How much do you save in your pension each month?

[Foxy Moron]

Which assumes you are not investing the money you would have put in your SIPP. I'm not paying into a SIPP because I believe I can do better myself not because I'm feckless

[expat]

It would go to your next of kin.

Yeah, I don't know where some folks here get this idée fixe that your pension disappears when you die. It can be, but it ain't necessarily so.

Not even for an annuity; and not all pensions use annuities.

[rootsnall]

Which assumes you are not investing the money you would have put in your SIPP. I'm not paying into a SIPP because I believe I can do better myself not because I'm flipless

I think most people using SIPPs are doing it for themselves but without the upfront tax taken out of it. There are risks the money grabbers will try and rob your pot at some stage but it would be a pretty big U turn by both parties if they did something drastic.

I would use my ISA Allowance before paying into a pension but after that it's a no brainer tax wise as regards saving for your later non earning years.

[expat]

Which assumes you are not investing the money you would have put in your SIPP. I'm not paying into a SIPP because I believe I can do better myself not because I'm flipless

That seems fair enough. Conversely, I am paying into a SIPP because I do not believe that I can do better outside it than inside it.

First of all, for me the discussion is specifically about saving long-term/for retirement, not just generally about savings or tax breaks. So it doesn't matter that you have to wait till 55 to withdraw any of it, that is the point of it.

Secondly, properly structured SIPP contributions have tax advantages that are not only much better than you can get any other legitimate way, they are better than I would estimate to be available in say the next 10 years' growth + income. IOW, over the next 10 years, a company-paid SIPP even just held in cash will beat any reasonably safe investment of after-tax money outside the SIPP wrapper.

[minestrone]

My pension pot is going to my next of kin, there is no point is using it, I just hope in 50 years it will be worth something to them.

[Foxy Moron]

Expat, To be fair, you are a little older than some of us, so you've probably built it up in the good times and are looking forward to using it. I wouldn't knock anyone who did that. But I'm talking about recent history(The last 10 years have been a fairly bumpy ride). Maybe now is a great time with the stock market relatively low, who knows. I don't profess to know when you can extract money and how, but I do know I want to be fairly liquid for now to invest in other things. I think now is a great time to have cash easily at hand.

[DimPrawn]

Yes having to wait for your pot at 55 is not such an issue when you are 54.

However, imagine paying into a pot for 20 years and being 40 now.

You might want/need that pot, maybe you've fallen on hard times and your house is going to be repossessed or your children have cancer and need to be treated in the USA on a wonder drug that's going to cost £100K, or you want to emigrate and property prices are rock bottom and you could buy a beachside property if you had that cash or a business opportunity with a family member or friend etc etc.

Sorry, locking up money like that for 40 years is madness.

[rootsnall]

Expat, To be fair, you are a little older than some of us, so you've probably built it up in the good times and are looking forward to using it.

Aswell as building up a fighting fund, I'd also be paying off the mortgage with post tax income rather than putting anything into a pension. In other words only stuff you are pretty much guaranteed to not need before you are 55 goes in there.

[mrdonuts]

can anyone confirm that you can pay the majority of your earnings into a sipp

e.g company earns £80k take £10k as salary then company pays the other £70k into a sipp

[OwlHoot]

As an alternative to pensions, what do people here think of asset withdrawal, or whatever it is called (not sure), where someone or a couple reaching retirement makes over a percentage of ownership in their property to an institution, who in return then pay them a monthly income, a kind of mortgage in reverse.

I'd have thought it's a good way to avoid death duties if you're cogging on and rattling around in a large house but don't want to move, and if there are deals that allow it you might still be able to leave 50% of the property to your offsprng or whoever, after only paying income tax at (presumably) a low rate instead of a whacking great chunk of death duty!