Savings and Investments thread

Bangkokaddick said:

golfaddick said:

Bangkokaddick said:

Rob7Lee said:

Bangkokaddick said:

MStuartPerm said:

Yes thanks, I have decided to keep the final salary pension separate from the sipp for now anyway and not cash in.

Good choice. I was talked into moving all my pensions into my QROPS (overeas tax-free fund) despite originally wanting to keep my final salary scheme separate and it was the wrong thing to do. I'd have been better off even with paying UK tax on that amount.

There's a lot of variables as to if it's right or not. For me when I transferred mine what made it for me a no brainer was they were a) paying a good multiple (nearly 40x)  and b) I was just over 40 so still had best part of 25 years to go to grow it. It's worked very well for me, my sub £3k PA pension as at 2014 I transferred into a SIPP just shy of £110k from memory, that's more than tripled now to circa £350k. Whereas the annual pension would have grown to around £3,250. So my relevant pot currently is over 100x that amount! So I've probably safely trippled my annual pension amount and also have much more flexibility and it won't die with me/my wife.

Of course, not everyone has a commission-hungry crook for an IFA like I did! (Though I didn't realise at the time!). Even if I had the more stable investments I have in my pot now, I still think it'd be the wrong move for me but each case is different, as you rightly said.

I think its mainly to do with "commission hungry crooks" that the FCA have stamped down on DB transfers. A lot of them are not IFA's and look to put the money into some really dodgy stuff.

Fwiw  - I dont have the "permissions" to transact DB transfers - never have done.

Unfortunately no crackdown on such sheisters in many countries. There are still "boiler room" gangs out there and I get the occasional phone call, though I recognise the style straight away. Never been tempted by these guys.

Also you can go an a two day course here and call yourself a financial advisor! Nothing more than an insurance salesperson in reality, one that has no idea what he or she is actually selling! Scary, but for the sellers it's just a way of making a quick baht and not a career as such. Most give up after a few weeks.

Sounds like the UK 30 years ago  !!  I lost my job in the City in the early 90's and after failing to get a job in the industry I knew for 3 months I decided to divert into "selling insurance". The people who were being recruited at that time appalled me. At least i had a modicum of knowledge of endowments, PEPS & other "investment" products, but many of my colleagues were ex-car mechanics, roofers etc who had fallen on hard times & took anything that would bring in a wage. You can see how people mis-sold various insurance & pension policies when it was mostly commission only & these guys had to put bread on the table at the end of the week.  

Thankfully over the years the "financial advice" community has got its house in order & the testing/exams that have been brought in has weeded all of these people out. 

LargeAddick said:

Rob7Lee said:

golfaddick said:

Rob7Lee said:

Bangkokaddick said:

MStuartPerm said:

Yes thanks, I have decided to keep the final salary pension separate from the sipp for now anyway and not cash in.

Good choice. I was talked into moving all my pensions into my QROPS (overeas tax-free fund) despite originally wanting to keep my final salary scheme separate and it was the wrong thing to do. I'd have been better off even with paying UK tax on that amount.

There's a lot of variables as to if it's right or not. For me when I transferred mine what made it for me a no brainer was they were a) paying a good multiple (nearly 40x)  and b) I was just over 40 so still had best part of 25 years to go to grow it. It's worked very well for me, my sub £3k PA pension as at 2014 I transferred into a SIPP just shy of £110k from memory, that's more than tripled now to circa £350k. Whereas the annual pension would have grown to around £3,250. So my relevant pot currently is over 100x that amount! So I've probably safely trippled my annual pension amount and also have much more flexibility and it won't die with me/my wife.

And to think the FCA's starting point is to not transfer out. And if you did go ahead it would probably cost you around £5k.

It was 6/7 years ago but the report (about 40 pages!) cost me less than £2k I think, although it was advisors via work so may have been a bit cheaper/discounted than normal.

It's definitely not right for everyone, but with the multiple they were paying combined with my age and time to retirement and comfort of investing myself it really was a no brainer, one of my best financial decisions ever!

the wife's just transferring hers into an Aviva SIPP, value about 196k, advisor charge £3k.

Sounds good, fingers crossed the Aviva SIPP performs well. Think their platform charges are quite high, any reason you went with them?

RaplhMilne said:

hoof_it_up_to_benty said:

My Helium One shares have more than doubled in the last month - if the drilling proves successful there is huge potential in this. There is a massive worldwide demand for helium and signs so far are promising. 

Are you saying this in a squeaky voice...... 

Not yet. Surprising how much demand there is for Helium.

Rob7Lee said:

LargeAddick said:

Rob7Lee said:

golfaddick said:

Rob7Lee said:

Bangkokaddick said:

MStuartPerm said:

Yes thanks, I have decided to keep the final salary pension separate from the sipp for now anyway and not cash in.

Good choice. I was talked into moving all my pensions into my QROPS (overeas tax-free fund) despite originally wanting to keep my final salary scheme separate and it was the wrong thing to do. I'd have been better off even with paying UK tax on that amount.

There's a lot of variables as to if it's right or not. For me when I transferred mine what made it for me a no brainer was they were a) paying a good multiple (nearly 40x)  and b) I was just over 40 so still had best part of 25 years to go to grow it. It's worked very well for me, my sub £3k PA pension as at 2014 I transferred into a SIPP just shy of £110k from memory, that's more than tripled now to circa £350k. Whereas the annual pension would have grown to around £3,250. So my relevant pot currently is over 100x that amount! So I've probably safely trippled my annual pension amount and also have much more flexibility and it won't die with me/my wife.

And to think the FCA's starting point is to not transfer out. And if you did go ahead it would probably cost you around £5k.

It was 6/7 years ago but the report (about 40 pages!) cost me less than £2k I think, although it was advisors via work so may have been a bit cheaper/discounted than normal.

It's definitely not right for everyone, but with the multiple they were paying combined with my age and time to retirement and comfort of investing myself it really was a no brainer, one of my best financial decisions ever!

the wife's just transferring hers into an Aviva SIPP, value about 196k, advisor charge £3k.

Sounds good, fingers crossed the Aviva SIPP performs well. Think their platform charges are quite high, any reason you went with them?

That’s what our advisor suggested after scouring the market. Funds being managed by Square Mike, wouldn’t dare do it ourselves.

LargeAddick said:

Rob7Lee said:

LargeAddick said:

Rob7Lee said:

golfaddick said:

Rob7Lee said:

Bangkokaddick said:

MStuartPerm said:

Yes thanks, I have decided to keep the final salary pension separate from the sipp for now anyway and not cash in.

Good choice. I was talked into moving all my pensions into my QROPS (overeas tax-free fund) despite originally wanting to keep my final salary scheme separate and it was the wrong thing to do. I'd have been better off even with paying UK tax on that amount.

There's a lot of variables as to if it's right or not. For me when I transferred mine what made it for me a no brainer was they were a) paying a good multiple (nearly 40x)  and b) I was just over 40 so still had best part of 25 years to go to grow it. It's worked very well for me, my sub £3k PA pension as at 2014 I transferred into a SIPP just shy of £110k from memory, that's more than tripled now to circa £350k. Whereas the annual pension would have grown to around £3,250. So my relevant pot currently is over 100x that amount! So I've probably safely trippled my annual pension amount and also have much more flexibility and it won't die with me/my wife.

And to think the FCA's starting point is to not transfer out. And if you did go ahead it would probably cost you around £5k.

It was 6/7 years ago but the report (about 40 pages!) cost me less than £2k I think, although it was advisors via work so may have been a bit cheaper/discounted than normal.

It's definitely not right for everyone, but with the multiple they were paying combined with my age and time to retirement and comfort of investing myself it really was a no brainer, one of my best financial decisions ever!

the wife's just transferring hers into an Aviva SIPP, value about 196k, advisor charge £3k.

Sounds good, fingers crossed the Aviva SIPP performs well. Think their platform charges are quite high, any reason you went with them?

That’s what our advisor suggested after scouring the market. Funds being managed by Square Mike, wouldn’t dare do it ourselves.

Sounds expensive! (assume you mean square mile, not Mike!)

Huskaris said:

Considering buying a small e-commerce business as an active investment I guess, with the possibility of it (or another business) becoming a full time thing if it took off.

My dream is to have a portfolio of companies as a venture or vulture capitalist. The last company I worked at were bought by vulture capitalists and it was amazing. I know it's a derogatory term to many but the act of taking a failing company and managing to turn around it's fortunes is amazing (although obviously not always done in the nicest way).

What sort of business?

Huskaris said:

Rob7Lee said:

Huskaris said:

And all I have to do is send £500 to a bank account in the Cayman Islands. 

Great, my broker gave you my details then 

 
 
Really do find it all exciting, will hopefully be able to learn with the first 1-2 and then really go for something bigger.

It helps that I am the head of finance for an ecommerce company that was turning over £70k 5 years ago and is about to do £2.8m this financial year. 

I can really learn on the job here, and ask all the questions I need to. 

Good luck with it, it's likely though you'll need to spend more time on them than you think with may effect the day job.

I very nearly bought a small business like that last year, golf glove's (and gold accessories) of all thinks, mainly sold via amazon so very little work required. But two problems, dishonest seller (he had other websites he didn't disclose) and wanted too much money!

The housing market is crazy. We accepted an offer on ours 3 months ago (Hove) wanting to live back to Devon, turns out loads of other folk want to move to Devon too. Market there has gone super crazy. 

Funny housing market.

You can't shift 1 or 2 bed flats in London......especially if they dont have a garden. 

Other properties are going before they are even listed on places like Rightmove or Zoopla.

Land Registry is snowed under & local searches are taking weeks if not months to come back. 

I wouldn't be surprised if there is another SDLT concession before the year is out. The Tories love a good housing bubble. Gives everyone something to talk about instead of Covid or Boris.

Rob7Lee said:

golfaddick said:

Funny housing market.

You can't shift 1 or 2 bed flats in London......especially if they dont have a garden. 

Other properties are going before they are even listed on places like Rightmove or Zoopla.

Land Registry is snowed under & local searches are taking weeks if not months to come back. 

I wouldn't be surprised if there is another SDLT concession before the year is out. The Tories love a good housing bubble. Gives everyone something to talk about instead of Covid or Boris.

Certainly a strange market at the moment, we've been for sale for a week, 6 viewings but no offers yet. The price some people are putting their houses up for sale for is ludicrous. Opposite me a small 4 bed detached, £1.25m!

London and south east prices are truly mind boggling. In my neck of the woods that would get you a small country estate!

Rob7Lee said:

bobmunro said:

Rob7Lee said:

golfaddick said:

Funny housing market.

You can't shift 1 or 2 bed flats in London......especially if they dont have a garden. 

Other properties are going before they are even listed on places like Rightmove or Zoopla.

Land Registry is snowed under & local searches are taking weeks if not months to come back. 

I wouldn't be surprised if there is another SDLT concession before the year is out. The Tories love a good housing bubble. Gives everyone something to talk about instead of Covid or Boris.

Certainly a strange market at the moment, we've been for sale for a week, 6 viewings but no offers yet. The price some people are putting their houses up for sale for is ludicrous. Opposite me a small 4 bed detached, £1.25m!

London and south east prices are truly mind boggling. In my neck of the woods that would get you a small country estate!

I know, it's ridiculous really. Mines a slightly larger than average 3 bed semi (about 1650 sq ft), yours for 3/4 million  madness.

We're looking to move further down into Kent a bit, still pricey but a lot more space for your money. I can get more than double Sq ft (3,500) not that far out for around 1-1.1m. My wife found one at 1.2m 6 bed 5 bathroom that I discounted until I saw it had a 7 car garage and a sit on mower plus a separate large studio (think bar/snooker room although I may have a battle with that v a gym!)

We took the plunge last year and decided to relocate from London up to Lancashire, the difference in house prices meant we were able to buy outright a house far bigger than anything we could have afforded where we were. We now live in a lovely area to bring up our children and have been able to re address the work life balance. My wife and I both gave up our jobs with the intention of getting work up here once we were settled. Both of our employers asked us to give them some remote consultancy hours when we moved which was great for both of us.

Then COVID hit just as we were in the last throws of selling and buying and it was quite a stressful time wondering whether it would all fall through and leave us in London without full time work and with a mortgage to pay. Thankfully it didn’t and we moved here a year ago next week. A strange consequence of the pandemic has been that remote working has really taken off and both of our employers have wanted more work from us at home. So we now find ourselves where we are working less hours, have no mortgage to pay, spend more time with our children and have more disposable income. 

bobmunro said:

Rob7Lee said:

bobmunro said:

Rob7Lee said:

golfaddick said:

Funny housing market.

You can't shift 1 or 2 bed flats in London......especially if they dont have a garden. 

Other properties are going before they are even listed on places like Rightmove or Zoopla.

Land Registry is snowed under & local searches are taking weeks if not months to come back. 

I wouldn't be surprised if there is another SDLT concession before the year is out. The Tories love a good housing bubble. Gives everyone something to talk about instead of Covid or Boris.

Certainly a strange market at the moment, we've been for sale for a week, 6 viewings but no offers yet. The price some people are putting their houses up for sale for is ludicrous. Opposite me a small 4 bed detached, £1.25m!

London and south east prices are truly mind boggling. In my neck of the woods that would get you a small country estate!

I know, it's ridiculous really. Mines a slightly larger than average 3 bed semi (about 1650 sq ft), yours for 3/4 million  madness.

We're looking to move further down into Kent a bit, still pricey but a lot more space for your money. I can get more than double Sq ft (3,500) not that far out for around 1-1.1m. My wife found one at 1.2m 6 bed 5 bathroom that I discounted until I saw it had a 7 car garage and a sit on mower plus a separate large studio (think bar/snooker room although I may have a battle with that v a gym!)

Bar/snooker room v a gym - I can think of tougher decisions!

(and you can never have enough garages!!)

My grandad had a snooker room and it's been my life's ambition to have one, I'm relatively easily pleased.

The current rule is I get to decide if it's enough garaging, the rest is up to Mrs R7L and daughters! (so that'll be number of bathrooms and Kitchen/utility room sizes :-) )