Should I and Advice setting up pension at 43 as a 20% tax payer

[Racrus]

I have been meaning to set up a pension this few years and was waiting on the auto-enrolment. However, from researching recently I have realised the AE is a worse choice than setting up a PRSA myself outside of it. I say this due to the fact that AVC's may not be allowed within the AE and also the tax relief / benefit is better in the PRSA that I would set up today.

However, even with the joining a PRSA pension today option; is it worth my while joining one based on my details below:

Private sector employee
Single, Aged 40
Salary 35k so I'd be in the 20% income tax bracket and don't expect to be on the higher bracket in the future.
Employer doesn't / won't be matching contributions
Place of employment doesn't have a pension scheme but will facilitate access to one as per legal duty
Some personal financial info:
Home owner, Don't have a mortgage.
No debt.
Currently have my savings in state savings 10yr bonds and prize bonds and credit union and started investing regularly in an ETF via a trading platform during covid.
Currently save €1200 a month
I'd like to work for as long as I can or at least am physically able to until retirement age.


Am I correct in thinking that if I join a PRSA pension now outside of Auto-enrolment that when AE does start up that I will still then qualify to receive the government and mandatory employer contributions?

Is it worth putting some of my monthly savings into a pension from here on even at my age, I'm not expecting to have a massive sum at the end but even just to make benefit from the small tax relief and should be better than leaving it in bank accounts? Or am I as well to just keep saving as I currently do.

If going the pension route, should I go with a pension product like the ones from Irish Life etc,, or an execution pension like a Davy Select and just buy an ETF direct myself? Is there a big difference between these 2 options in that if going the execution only route that this pension type wouldn't qualify for the 20% tax relief that the life product would?

Can I access 25% of the total at 60 yrs of age, whilst still working, regardless of which of the 2 pension options I choose, standard or execution?

I'd appreciate some opinions or info that might help me decide based on the pro's / cons, please.

 

[lff12]

[For transparency, I should say I work for one of the big insurers here, though not their Irish business and I'm not in the financial side]
Definitely worth putting something in now, even if there isn't a big tax relief pot. I started a pension when I was only earning 23k at age of 30, and that very modest pension is now close to 20k, 20 years later. And I will leave it for another 15 years. Its not just the tax relief but the overall return from having a very long term savings plan.
Would suggest looking at various brokers and seeing which plans are cheapest for you (you want something with low charges) & a good range of investment options that you can change later on. Or you can find good descriptions on the big insurers own websites and go direct.
The rest of your questions probably best are answered by a broker - you are not obliged to buy anything from them so worth asking if it relates to a particular product.

 

[Racrus]

Thanks for the reply. I'm still educating myself about all this, lots of info read and more to read but I think I nearly have it sussed.
Just have a couple of outstanding queries I'd like to clarify.

1 - With some PRSA's I believe you can access them from age 50 but only if you have changed employment. Why is it based on you changing employment, where's the relevance? If person A changed employment at 50 and has new employer from 50-67 and person B worked with same employer from 40-67 why can 1 person access the pension early and not the other?
What am I missing here?

2 - When using pension calculators and they ask you what your target monthly income in retirement is how to you work this out for inflation. Like, say for example, I'd like €2000 a month in retirement based on today's money. As in, if I was retired now I'd like to be receiving €2000. Obviously when retired in 30 years how do I know what amount I'd need to be the equivalent of €2000 in todays money?