Reply to: Pensions and Mortages

[Wanderer]

Each to his own but i found the opposite, local banks had me jumping through hoops and would not lend me anywhere near what i wanted with basic and divis, went to contractor money told them my daily rate and they came up with the best offer by far

It's been a while since I got a mortgage. Were the brokers the best in terms of amount available to borrow, interest rate or flexibility? Or all of these?

[Support Monkey]

mortgage - you don't need a contractor specialist. They were not competitive when I looked. I ended up with my own bank who wanted to see 2 years accounts and used my net profit figure as the basis for their lending criteria.

HTH.

Each to his own but i found the opposite, local banks had me jumping through hoops and would not lend me anywhere near what i wanted with basic and divis, went to contractor money told them my daily rate and they came up with the best offer by far

banks generally only offer their own products Independents view all the offers

[Ignis Fatuus]

Any decent IFA will say NOT to use pound cost averaging but to invest at the most suitable time.

Absolutely. But if you don't know when that is (I don't), and your IFA doesn't either (he probably doesn't), then pound cost averaging beats a single random timing.

In the long term, it is vital to keep costs down. Even a small percentage in commissionyear after year will have a huge effect on your final pile: remember that's a % of your total investment, not of your return. That's why many people choose Hargreaves Lansdown or SIPPDeal: HL has low fees on many (not all) mutual funds, SIPPDeal has 0% holding fees on ETFs and shares.

[SueEllen]

pension - go and see an IFA, really.
mortgage - you don't need a contractor specialist. They were not competitive when I looked. I ended up with my own bank who wanted to see 2 years accounts and used my net profit figure as the basis for their lending criteria.

HTH.

Actually with both you should do some research yourself and see if a broker/IFA will offer you anything better. If they can't then sort it out yourself. At the moment with mortgages going direct with banks/building societies you seem to be able to get better deals but you never know.

[Wanderer]

Can anyone point me in the right direction to look for pensions (im 28 and still not got one set up!!!) and mortages and how do mortgages work given that your not in a perm role and planning things can be be a big problem...

Ask around about mortgages. If you have a good deposit and 2 years worth of accounts for your company then you might be able to just go with one of the main banks. Otherwise you might have to go to one of these specialist brokers and end up paying more.

Try and get a fully flexible mortgage if you can, I've been though all sorts of ups and downs with my one and it's been fantastic.

[ratewhore]

pension - go and see an IFA, really.
mortgage - you don't need a contractor specialist. They were not competitive when I looked. I ended up with my own bank who wanted to see 2 years accounts and used my net profit figure as the basis for their lending criteria.

HTH.

[kaiser78]

If you can resist the temptation to cash them, then start with a stocks and shares ISA, you need to be thinking long term so see this as pension not savings and DO NOT bottle it and sell up when things get a bit bumpy - They will tend to recover if you can hold your nerve. You need to think 5+ years AT LEAST.
To smooth this - use pound-cost averaging to drip feed in.Also - get on fool.co.uk to see how the financial world works.
Finally - from a standing start most of your cash should go into the lowest charging (look up TER) index trackers you can find.
UK+US can be found very cheap, overseas trackers tend to be more - check out Vanguard, HSBC, Fidelity.
If you want to liven it up, consider 20% in a riskier area (emerging markets say - tho you could have missed boat or Gold - ditto)
OR go HYP with some solid dividend payers, individual shares cost less in mgmt fees.
Defo use a discount broker - I use HL.
Good luck !
I find it quite addictive, making the decision about what to get into next but NEVER bet the farm, build up a solid foundation in safe trackers etc and maybe have some fun with 10% each year.
How am I doing - pretty average, about 8% average annual return across all my funds across
14yrs or so.

Any decent IFA will say NOT to use pound cost averaging but to invest at the most suitable time.

[pmeswani]

If you can resist the temptation to cash them, then start with a stocks and shares ISA, you need to be thinking long term so see this as pension not savings and DO NOT bottle it and sell up when things get a bit bumpy - They will tend to recover if you can hold your nerve. You need to think 5+ years AT LEAST.
To smooth this - use pound-cost averaging to drip feed in.
Also - get on fool.co.uk to see how the financial world works.
Finally - from a standing start most of your cash should go into the lowest charging (look up TER) index trackers you can find.
UK+US can be found very cheap, overseas trackers tend to be more - check out Vanguard, HSBC, Fidelity.
If you want to liven it up, consider 20% in a riskier area (emerging markets say - tho you could have missed boat or Gold - ditto)
OR go HYP with some solid dividend payers, individual shares cost less in mgmt fees.
Defo use a discount broker - I use HL.
Good luck !
I find it quite addictive, making the decision about what to get into next but NEVER bet the farm, build up a solid foundation in safe trackers etc and maybe have some fun with 10% each year.
How am I doing - pretty average, about 8% average annual return across all my funds across
14yrs or so.

My average is between 10% and 35%. Have both my Protected Rights pension and my normal pension with Hargreaves, but are separate on the portal. Since putting the money into HL, I have made about 6k profit on my investments.

[lukemg]

If you can resist the temptation to cash them, then start with a stocks and shares ISA, you need to be thinking long term so see this as pension not savings and DO NOT bottle it and sell up when things get a bit bumpy - They will tend to recover if you can hold your nerve. You need to think 5+ years AT LEAST.
To smooth this - use pound-cost averaging to drip feed in.
Also - get on fool.co.uk to see how the financial world works.
Finally - from a standing start most of your cash should go into the lowest charging (look up TER) index trackers you can find.
UK+US can be found very cheap, overseas trackers tend to be more - check out Vanguard, HSBC, Fidelity.
If you want to liven it up, consider 20% in a riskier area (emerging markets say - tho you could have missed boat or Gold - ditto)
OR go HYP with some solid dividend payers, individual shares cost less in mgmt fees.
Defo use a discount broker - I use HL.
Good luck !
I find it quite addictive, making the decision about what to get into next but NEVER bet the farm, build up a solid foundation in safe trackers etc and maybe have some fun with 10% each year.
How am I doing - pretty average, about 8% average annual return across all my funds across
14yrs or so.

[pmeswani]

SIPP - Tax effiecient pension planning - availble from 55 yro
ISA - Tax effecient investments - up to 10k a year

Bricks n' Mortar - Where I live in the sarf of england, prices haven't moved much since 2003. Though in some areas they've seen an increase of 40%
UK Stock Market - pretty flat the last 10 years or so, a lot of people lost a lot of money in 2008

err, me? i'm sticking it all on red and heavily invested in emerging markets, google BRIC. approx 150% increase the last 5 years.

past performance is not a guarantee of future performance etc, but lets face it, the west is dead, long live the east!

muwwahhh! etc

If you need to buy a HOME, go for it, if you want to make money on a house, you've missed that boat imho.

Best time to buy a house was back in the 1970's and 1980's, AFAIK.

The OP has to decide what his long term, medium term and short term goals are.

[monobrow]

SIPP - Tax effiecient pension planning - availble from 55 yro
ISA - Tax effecient investments - up to 10k a year

Bricks n' Mortar - Where I live in the sarf of england, prices haven't moved much since 2003. Though in some areas they've seen an increase of 40%
UK Stock Market - pretty flat the last 10 years or so, a lot of people lost a lot of money in 2008

err, me? i'm sticking it all on red and heavily invested in emerging markets, google BRIC. approx 150% increase the last 5 years.

past performance is not a guarantee of future performance etc, but lets face it, the west is dead, long live the east!

muwwahhh! etc

If you need to buy a HOME, go for it, if you want to make money on a house, you've missed that boat imho.

[kaiser78]

Down side to an ISA is that the only tax benefit is on the interest. Where the tax benefit on a pension is higher (20% to 50%, yes there are some tax owed, but can take a lump sum tax-free on retirement. Downside to a pension? Yeah, the money is locked away until retirement).

Money saving expert has some good posts/features on the pension vs ISA discussion and mortgages if you (OP) are interested.

[pmeswani]

Consider stocks and shares ISAs as an alternative to pensions. That's what I do maxing mine and other halfs ISA allowance each year.

But we are all different so seek professional advice before you do anything.

Down side to an ISA is that the only tax benefit is on the interest. Where the tax benefit on a pension is higher (20% to 50%, yes there are some tax owed, but can take a lump sum tax-free on retirement. Downside to a pension? Yeah, the money is locked away until retirement).

[kaiser78]

Consider stocks and shares ISAs as an alternative to pensions. That's what I do maxing mine and other halfs ISA allowance each year.

But we are all different so seek professional advice before you do anything.

[pmeswani]

Can anyone point me in the right direction to look for pensions (im 28 and still not got one set up!!!) and mortages and how do mortgages work given that your not in a perm role and planning things can be be a big problem....

Cheers

Don't know about mortgages. Regarding pensions, it depends on your appetite for risk. If you don't have time to manage your own pension and just want to dump your money and let someone else manage it, then look at a personal pension plan. They tend to be low performers and restricted in choice. If you have time to manage your pension in terms of fund selections, etc. Look at a SIPP. SIPP's are more flexible than other forms of pensions.

If you are happy to go for a SIPP, have a look at Hargreaves Lansdown and SIPPDeal. Various people on this board would normally recommend one or the other. There are others out there, so feel free to do some homework.