Hi all,
Happy New Year.
No major update on finances but I do have a pension related question that I was interested in hearing different opinions on.
I plan to spend some time tracking our expenditure this year to fully understand what our outgoings are like. In recent years we have been furnishing a new house but this year I expect a return to more 'normal' expenditure.
On the pension front it looks like the following for us:
Wife:
Partial NHS and HSE pensions - post 2013 state pension integrated (need to get a grasp of what these look like)
AVC: ~20k
Full UK state pension (through ongoing contributions)
Me:
DC scheme: ~340k (I contribute 20% and my company is 15%)
Full UK state pension (through ongoing contributions)
Partial Irish state pension (expected ~75%, unless early retirement)
Question: With my age I can now increase contributions to 25%. If I have the capacity to do this, is it a 'no-brainer'? - or should I really focus first on trying to get an understanding of what we expect to need in retirement to see if current contributions are sufficient and find a better use for any extra money (mortgage etc?)