired up to when you reach SP age.
MrsD had already paid up to 2021 and was going to pay for years 21/22. She reaches SP age this April. She enquired about paying it this week, and was told that the £800 payment would only increase her SP by £2.38 a week - not the £5+ her previous yearly payments had guaranteed. This was from HMRC.

In which case she didn’t reach state pension age before 2016. Not sure why you included that first part of your sentence which doesn’t apply in this case.
 
As @Alex321 says it is effectively free as I'm only paying based on the value of my pension and also I'm the client not my wife.

I've checked it all online and understand exactly what we have to do financially. You'll know each individual year has a date by which one must pay the additional year. We have five years to pay with last payment dates from 2022 through to 2027.

Mrs P get her SP in September. What I cannot fathom, and my FA is unsure, is do we have to pay all five years before April 2022 in order for her to receive the maximum SP from September or can we spread it over the five years. The website suggests it's a five year spread but when something is too good to be true it needs checking. My FA is doing it and we will be calling the Helpline as well. I'll want it in writing from the DWP.

Belt and braces I know but this is worth £1300pa so getting it wrong isn't an option.
I asked a financial advisor about this - is it worth paying to complete and get a full state pension. She said it wasn't worth doing. I'd double check your thinking. I can't remember her explanation sadly.
 
Top Bottom