I am currently working in the civil service and am also self employed (I am in my late 20's) and looking for some advice re pensions as a form of tax efficient investment. I currently have enough in savings for a deposit on a house but not planning on buying soon and also have a 6 month emergency fund. I have about 10k invested between ETFs and crypto (with long term hold). I am keen on putting aside some of my income for my future self and pensions seems to be the most tax efficient method of doing so rather than investing in higher tax ETF's etc.
I am currently part of the Single Pension Scheme (post 2013) and not allowed to make any additional contributions through this. Therefore I am looking into AVCs, PRSAs or Personal Pensions. However I am unsure what best suits me considering self employment and a possibility of that being full time in future. If this came to be I presume I would need something flexible to continue investing into the fund. I'm probably misunderstanding some things but my options as I see it are to setup
1) an AVC through PS employer (easiest revenue wise but I hear fees are poor and I'm unsure how it's affected if I ever left the service)
2) a PRSA AVC with other providers (con is I have to claim tax relief annually myself, but perhaps more suitable for self employment?)
3) a Personal Pension (mentioned online as being good for self employed but tbh I am not even sure what the differences are between a PRSA and a Personal Pension?)
Considering the self employment aspect I'm interested in hearing what others would advise ?
I am currently part of the Single Pension Scheme (post 2013) and not allowed to make any additional contributions through this. Therefore I am looking into AVCs, PRSAs or Personal Pensions. However I am unsure what best suits me considering self employment and a possibility of that being full time in future. If this came to be I presume I would need something flexible to continue investing into the fund. I'm probably misunderstanding some things but my options as I see it are to setup
1) an AVC through PS employer (easiest revenue wise but I hear fees are poor and I'm unsure how it's affected if I ever left the service)
2) a PRSA AVC with other providers (con is I have to claim tax relief annually myself, but perhaps more suitable for self employment?)
3) a Personal Pension (mentioned online as being good for self employed but tbh I am not even sure what the differences are between a PRSA and a Personal Pension?)
Considering the self employment aspect I'm interested in hearing what others would advise ?