Should i just freeze my Pension

faolteam

Hi there i have two Private pension policies which i took out one in 1991 a small one and then later i had one which i took out around 1997 which would have been a bigger one were im paying about 460 a month ,

I was in with my accountant yesterday and my accountant was doing the tax relief and he was saying to me that the tax relief on the pension now is very poor and he was saying that a lot of people who have pensions now and don't get the tax relief as good just put the money in the credit union as the % on your money with pensions is nothing ( ie: under your Matttress)

what i would like to know is what other people here think

thanks in advance folks :cool:

Jim2007

Your accountant is blinded by the tax incentive! Just because the incentive is not there does not mean it is bad or good idea for that matter to continue contributing to your pension fund. The real question is how well is it performing versus other options and an estimate of who much you need to save in order to provide a reasonable pension for yourself plus of course the time line. If your accountant is not talking to you in these terms then I'd look else where for advice.

homer911

There is still significant tax relief on pension contributions, not to mention the potentially far greater returns from a properly managed fund. I changed jobs last August and so my pension pot with my old employer was frozen and I have left the funds there for now - in that time (end of August to end of March - 7 months), my pension pot has grown by 24%. Now I'm sure there will be plenty of people who will say they have done better, but its still far better than putting the equivalent in the CU..

Update - to 14/4: 26.1%

..Although investments can go down as well as up..

faolteam

and he did say realistically would have been better to put it under a bed fir what its worth now i could even be losing :mad:

Humour Me

And did he give you any suggestions on how to improve the performance of your pensions, like changing the investment strategy or moving to a lower cost provider?

Tax relief hasn't changed in the last few years so I'm not sure where he is coming from saying it would be better under the bed. I wouldnt make any decisions based on a comment he made unless he was recommending a better use for your money and you can see the actual financial benefits of putting your money somewhere else.

NewCorkLad

A financial broker advised you that it would have been better putting your money under the bed???


I think you need to go a get a proper review done on your pensions to see how they can be improved if they are performing that bad.