The Meaningful Money Personal Finance Podcast

QA47 - Listener Questions, Episode 47

The Meaningful Money Personal Finance Podcast

Show Notes

Time for another Q&A episode where Roger & Pete answer questions on retirement planning, passing assets to children. SIPP vs ISA and much more!

Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA47

01:42 Question 1 Hi Pete, Roger, and Nick, Thank you for the podcast - I've been listening for a while but fell behind and just binged about 15 Q&A episodes over the last fortnight! There's nothing like listening to the podcast to get me fired up about my finances! I have a question about the upcoming change to minimum retirement age, and a question about how to use my SIPP versus S&S ISA post-55/57. I was born in February 1972 and so by my reckoning should be ok to access my SIPP at 55. However, I heard somewhere that access could be removed at the date the law changes, because I wouldn't be 57 by that date. Can you shed any light please? It doesn't make sense to me to grant access then take it away. The reason I'm asking is because I'm thinking that in the next year I should favour putting money into my SIPP for the tax relief instead of into my S&S ISA, since I can access it within a short time anyway if I really needed to. Once I'm 55, does it still make sense to put money in the ISA at all, given the SIPP will continue to have tax relief so long as I'm working? All the best and looking forward to the videos coming out! Chris

07:04 Question 2 Hi Pete & Rodger, My wife & I are both aged 55 & I plan to retire aged 60 possibly a little earlier my wife isn't sure exactly when she will stop at the moment. I currently have a work place Scottish Widows default pension lifestyle turned off £225,000 I pay in 31%, company pays in 4%, salary sacrifice I then occasionally move funds to my 100% equities SIPP low cost global index fund £442000. My wife has a small DB pension and 45,000 in a SIPP again all in equities. My plan is to retire at 60ish on the SW pension to bridge the gap to state pension age 67. Leaving the SIPPS invested in equities both in low cost global index funds. Possibly adding some bonds a few years out from state pension age. Currently 20k emergency fund cash isa and my liquid assets whisky collection. Do you feel I could improve my plan or is it reasonably sound? Kind regards, Lee.

12:48 Question 3 Hi Pete & Roger, I have a deferred DB pension which in 2018 (when it closed) I was told my annual pension at age 62 would be £18270. The pension is capped at CPI or 2.5% annually, whichever is lower. As such it is getting deflated by high inflation. As of today it's £21840. (With CPI it would be £23830 or even £26050 with RPI). I have a decent DC scheme to top it up but what can I do mitigate this decline with transfer out values currently quite low? Thanks for your advice. Richard

18:08 Question 4 Hello Pete and Roger, Firstly, thank you for your brilliant podcast - it really is absolutely fantastic. Since discovering it early in 2024, I've listened to almost every show! I love the way you both make complicated concepts easy to understand and often have me chuckling along at the same time! I have a question to you both about inheritance tax and a potential way to reduce, or even eliminate, its effects. I don't believe you have covered this particular strategy, so I'm very interested to hear your thoughts. Here's what I am thinking. My wife and I are both 43 and have two lovely children aged 7 and 9. We both work full-time in well-paid jobs and save a good amount into our pensions and ISAs, whilst also ensuring we 'live for today' by going on regular holidays and spending as much time as possible with the children (whilst they still like spending time with us!). Our rough combined financial position is as follows: - £1m in company DC pensions, contributing at a rate of about £85k gross per year - £350k in stocks & shares ISAs, contributing at a rate of £40k per year - For each child – £40k in Junior SIPP contributing at a rate of £3600 gross per year, and £10k in Junior ISA with no significant annua

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