God wish that was the same here.
Lol. Just added edit to post!
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Guess it’s a trade off for sunshine and space. 
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Well, we at least have the space here, if not quite up to Outback standards…Otherwise the weather is kind of what you’d expect for a Mid-November, Thursday morning in Cambridgeshire 
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It’s starting to heat up after a unseasonably cold start to spring.
Well, about this time last year I asked for a transfer value from my DB pension and felt it was too good to refuse (I’d been tempted before but never thought it was the right time). As I had left the Company providing the DB pension and was a deferred member I was hammered by the terms of taking early retirement (which I plan to do very soon) so got independent financial advice and did the transfer.
Then Covid happened. Rather fortunately the transfer took several months and my money went into a private pension when the stock market was low, and now it is doing rather well compared to the amount I invested. My other pensions have also recovered so up on the deal at the moment.
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email back from IFA.
He charges 0.55%. The platform is 0.28%. No transaction fees.
You should have the usual (nowadays) plethora of paperwork to confirm this. When I signed-up with my IFA a small tree was felled in providing all the paper! And (IIRC) I also get annual confirmations of fees.
An aunt who has something (growth fund of sorts) with Barclays has not long since been ‘platformed’ and nobody there appears to be able to explain/justify to her why ‘platform fees’ have suddenly arisen. It can be a murky world.
My fees took a BIG dive down once the invested amount crossed 400K.
‘I don’t actually have an adviser as I think my needs are quite simple.’
That’s what I thought but what with a slew of PEPs & ISAs, the chat was enlightening, especially around fees/costs - and, often, the first chat is free.
He said to me that if I’d seen him c.5Y’s earlier, I’d be ~£30k ahead – a pair of 808s 
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Well, I guess he would say that. The IFAs I have seen have all been pretty good I think - including my brother who is one! - so I’d trust them to make better decisions that I would.
Reading various threads, I love the way we’re all aiming to spend our pensions on the following, not necessarily in order of priority:
1.Car
2.Speakers
3.5 series components
4.Photography equipment
5.Bloody nice holidays
6.University fees
Oh yes, and then an income!
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FYI, there’s a bit in the Torygraph on-line today suggesting a U-shaped drawdown profile may be the way to go for some e.g. big spends upfront, then live OK as the energy levels subside (70s), with capacity for larger drawings to cover likely health bills - yikes.
Yep, that is standard. Though personally if I need massive amounts of health care in my nineties, they can send me off in ‘Make room, make room’ fashion…
Since Jan 1st my pension funds are up 25% overall and S&S ISA up 66%. This doesn’t include any contributions paid in this year, just the value of the funds increase. Everything dropped by 30% in March/April, so the increase from then is markedly more.
@anon4216120 yes these ‘safe’ funds do tend to drop just as much as all the ‘apparently’ more riskier funds, but also don’t recover as fast, nor do they grow as much in the previous developing years. I look after my pension, ISA and my partner’s pension and so it does give me a good view of what grows, when, why and what falls. I invested hers into apparently safer funds, but they got hit just as much as mine and didn’t recover as fast. I have since invested hers as mine.
I don’t use an IFA nowadays. I’ve never had any good advice from them. I found the only good thing about an IFA was that it made me become interested in the subject of pensions/investing each year the meeting arrived, but the actually advice was pretty useless. I also found that my mind was wrongly reassured that my investments/pensions were being looked after in my best interest and my future was rosy. After years, I realised they had no interest whatsoever about my future. Once I started looking into this subject myself, I became more and more brave and opened up my own SIPP, then another, then a S&S ISA and it was the best decision I’ve done in my whole working career. Take control and you’ll understand so much more.
Ignore fund fees and platform fees. Opt for a good platform and choose managed funds.
Dabble in stocks if you like, but don’t put too much in them. They’re for fun, not a pension.
P.S. Apologies to any IFA. Obviously, there are some good ones and you obviously need them on certain subjects, but my point is if you totally leave it to their advice, you are not closely associated with your money.
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I’m really struggling with decisions about retirement and pensions at the moment.
I’m coming to the conclusion that as you say a ‘U Shaped’ profile might be useful, or at least a slope from left to right.
I suspect I’d be happier overall if I retire whilst I’ve got the appetite to do something with the time I have even if restricted slightly by having more modest resources, rather than continuing to work to pull in an income and continue building resources until 65 or so… then retire when I (and my partner) are too tired to enjoy the income we’ve built.
I suspect I’m going to prioritise free time over additional income.
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I agree…and, of course, income tax still applies to drawings above PA’s.
Not any use for investment but just retirement planning with an existing pot. I’ve kind of thought about living expenses as one pot to keep us going until the last one out goes, that need to be invested to cover inflation. Then there is another pot as ‘spends’ and how we might use that over the retirement years. What do we want to do, how much can we allocate to it and when do we want to do it. It helps focus the mind a little. No good hoping to spend the retirement pot on a Ferrari if I’m gonna be too old to drive it 
It’s a time of life when the old phrase ‘decisions, decisions’ comes to play and much will depend on goals, attitudes and capability to tolerate risk, need for income et al…remembering that previous investment performance cannot be seen as a reliable guide to the future.
I know some people who have taken pensions & lump sums as early as possible as they don’t trust their scheme/want to manage tax profiles, whereas others have held off in order to build their pot.
This is where I found talking to an IFA helpful i.e. getting a detached view.
I (early) retired in March. A few years ago my wife and I wrote down every penny we spent (without any comment from each other on what we spent it on). At the end of the year, I would put them into a spreadsheet, and group them (e…g entertainment/petrol/travel/TV licence, gas, electric, mot, etc) then against the total of each group, i would then enter 2 figures, one for percentage that would be a necessity, and a second on what would be a desirable in retirement. You will be surprised at what you decide you wont need in retirement. You then total the two columns and you end up with a lower and upper figure you want as income for retirement. That will help you to decide if your retirement funds have reached what they need.
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