Re: Methinks you're looking......
No, I don't think that's what I'm looking for - unless you can point me to one where there's no annual management % fee and I can hold the share certificates.
The SSAP described by Brendan Burgess in the guide that 0 linked to above sounds very fair to me - say a €4,000 set-up charge and an annual admin fee of €400 and I pay all dealing costs.
Most of the self-directed schemes seem to have a % annual fee - what do they do for this money? If I decide which stocks to buy, pay for the dealing costs and generally leave the the stocks passively apart from new purchases, what do they do for this % fee? After a few years, pension funds can be sizeable, often well over €1 million by retirement, what do they do to deserve a % of this?
I don't think it's a complete no-brainer that a pension is the best investment just because of the tax relief:
- apart from the 25% lump sum, it's a deferral of tax rather than a genuine tax relief - and given how low tax rates are at the moment, it's possible (likely?) that by the time I retire, tax rates will be higher than now, particularly given our current demographics.
- although a pension fund's growth rolls up tax-free, you have to deduct the annual management fee and other charges, including initial bid/offer spread from the gross growth rate - and given how low returns are and are likely to remain, these fees are a signicant deduction from your fund's growth rate
- I know 0 thinks I'm exaggerating my distrust of the life/pension companies but I'm not (and 0,given what you fessed up to owning, I'm amazed you don't agree). I absolutely do not want to end up poor in my retirement. Handing all of your money over for a prolonged period of time just because of a seemingly favourable tax break needs very careful consideration and I don't think I can do it. I'd rather hold a share certificate or property deed in my sticky paw and know that it was mine. I'm just cross I can't get tax relief given that I'm saving for my retirement.