Desperately seeking pension advice!

[MichaelCOH]

Hi everyone,

I'm embarrassed to say that I know as much about my pension as I do about nuclear physics, I've just been paying in to it through work (we're with Irish Life) for almost 20 years without having a clue.

Just recently I had a meeting with a financial advisor from a bank where I was applying for a mortgage and when he looked at my pension details he said - exact words - "that's ****ing This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language".

Needless to say, that made me gulp.

The rough details:

I'm 53
I've been with the same company for nearly 20 years
Salary: €60,000
Current Contributions: Me - 6% of salary, my employer - 10% of salary.

If I was to retire this year (unlikely!):

Estimated Retirement Fund: €129,800
Estimated Cash Lump Sum: €50,600
Balance of fund after taking Lump Sum: €79,200
Est. Pension Income Generated: €2,010

Admittedly, I wasn't anticpating living the high life if I retired early ..... but €167.50 a month, after 20 years of paying in to a pension, made my eyes water. But next to the pension experience of several family members and friends, that would make me rich...

Any way, is that pretty much the best I can do, or is there another route I could take to boost that figure to actually make it possible to eat when I retire?

All/any advice would be most welcome, thank you.

 

[Gordon Gekko]

How is it invested?

And has your salary always been €60k?

When do you envisage retiring and could you afford to contribute more?

 

[gnf_ireland]

Do you have any further details on the pension plan? What did it make over the last number of years (you should have an annual statement from it)? what are the allocation rates and annual management charges on the plan? What funds is the money invested it?

Gordon is right re the 60k - did you get a big increase lately etc.

You have ~15 years to recover your pension, so you will need to see how you get it back on track. The first thing is further details on what you currently have

 

[Steven Barrett]

How much have you put in, where did you put it and where is it now?


Steven
http://www.bluewaterfp.ie (www.bluewaterfp.ie)

 

[GSheehy]

Don't pay too much heed to what the financial advisor from the bank said.

1. Financial advisors are like plumbers, if they didn't do the work themselves then it's a disaster &

2. He's working for a bank so they're a tied agent of Irish Life and are therefore selling that "****ing This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language"

 

[MrEarl]

Just recently I had a meeting with a financial advisor from a bank where I was applying for a mortgage and when he looked at my pension details he said - exact words - "that's ****ing This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language". .....

A professional, meeting you in a formal capacity, using that sort of language is ****ing This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language if you ask me and definitely not someone I would be interested in doing business with if it could be avoided.

Take a little time to look around the Pension's Authority website ( here ), it will help answer some of your general questions and also aid you in making some decisions about what sort of pension you might like to have, what you can afford etc.

Ask your employer for the contact details of the pension trustee / pension advisor they are using for managing staff pensions and arrange a meeting to discuss what you have, what their suggestions are for improving your pension planning etc. This meeting should be free of charge to you (essentially covered by the fees your employeer is already paying).

Then go to an independent advisor rather than one employed by a bank or assurance company. Make sure you are getting fee based professional advice rather than advice from an advisor who is going to earn from commission on the sale of a particular product etc. There are plenty of good advisors available and I'm sure you will get many a recommendation here on this website if you ask for them.

While there is no doubt in my mind that you will need to increase the amount you are paying into your pension for your remaining years in employment (and I know that money does not grow on trees), the tax incentives should assist you to a degree. Having your contributions taken from source (via payroll) will also mean that your employer handles the tax treatment, so you don't have to do anything extra to get the tax benefit.