A start
Posted: March 10th, 2019, 9:59 am
Hello
I am not entirely sure where to start. I will be 57 at my next birthday. On the same day, my daughter, an only child, will be 12. I am not married and I mention this as I suspect it will play a part in some of the decisions I will make over the coming months and years.
I work in construction as a Quantity Surveyor/Commercial Manager and my partner is a librarian and she is 52 at her next birthday. We have lived in our current home for 25 years since we were fortunate enough to buy it new.
However, all has not be idyllic in our world. I've not been too well. My symptoms started when I was about 13 and have become progressively worse until I was correctly diagnosed two years ago. With new treatment I am in a different world and I anticipate I will see the latter part of my life out in some security. To say I am rebuilding my life really doesn't convey what I have to get through to sort all my financial problems out. I don't want to linger on my illness. I can't change the past. My undiagnosed and incorrectly treated condition manifest itself around huge rem sleep deprivation. My ability to function rationally at any level was severely compromised. That has not been aided by an inconsistent income stream.
My planning for retirement has suffered and I need to focus upon a remedy.
I have a plan.
I propose to work towards financial independence over the next 15 years and retire at the age of 72. That would coincide with my partners retirement age of 67. We both have pension funds but they are small. Jointly they come to about £100K. The first part of my plan is to take 25% of my pension fund and transfer it to an ISA. I am looking at a low cost stocks and shares ISA where I can pick the fund(s) I buy into. I propose to add about £1K per month to that ISA over the next 15 years. I have not worked out what to do with the balance of my pension fund as I prefer not to take a 40% hit with tax. I'd welcome some pointers on this please. In 3 years when she is 55 we will transfer 25% of my partners pension fund into an ISA. At this time we will be able to lift our monthly commitment to the ISA to somewhere between £1.2K to £1.5K per month. I've argued to myself that the ISA "could" achieve 10% growth per annum but will be open to the vagaries of market fluctuations accordingly. I sort of hope that the amount we are proposing to commit to the ISA will "offset" any downside if I have over egged the anticipated rate of growth.
I'd genuinely welcome any constructive feedback and in particular advice on which platforms to look at for the ISA please and also does anyone have any idea what to do with the two pension pots or should I just leave them there? I am "sort of" reasonably confident that moving 25% tax free out of them into an ISA isn't a huge risk.
Thank you in advance for any thoughts and comments and I hope I haven't laboured too long on how I arrived this late in life with such few savings for my/our retirement.
AiY
I am not entirely sure where to start. I will be 57 at my next birthday. On the same day, my daughter, an only child, will be 12. I am not married and I mention this as I suspect it will play a part in some of the decisions I will make over the coming months and years.
I work in construction as a Quantity Surveyor/Commercial Manager and my partner is a librarian and she is 52 at her next birthday. We have lived in our current home for 25 years since we were fortunate enough to buy it new.
However, all has not be idyllic in our world. I've not been too well. My symptoms started when I was about 13 and have become progressively worse until I was correctly diagnosed two years ago. With new treatment I am in a different world and I anticipate I will see the latter part of my life out in some security. To say I am rebuilding my life really doesn't convey what I have to get through to sort all my financial problems out. I don't want to linger on my illness. I can't change the past. My undiagnosed and incorrectly treated condition manifest itself around huge rem sleep deprivation. My ability to function rationally at any level was severely compromised. That has not been aided by an inconsistent income stream.
My planning for retirement has suffered and I need to focus upon a remedy.
I have a plan.
I propose to work towards financial independence over the next 15 years and retire at the age of 72. That would coincide with my partners retirement age of 67. We both have pension funds but they are small. Jointly they come to about £100K. The first part of my plan is to take 25% of my pension fund and transfer it to an ISA. I am looking at a low cost stocks and shares ISA where I can pick the fund(s) I buy into. I propose to add about £1K per month to that ISA over the next 15 years. I have not worked out what to do with the balance of my pension fund as I prefer not to take a 40% hit with tax. I'd welcome some pointers on this please. In 3 years when she is 55 we will transfer 25% of my partners pension fund into an ISA. At this time we will be able to lift our monthly commitment to the ISA to somewhere between £1.2K to £1.5K per month. I've argued to myself that the ISA "could" achieve 10% growth per annum but will be open to the vagaries of market fluctuations accordingly. I sort of hope that the amount we are proposing to commit to the ISA will "offset" any downside if I have over egged the anticipated rate of growth.
I'd genuinely welcome any constructive feedback and in particular advice on which platforms to look at for the ISA please and also does anyone have any idea what to do with the two pension pots or should I just leave them there? I am "sort of" reasonably confident that moving 25% tax free out of them into an ISA isn't a huge risk.
Thank you in advance for any thoughts and comments and I hope I haven't laboured too long on how I arrived this late in life with such few savings for my/our retirement.
AiY