Hi,

I have worked here for 3 years and I have joined a pension scheme at work. Now I'm thinking if I should continue paying for the pension or opt out as I don't want to retire here. If I work - say for another 2 or 7 years - is it worth keeping the pension? Anyway, it's not possible to get a refund after two years, so I'll just have to wait till I retire to get deferred benefits but it seems a long way to go!

Is there any member of this forum who retires early and relocate to Thailand? How do you get your pension sorted out and how do you get the payment?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Tara

I dont know what your scheme limits are for drawing your pension but my company has just up'd its minimum age to 55 to be able to gain access (with losses of course because its below the pensioable age of 65).
If you thinking of only saving for about 5-7 years then really a pension is probably not the best option anyway?

lee

As most people who reach pensionable age will end up living until their 80s, that is a long time to live on thin air if you have no pension income. Think about what you could buy 30 years ago and how prices have changed. Then imagine living 30 years into the future.

Living in Thailand means that the UK state pension will be frozen - i.e. not index linked, so if you rely on this you maybe in for a nasty shock. Some expats receive only £10 UK state pension per weeks having left the UK many years ago.

Anyone who plans to retire in Thailand and live there until they die should seriously think about the true cost of doing so, not just for a few years, but for 30+ years.

The more you have saved in a pension the better, because the UK state pension is likely to wither away as the number of pensioners increases and the state cannot afford to pay for all these old ******s.

Pensions are changing soon with pension 'A' day. This allows you to use property, take out voluntary contributions early etc. Take a more serious look at the alternatives.

Generally it's always better to contribute to a company pension scheme, and if your circumstances allow it, making sure you have maximised the amount you can contribute. Apart from the tax concessions, your company may make top-up contributions on your behalf. You need to read and understand the details of your scheme. You can transfer your pensions savings from the company fund to another pension provider when you leave. You'll probably find that deferred benefits won't seem so far away in a few years!

In addition to Peter's suggestions, you might also want to consider medical insurance and healthcare costs. I'm not near retirement, and I don't know what arrangements ex-pats in Thailand have, but this sort of thing should be part of any contract if you were taking up employment abroad.

You also need to find out about the changes on 'A' day. You'll be allowed to hold assets including property as part of your pension. Note that you will not own these assets, you pension fund will and you'll be taxed on any benefit you receive from them. Also you won't be able to pass then on in a legacy.

If you'd like to tell us some personal details (age, salary) I'm sure the combined financial minds of Thailand UK will give you plenty of advice to think about.

quote:

Originally posted by Tara:

Is there any member of this forum who retires early and relocate to Thailand? How do you get your pension sorted out and how do you get the payment?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Tara

I'm taking early retirement in 2008, I'm taking 25% of my pension fund as a lump sum,(Tax free) and a monthly payment into my Thai bank account via BACS from my pension company.
I'm one of the lucky ones, being in a very good company pension scheme.

Tony

heres questions for you pension people,
right i have paid off my mortgage
i am 33 years of age, i took out a private pention at 21 and has been frozen since 28 (15k in it)

I am hoping to retire at 55-60 trouble is I am in the process of starting my life again what with me being out the country for nearly two years.
age 33 cant say what sort of empolyment yet but earning in access of 25k more then likely

I have never liked the subject of pensions and private pensions even less so. To me it seems that unless you have a lot of money to start with or have a good company pension scheme, paying towards a pension is only giving money to someone to invest as they see fit with the addition of a little tax benefit. It involves a certain amount of risk, or as thousands of people have found over recent years a massive loss, eg Maxwell's Employees.

The majority of people I know on pensions have enough to provide them with just a basic living. Agreed if they did not have a pension then they may not have money, but if they had invested money themselves instead of paying into a fund (some may die before even collecting a penny)I am sure they would be better off overall, the key is to invest wisely, such as in property. The only well off pensioners I know are the ones who have had plenty of money beforehand and their pensions are just a "top up".

Simplified part of my plan has always to invest as much as possible in property, gradually moving up the property ladder along the way. It has worked out really well for my ex-wife who lives in a house worth around £200,000 with no mortgage! When it comes to retiring that is then the time to downsize and invest the majority of profit from the sale of big house to small house in whatever high interest accounts are available (if such things exist then) or further smaller property to be rented out and sold as or when wanted.

An example would be that if I were 65 today and had upped the property ladder and had a house worth £400,000. I could sell it and buy a smaller house for £100,000. Knock off £50,000 for taxes and expenses. I am then left with £250,000 in the kitty. I have reduced bills due to a smaller property and take £30,000 to spend in the first year, investing the £20,000 in Premium Bonds (hope for the £1,000,000 prize ;-)) and £200,000 in property to rent out and high interest accounts for monthly payments from year 2 onwards. Only risk being a property price crash around the time of retirement.

Another idea is to strive to a good career and a few years before retirement is wanted seek employment in a Company that has a decent pension scheme and get the younger ones to subsidise the final payout of pension based on your retirement salary, as happens frequently when Directors are appointed to Companies

Thank you all for taking time to reply to me. I am 32 and earn about £22K. It seems that if I were to work here for only a few years, pension is not an option for saving as the pensionable age is 65 though I have a right to retire at the age of 50 (those joining after April 2006 will have a minimum retirement age of 55). Ideally, I would like to retire early - can't imagine myself working till 65! And I shall be pleased if I live that long.

I do not think I am entitled to the UK state pension as I am not British. I am allowed to contribute more (up to 15%) but I cannot afford to pay more than what I am paying now at 5%.

I own a property worths around £80,000. I have never heard of pension 'A' day and that a property can be hold as part of pensions. It is quite interesting and I will find out more about it, though to be honest, it does not appeal to me if my pension fund owns it instead of me. I cannot see any benefit of it - I might be wrong though.

My plan was to move up the property ladder and sell it when I want to return to Thailand and buy a house there and hopefully still have some money left. Unfortunately, house prices stagnates for quite a while now.

I appreciate all your advices. I particularly like what IanB suggested - that there are other ways of investment/saving that I should consider - though I do not think I am able to make any investment now as I am only able to manage to get by each month. But I would definitely consider it I could get a better paid job.

Tara

A reminder to all

Whilst folks on here can detail different investment options, it is actually against the law to give specific investment advise unless the person is a qualified and registered 'Independent Financial Advisor'.

Cheers
Keith

keith and mol
i had a pal who still is a idependent finacial advisor
his advice has turned out to be my biggest loss of money so far.....

Put it into houses, and or land, can't lose.
But you need more than one house, 1 to sell in 25 years, when they will have doubled, and one to live in, then sit back and spend it.

Go out and buy some land or buy property and rent it out


Don't know if it is legal or not to say it , but thats what I do, and it works very very well for me



A bloke said to me "If Iknew property prices would increase as they have over the last 20 years I would have bought a few. I said "yes and you will be saying the same thing in another 20 years unless you do something about it.

It's easy money, then you start buying land and putting a house on it, next you buy a bigger plot of land and put more houses on it, next you spend it, in my case, next year in Thailand.
regards
Bryn

bryan
exactly they may drop for a period but they wil always worth double in 20 years

So that's about 4% compounded growth then. Not so good, especially if you need a mortgage to buy it.

If you feel that prices are as high as people can afford to get a mortgage for there's not much scope for increasing prices. Many people forget to factor in the additional costs such as insurance, council tax, maintenance.

On the whole, it's the same sort of risk as sharedealing, bonds etc.

BigRed

19 Years ago bought a bungalow down South with my dad for £30,000, this year worth £250-300,000 pounds I don't see it dropping down to £60,000 by year 20 . Shame I sold out my share many years back!

quote:

Many people forget to factor in the additional costs such as insurance, council tax, maintenance.

Council tax is paid by the occupunts, and that is the biggest monthly bill to pay

quote:

If you feel that prices are as high as people can afford to get a mortgage for there's not much scope for increasing prices.

But they are,and have done since the early 1900's,

Am I daft

Everyone, buy another house, it will be a pension an investment ,
you then control your money , rather than somebody investing it in stocks, (taking a broker fee) and then saying you have x amount left, don't do it. Have big cahoonas( Mexican) and take control of your own destiny, it is easy

Timed out on editing,
But, If I can do it, a thick Yorkshire bloke, then I can't see any reason why you lot can't It is A Piece of wee.
You just got to have big cahoona's,
It ain't rocket science

quote:

So that's about 4% compounded growth then. Not so good

I can,t think of anything better than property I have certainly made my self a VERY tidy sum of money, Don't know about percentages, cos I'm not bothered about them,What I am bothered about is if I can do what I want, when I want, and I can control if I want to sell, rather than somebody taking my money each month and losing it, hey, if I lose it is my fault, But if a broker, insurance co loses it's then you have some one to blame. Easy to blame somebody else

OK, looking at the FTSE 100 value over the last 20 years it has gone from 1,377.20 to 5,263.70. That's the value of the shares, not including the dividends over the period and no additional costs.

You mention council tax being paid by the occupiers, suggesting you are renting out. That's great if you can afford a house to live in and one to rent out, even better if you don't need a mortgage.

Houses have been a wonderful investment in the past 20 years, which is one reason to suspect that they have reached their peak. Endowment mortgages were performing really well for a long time, that is how they managed to dominate the market just before they crashed.

Either you take all your cash and put it on one number or you spread your money around, lower returns but lower risks.

BigRed

quote:

Houses have been a wonderful investment in the past 20 years, which is one reason to suspect that they have reached their peak.

If only we knew? Hindsight is a wonderful thing? Suspect that whilst house prices might plateau for a time, if you come back in 10 years or 20 years time then houses will no doubt be worth a lot more than now.

But those buying "buy to let" properties need to be careful. Lots of anxious people owning properties in University towns have been caught out by the Universities building lots more halls of residence in the last few years, leading to falling rents and even empty properties normally let out to students.

How can someone buy another house when they can hardly afford to pay the mortgage on their exisiting one??

Easier said than done.

Property will not fail, you have options -

Sell it-
Let it-
Live in It-

Also why it makes you money is you are borrowing money which you invest (The mortgage) when you invest in anything ekse you do not borrow money severla times your yearly salary, you earn monies pay tax then invest...


Sure its a risk, so what life is a risk what sthe worst can happen, you go bankrupt so what...

People are living longer
People are living alone
A lot of Eirope wants to live here
Our climate is safe V US, Asia

This is my view and not finacial advise, i suggest you speak to a financial adviser... speak but dont listen...

Pensions.. pay in they are tax efficient.. with one caveat.. be sure to know how long you will live..

Stick it on red,,,, no black... lump on what the worst that can happen...

quote:

How can someone buy another house when they can hardly afford to pay the mortgage on their exisiting one??

Assuming you bought your house a few years ago, remortgage it,
and then use the equity to buy something cash or to use as a deposit and if you do your sums, you may be able to afford it because the tennants will pay you rent,It depends on the price of your new home, income generated etc.
Get a calculator out, it may be that you can do the above without to much hassle.
regards
Bryn

Once you start on the house route one house finances the next with careful buying and using non status interest only mortgages. Also, Interest only mortagages are just another way of gambling on money being worth less in the future as one still has to repay the principal.

Tara,

I think you should be aware you are eligible for a British Pension even though you are not British. I'm going to get technical here. I assume you are paying British Taxes. I assume this includes National Insurance. British Pensions are based on National Insurance contributions (TAX). Not on the type of passport do you hold.

Are you Married? If so, what is your partner's nationality? What is your Gender? If Femail, do you have children? If so, do you get Child Benefit? The answer to these questions can affect your National Insurance contibutions, which sometimes the nice British government pays for you!

You can get a British State pension. It may be small, but something, is better than nothing.

There's an office in Newcastle that just deals with State Pensions paid aboard. As things currently stand, you would not be able to get a pension from the British Goverment until you are 65.

The important thing is to keep important documents. For example, marriage certificate, contracts of employment. For future reference.

Remember just Ten years of National Insurance credits gets you a pension. Note, I wrote credits, you can get credits even if you are not working.

Finally, it is possible to ask for a pension forecast. The number is 0845 3000 168. You will require your National Insurance Number (on your payslip).

Hope this helps
Andy