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In this Meaningful Money Q&A episode, Pete Matthew and Roger Weeks answer six listener questions on UK personal finance - from gifting money to children using the 'normal expenditure out of income' rules to whether ISA withdrawals can support one-off big spends. They also cover pension consolidation and FSCS protection, investing while living abroad, how DB pension accrual affects SIPP annual allowance, and how to bridge the gap to State Pension without over-relying on AVCs. Finally, they tackle the practical steps to opening a Stocks and Shares ISA - and how to get started with confidence. Practical, jargon-free guidance for UK savers and investors navigating pensions, ISAs, tax and retirement planning. Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA53 02:35 Question 1 Hi Pete and Roger, I have followed meaningful money for around 6 years now and it has been an invaluable source of sensible advice which I have followed. This has left my wife and I in a very good situation for retirement as you will see below. You deserve an MBE at least!. Love the double act with Roger as well. I am 62 and my wife is 60 years young. Our total pensions will be around 35K a year which is all we need for our basic living cost and general going out etc. We have a house worth £750K with no mortgage and no debts. I have a DC pension around £920K and my wife around £650K and our two boys have just moved out of our house and so we are now retiring and relearning life B.C. (Before Children). I have begun looking into gifting them money out of excess income. I like the idea of giving with warm hands - and strangely so do my boys! Putting our scenario into google gemini, using UFPLS with regular drawdowns and keeping within the current 20% tax band we could each have around 50K income after tax over the next 30 years. Really cannot see us spending more than 40K/year travelling and this will certainly reduce in time as we get older and so will give the increasing excess to our kids. To keep HMRC documentation simple (hmm) we plan to use our joint account to give gifts to the boys but I am guessing that we will need to prove to HMRC that we have equal income to do this? So my wife will take 8.5K less from her DC pension than I from mine. I hope this all makes sense. I presume if our incomes were not balanced we would have to pay out from our individual accounts and document both for HMRC purposes? In addition I have 200K and my wife around £150K in ISAs and savings . I know we can each gift 3000/year from the ISA as well as using excess income from our pension. Again, I asked google gemini about this and apparently I can use the ISA for certain capital payments. Eg a) to buy a new car b) redo bathroom/bedroom c) a large holiday Not sure what would be the position if we said our largest holiday each year is paid from an ISA and any other holidays are from our pension income and we still gift excess to the kids? - seems a very grey area. I am sure in time HMRC will look closer into this area. So I think it will be sensible to still use the ISA in the next few years and not take everything from the pension and possibly change to funds from accumulation to income as well? One last thought as all this is based on the current tax rates. The IHT rate NRB has not changed since 2009 and would be worth around £530K today and I am presuming there will be increasing pressure to raise this given house price growth and especially after 2027 when pensions are included in the estate for IHT? Best Regards, Bill 09:37 Question 2 Dear Pete and Roger, I can't thank you enough for the excellent free content you put out into the world. I recently got diagnosed with a degenerative condition which will affect me and my family down the line. Your podcast has inspired me to take control of my finances including putting the right protections (insurances) in place and using investing to help navigate a more uncertain future - THANK YOU! The information is accessible and you guys make me chuckle as I go about my day! My question... I am keen to make my life easy when it comes to managing my finances but I have hit a wrinkle in my plan. My preference would be to consolidate my pension into as few pension accounts and underlying funds as possible. To me the levels of protection available through the FSCS seem too low to be compatible with keeping a pension all with one provider. Am I missing something? How do you think about balancing this risk, without ending up with lots of pension accounts with different providers? Additionally, I have been selecting the same low cost All-World tracker ETF across my family's ISAs and SIPPs, is this inherently risky too and should I aim to use different fund providers (perhaps that aim to achieve the same investment objective). Anyway, I may be being overcautious here or be misunderstanding the level risk but any reassurance would be greatly appreciated. Thank you again Andy 18:24 Question 3 Hi Roger and Pete, I'm 32 and I've been listening the podcast for a few years and the advice (particularly about investing) has helped me immensely. I have a question about investment portfolios when moving abroad. I moved away from the UK 2.5 years ago, at which point I stopped investing into Vanguard and moved to Interactive Brokers. I still have a decent amount invested in Vanguard, but I'm not sure whether it makes sense to consolidate everything into one platform or keep it split over two. I don't have any immediate plans to return to the UK, although I imagine I will eventually. Do you think it makes any difference in how the investments are split, or am I worrying about nothing? Thanks for sharing any of your *thoughts* and perhaps clearing this up for me. Keep up the amazing podcast, Michael (originally from Cornwall!) 21:23 Question 4 Hi Pete and Roger I recently discovered your podcast and am working my way though the back catalogue! I am finding it extremely informative and it is helping me demystify a subject I have found confusing for a long time, so thank you. My question is how do I calculate the amount I can contribute annually to my SIPP whilst also contributing to a DB pension and AVCs (£200/month)? My annual gross salary is £25744. I opened the SIPP to give me flexibility to retire earlier than 67 when I intend to access my DB pensions (as well as my current local government DB pension I have a deferred University DB pension from previous employment), ideally between 60-62, and access the SIPP along with my S&S ISA to bridge the gap. Thanks, Melanie 27:28 Question 5 Hello Pete & Roger, I'm a long time listener and as a result in far better financial shape than I was for many years, thank you. In work I am often akin to the Shawshank Redemption character Andy Dufresne as I find myself offering financial or pension scheme advice to colleagues. This advice ends with recommending your good selves and the knowledge repository that is the Meaningful Money archive and books! I am 56 and just over 4 years from my planned early retirement at 61, when I will have 36 years contributing into a company DB pension. I plan on taking this in a stepped format (with PCLS) to offer a higher initial payment until my state pension starts 6 years later at 67. To maintain basic rate income tax, I am paying my maximum matched pension contributions plus AVC's through salary sacrifice (until 2029) to keep just under the 40% tax limits. My wife will be solely reliant on her (full) State Pension having not contributed to a personal pension, she will receive this when I am 64, meaning our combined funding danger zone will be around 3 years during which we may need funds to top up our income either from the PCLS pot or ISA savings to this final combined total, "our figure". So my question: You repeatedly talk about retiring with options such as having pensions, ISA's and savings etc. but I am concerned my pension and AVC fund will be totally concentrated with little else. After maximising the pension and AVC contributions it looks likely I will not contribute enough to fund a savings pot that could comfortably cover the 3 year danger zone. Will this pension / AVC concentration matter? Should I continue paying the AVC's to avoid higher rate tax on my income and recovering tax rebate into the AVC pot? To me this makes sense, but would funding a savings pot give us flexibility to fund our pension gap somehow that I am missing, and do I need to target an ISA or other savings pot in my remaining working years. This prospect would feel like not living for today, but retirement is in touching distance so might it be worthwhile? Many thanks & best regards, Tim 34:52 Question 6 To the Bruce Springsteen and Little Steven of the financial world! Hi guys my name is Cam, I'd just like to say you guys are absolutely fantastic at what you do, the knowledge you provide is genuinely incredible and immensely helpful. I think I speak for all your listeners when I say without your podcast there would be a lot of people struggling with personal finance! Keep up the good work Pete and Rog! I am 27 years old, 17 months ago I quit my 9-5 and started my own dog walking business, I have since trained to become a dog trainer too. My business has gone from strength to strength and I'm very proud. However the change from going from a wage structure to a varied income per month has been a tough adjustment especially when saving and wanting to invest and so on. I contribute to my pension each month, I pay into a LISA each month (for a first time home) the only thing I don't do is pay into a stocks and shares ISA. Firstly how do I open one? I have listened to your podcast for well over 2 years now and have listened to the majority of the back catalogue, I feel like I know what to do but it's a genuine fear that's stopping me from opening one. I don't know how to explain it - it's almost like my head is telling me 'don't open one you'll mess it up.' Is it literally as simple as sign up to a provider, open an account, add money in each month? I feel stupid saying I'm fearful of opening one but I genuinely am! The last part of my question is simply is there anything else I should be doing that I'm currently not? Insurance wise I have income protection and the necessary insurances for my business. Thanks once again you absolute legends! Cam Boring Money ISA Comparison: https://www.boringmoney.co.uk/compare/stocks-and-shares-isas/
In this UK personal finance Q&A, Pete and Roger tackle six listener questions covering pensions, investing, tax and money mindset. We discuss whether high earners should ever consider opting out of the NHS pension due to annual allowance tax, how to handle family gifts during divorce, and what to do about ERI on accumulating ETFs in a GIA. You'll also hear guidance on rebalancing after strong fund gains, rebuilding finances after an IVA, and investing a £350k inheritance with ISAs, SIPPs and premium bonds. Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA52 01:34 Question 1 Dear Pete and Roger, Could you provide an opinion on if and when it would be worth at least considering leaving the NHS pension scheme due to tax reasons? I can sense immediate puckering and this is not something I ask on a whim - I am aware of the comparative value of public sector DB pensions versus other retirement savings methods and indeed encourage the staff I work with to pay in. I am a senior doctor in my 40s with high NHS earnings and rental income on top. I am one of those affected by Annual Allowance tapering and have significant AA tax bills every year with no end in sight. My projections are that I will have an annual AA tax charge of ~£30k every year going forwards as my income is pretty stable. The annual AA tax charge is up to 40% of the annual capital benefits accrued in any year (i.e. LTA calc of 20 times pension plus 3 times lump sum). I pay this via scheme pays but the scheme pays loan docked from benefits at retirement is inflated at CPI+1.7% against pension benefits growth of CPI+1.5% from my own research. I don't expect much sympathy as a high earner but no-one wants to pay more tax than they have to and I never hear my situation talked about other than snippets in the depths of Reddit forums. My plan is to keep ploughing on and engage a full-scale planning review when I turn 50 leaving up to 10 years to consider aversive action once my wife and I have 'enough' pension. Many thanks for your thoughts. David. 09:23 Question 2 Dear Pete and Roger, I want to say a big thank you for all of the guidance you provide, there really is nothing else like it and has been hugely beneficial in organising my finances. My question for you is how to structure gifts to someone who is going through the early stages of a divorce. My sibling is sadly in this situation and our mother is looking to make a sizeable gift to us following the death of our father. How should we be thinking about this and are there any vehicles or structures such as trusts that we could be using to avoid my siblings spouse from being entitled to half of the gift? Grateful for any guidance you can provide in this matter. Best regards, Alfred 13:12 Question 3 Hi, I have held several GIA accounts for many years and I hold accumulating ETFs within the GIAs. Occasionally, I have had to pay CGT through my self assessment when I have sold these ETFs. Mostly, I have always been a basic rate tax payer. I have recently discovered that HMRC requires Excess Reportable Income (ERI) to be declared on accumulating ETFs. In the case of ETFs which receive company dividends, this means I need to take note of the Reporting date of each ETF and add up all notional dividends as if they were paid on the distribution date (6 months later) and if over £500, I should have paid dividend tax on the excess. Also, in the case of some MMF ETFs I hold, these may have an ERI notional interest payment and this would count as being potentially subject to income tax. Since I have sold many of these ETFs and I have not subtracted the ERI amounts from my total gain, I have probably overpaid tax (CGT) rather than underpaid as a basic rate tax payer. However, if I was a higher rate tax payer, I would probably have been underpaying tax if I have not accounted for ERI. This is because the higher rate dividend tax is much higher than the CGT rate. I now understand that to avoid having to calculate ERI on accumulating ETFs each year and keep a running total for each one, most people simply buy distributing ETFs inside a GIA rather than accumulating ETFs and I am in the process of ensuring all my ETFs are the distributing kind inside my GIAs. Should I be concerned about ERI on my accumulating ETFs? Do accountants calculate ERI for their clients on all the accumulating ETFs they hold? If so, how do they do it as there does not seem to be any easy way? Do HMRC ever check that the ERI on accumulating ETFs has been declared (my guess is that they would only bother for high rate taxpayers with large ETF holdings)? How would HMRC even know that you hold large amounts of accumulating ETFs on which you should be declaring ERI? Why is it that hardly anyone seems to know about ERI on accumulating ETFs? 19:14 Question 4 Good morning both, I would like to start by thanking you for all your hard work over the past decade or so. I am a mid 40's year old woman who had no financial knowledge until about 2 years ago. I had a cancer diagnosis which led me to leave a very time consuming and stressful job and take over the family finances which had been neglected for the best part of 20 years. We are now in a much better position; we have filled our ISA's and that of our children, put more money into SIPP's (and opened one in my case) and opened junior SIPP's for the kids. Our mortgage is paid off too. I have listened to all your back catalogue and in some cases relistened to episodes which have been especially useful to our situation! Thank you. My question relates to funds that have done particularly well and what is best to do with them. Some of my earlier fund choices are showing gains of around 50%. This seems extraordinary to me and I am very happy with the return. My Dad (much more experienced who has been doing this for 50 odd years) tells me the best thing to do with these funds is to take out 50% of the gain and reinvest in a different fund. What would your advice be? Take out the whole lot and re-invest? Take out 50% and re-invest that as recommended by my Dad or leave the whole lot in and hope it continues to grow? For background, I am very happy with the gains but we are very much on a catchup programme as we have started so late. The sums involved are still quite small! The ultimate aim is for my husband to retire early. I hope to work again too at some point once all treatment is finished but only part time. I am so grateful for everything you have done and always wait eagerly for the next episode to drop. With very best wishes, Agnes 26:02 Question 5 Hi, Hope you are well and can help a Cornish lass! I am 35 and have never been able to budget or manage finances. In fact I have always buried my head in the sand. Unfortunately, when lockdown and maternity leave hit at the same time, we could not afford our debt repayments (we had purchased a house in January of 2020 too). We had no choice but to take out an IVA. We are now in the 6th year of this as it was extended as we couldn't release equity from our home. This is due to end in November of this year and I have been doing my best to learn about budgeting and managing finances ready for when this ends. I have started a spreadsheet to start tracking expenses and aim to start an emergency fund plus a pot for putting some money away for Christmas/birthdays. I have been discussing this with my husband and he thinks we should get an overdraft as soon as the IVA finishes to start building our credit rating, whereas I think we should get a small credit card that we pay off each time we use it. What do you think we should do as our first few steps coming out of the IVA to build more security for our future? Thank you in advance. Kindest regards Lisa 33:12 Question 6 Salutations, Roger, Pete, My question is on what to do with a lump sum inheritance-y thing as a younger guy. My parents have been very financially successful in business and incredibly generous to my brother and I, and gifted us each an apartment a few years ago, to make use of the "first property" exemptions and the 7 year gift rule. Now that I'm mature enough to understand the opportunity, I've taken control of the management of mine. While I understand it's an incredible income generating asset, I'm not a fan of real estate, and am much more comfortable selling the property and investing in index funds within the variety of wrappers available in the UK. After fees and taxes, should I go through with the sale, I will net approx £350k. My plan is as follows: - £47k into premium bonds (I currently have £3k) - £40k into my SIPP (limited by current salary) - £40k held in cash, to be invested into my SIPP in tax year 2, potentially up to £52k as my salary rises - Remainder into GIA - All invested in Vanguard index tracking funds I'm 26, working as an Officer in the military, so I have an incredibly low cost of living (subsidised accommodation and no utilities), and a non contributory DB pension plan, so no need to allocate money there, and am able to max out my S&S ISA yearly just with my salary. I know these steps are good, but having the best part of £220k in a GIA, paying CGT on the other end of that makes me a little unhappy, especially if I hold it for multiple decades. I'm aware this is a real champagne problem but do either of you have any recommendations on improvements to my plan and mindset, or are you able to poke any holes in my approach? Should I hold more in cash to later invest into my SIPP? Bed and ISA/ SIPP over time? Spend some of it, even? I know it's an aggressive approach, but I'm sort of an "all or nothing" sort of guy, even with investing as is referenced in my 70+% savings rate, but balance has always been hard for me to find. My goal is to be Financially Independent by 36. I'll likely keep working but I like the security of that idea, and the saltily coined term "F-you money". Whatever you both think, I will deeply ponder over and analyse for many hours. Thank you both for the many episodes of top tier information. I would apologise for the lack of brevity, but I know you love it really. Thanks guys, you're both rockstars! Nick
Markets continue pushing higher, AI stocks are still surging, and now SpaceX is preparing for what could become one of the biggest IPOs in history. But beneath the surface, Richard and James unpack why some of today's biggest market stories may be creating risks passive investors aren't paying enough attention to. In this episode of From the Trenches, Richard Taylor and James Boyle break down the growing concerns around index inclusion rules, passive investing, and why companies like SpaceX could fundamentally reshape how retail investors interact with the market. They also discuss rising oil prices, inflation pressure, interest rates, and whether America's global dominance is beginning to shift. The conversation then turns to one of the biggest issues currently facing British expats in America: UK pensions. Richard and James explain what a SIPP actually is, why so many expats leave old pensions untouched for decades, and the hidden costs, tax complications, and missed opportunities that can follow. They also unpack the upcoming UK inheritance tax changes on pensions and why these rules could dramatically change retirement planning for UK nationals living in the US. Finally, the episode explores the fascinating “Pig in the Python” demographic theory and why baby boomers may be unintentionally reshaping housing markets, politics, retirement systems, and economic growth for younger generations. -- Expat Wealth is supported by Plan First Wealth. Plan First Wealth is a Registered Investment Advisor serving fellow expatriates and immigrants living across the US on matters such as retirement planning, investment management, tax planning and non-US asset management. https://planfirstwealth.com/ -- Expat Wealth is affiliated with Plan First Wealth LLC, an SEC registered investment advisor. The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Plan First Wealth. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. Investments involve risk and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial adviser and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed herein. Plan First Wealth does not provide any tax and/or legal advice and strongly recommends that listeners seek their own advice in these areas.
Special Offer: Get 15% OFF your first FIGS order with code FIGSUK at checkout.Shop now at https://www.wearfigs.com/———————————————————————UK Dentists: Collect your verifiable CPD for this episode here >>> https://courses.dentistswhoinvest.com/smart-money-members-club———————————————————————Most investing mistakes are not dramatic blow-ups, they are quiet, expensive decisions made in the wrong order. We keep it simple and practical by using a four-part framework you can apply to any portfolio: choose your asset first, then the fund, then the account, and only then the platform. That one change stops you picking a shiny investing app and shoehorning your plan into whatever it happens to sell, and it puts the focus back on what actually drives results: asset allocation and time horizon.We dig into the part almost everyone gets wrong: confusing risk with volatility. Volatility is the price of admission for long-term returns, especially if you are investing for 10+ years. We also pull inflation into the conversation, because returns that fail to beat inflation are not real progress towards financial freedom. Using clear examples, we explore why some “low risk” portfolios can be risky in a different way, by making it harder to reach your goals.From there we move into the nuts and bolts: using funds, ETFs and index funds for global diversification, what to look for in tracking and fund charges, and why passive investing often wins after fees. We then weigh up UK investing accounts such as a General Investment Account, an ISA, and a pension or SIPP, focusing on the trade-off between tax efficiency and access. Finally, we talk platforms, the reality behind “no fee” claims, flat fee versus percentage pricing, and the fee ranges that should make you pause.———————————————————————Disclaimer: All content on this channel is for education purposes only and does not constitute an investment recommendation or individual financial advice. For that, you should speak to a regulated, independent professional. The value of investments and the income from them can go down as well as up, so you may get back less than you invest. The views expressed on this channel may no longer be current. The information provided is not a personal recommendation for any particular investment. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and all tax rules may change in the future. If you are unsure about the suitability of an investment, you should speak to a regulated, independent professional. Investment figures quoted refer to simulated past performance and that past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results/performance.Send us Fan Mail
My Vanguard portfolio recently hit £100,000!In this episode we go through all of my accounts (ISA, SIPP, GIA), how I built this up over time since 2019, and the mistakes and key lessons along the way. -----------------------------------------
My Vanguard portfolio recently hit £100,000!In this episode we go through all of my accounts (ISA, SIPP, GIA), how I built this up over time since 2019, and the mistakes and key lessons along the way. -----------------------------------------
In this UK personal finance Q&A episode, Pete Matthew and Roger Weeks answer six listener questions covering pensions, retirement planning, investing, and mortgages. You will hear practical guidance on topics like using UFPLS and ISAs for gifting, whether dividend income is a sensible retirement strategy, and what to consider before consolidating multiple pensions into one provider. The episode also tackles planning priorities, including how to sense-check your annual financial review, when it is worth switching to a higher-equity pension fund, and how to balance pension contributions versus ISA funding and mortgage overpayments. If you are looking for clear, jargon-free retirement and wealth-building advice in a UK context, this one is packed with real-world considerations and next-step thinking. Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA50 02:24 Question 1 Hello gents, My wife and I are hopefully about 5 years off retirement starting at 60, and thinking about options for gifting. We are both planning to stay within the basic band, but if plans go well we hope to support our kids while we're still alive with help towards a house deposit or similar. Am wary that a large withdrawal from a DC pot would likely take us into high rate tax. This would be mainly on me as we'd plan to spend my wifes smaller DC pot down during 60-67 to max personal allowance before state pension kicks in. Is there any downside if I immediately draw UFPLS from my DC up to the top of the basic rate threshold, and putting excess into a cash or S&S ISA? That would then build up tax free and be used to fund family gifts (or perhaps replacing a car). my thinking is - the portion we move to ISA is still effectively part of the retirement portfolio - just held in a different wrapper. thanks for your priceless information (for education and information only not guidance!) over the years. long may it continue! cheers, Richard 07:15 Question 2 Hello Pete and Rog, Loving the Podcast having only found it recently. You're doing great work. I've bought and read your retirement book, signed-up for an intro call with Pete and am thinking about doing your course. In the meantime, and I know this is greedy, I have three questions. I think they'll be interesting to your listeners, though, so here we go... First, what are your thoughts on funding retirement income completely or mostly from dividends / coupon payments, rather than capital withdrawal? For me it seems very attractive because I can draw-down the income on a quarterly basis while not touching the capital. That makes me feel safer from having to sell in a down-market. I can also expect the capital to grow a bit over time, at least the equity generating dividend element. That said, I've seen one of the other retirement finance podcasters say that technically it doesn't matter whether you take income or capital. Second, if I adopt an UFPLS approach to my pension and, rather than take a large tax free sum one-off, I take the 25% of each withdrawal as tax free, how does that work in the future in two respects. First, can the government later change the rules and say that I can no longer take 25% as tax free? I assume they can, which would be worrying. Second, does the lifetime £268k limit for tax free cash still apply cumulatively over-time i.e. can I only continue to take 25% of my withdrawals as tax free up until they cumulatively sum to £268k? Or, am I allowed to take 25% of each withdrawal, even as the fund might grow in value and then the total of these 25%s over say 10-15 years eventually exceeds £268k? Third, I'm aware the age at which you can take your pension is changing from 55 to 57. I will be 55 in March 2027, so can access my pension under current rules. But I will not be 57 when the change kicks-in in April 2028, so am I going to then lose access to my pension for a number of months until I then turn 57 in Mar 2029? I've heard someone say that there might be an exception for people who have already accessed their pension. I've also heard it depends on whether there are certain protections/terms around the individual pension fund. Any advice on whether this would be true would be very helpful. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on any or all of the above. Best of luck with the pod. cheers, Steve 14:52 Question 3 Hi Pete & Roger, Thanks for the advice (go on, name that film) over 2025 and the podcasts. There is a ton of material on you tube covering why pension consolidation is a good thing. How it simplifies the admin. How it makes it easier to track what you have and how it is performing etc. Why wouldn't I want to consolidate all my pensions and what could be the disadvantages of consolidation? Recently I've met with my IFA and for a year now I have been investing heavily into my SIPP. As the IFA he charges for the service he provides and I am happy with that (for now). The charges are low with this provider (Quilter) and it performs well as a medium risk opportunity. My IFA, rightly in my opinion, suggests avoiding keeping my Octopus (previously Virgin) pension as this doesn't offer flexi drawdown and is higher risk than my Quilter SIPP but with only slightly better performance. I have four pensions (SIPP) in total. Now my IFA would of course benefit from me moving all funds to Quilter as he receives a percentage fee on a larger chunk of funds. So that is a warning sign for me as he cannot really be impartial. At the moment I can track my pensions online and I do this almost daily, they all have the relatively same performance and together average about 9.6% over the past 12 months. They are all broadly within a single percentage point of each other. I can see the following arguments to avoid consolidation altogether. 1. Tracking multiple pension funds is not actually hard to do. 2. Maybe when it comes to flexi access draw down it gets a bit more complex to get the tax free elements right to be as tax efficient over the long term but the pension companies track the percentages taken so I cannot see this as a big problem either. 3. Having multiple SIPPS allows me see how they perform against each other. Sometimes one is a little more volatile than the others but in actual fact I'd like to see more volatility on one over the other. Makes things more interesting. Of course that might change in later life so I may choose to draw more heavily on the well performing fund with more risk as I reach later life years. 4. Multiple SIPPS allow me to have funds with different levels of risk associated with the investments, so I might choose one fund to have medium risk and another quite high. 5. The big one for me though. Why, why, why would anyone trust a single SIPP provider with all their future wealth? No matter how well it is managed today and the regulations which are in place and the FSCS protection etc, I just cannot stomach the risk in a single point of failure. Why? So the IT platform could collapse making the funds inaccessible either for a short time or for months. Rogue actors inside or outside the company could arguably sabotage the platform. Yes this is highly unlikely but it can happen. Spreading the risk mitigates this. There is a very real concern. Poor management of the funds could lead to a serious downturn in the investments whether that be short term or longer term. Now the underlying funds might underperform but if that is your key worry then you'd simply change the SIPP investments. When I research reviews on the web for anything I look for the pros and cons and decide which opinions seem most sensible to reach a balanced view. However in the case of pension consolidation everyone seems to recommending consolidation, not one article about keeping them separate. Yippee cay aye (same film) and best regards, Andrew 25:05 Question 4 Hi Pete and Roger, Love the podcast. I have just completed my annual review (thanks for the checklist from earlier seasons) and was wondering if you can suggest if there is anything else I should consider or am missing to help position me better financially. For context I am 37 and married with two children under 5. Pension - I contribute to my workplace pension which is 4% and the company contributes 8% (their max). S&S ISA - I invest 5% of take home pay into two vanguard funds monthly. Children S&S ISA - I invest a small sum monthly into each child's S&S ISA, both vanguard target retirement funds for when they turn 21. Emergency Fund - I have 4 months expenses in a cash isa. Life cover - I have a private policy and 8x salary death in service benefit. Critical illness cover - I have both a private and work policy. Income protection cover - Again I have both a private and work policy, work policy is limited to 36months and private policy is to age 65. Mortgage over payments - I overpay the mortgage monthly with aim of reducing LTV and length of term when current fixed rate ends Debt - I have no major debt I think I am in a good position, but wanted to sense check in case I am missing something. Thanks and keep up the good work. Marc Annual Review: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/2023/03/01/simplify-your-annual-review/ 28:22 Question 5 Hello to you both, I just wanted to say I really enjoy your podcast and your YouTube channel. My question relates to my Workplace pension. I want to move from the default lifestyled fund into a 100% global equity fund. I also have a SIPP and an ISA that are fully invested in the same global equity fund and I wanted to bring them all into line. I have a salary sacrifice scheme with a 5% employer match and I wanted to take full advantage of that by paying into a better fund. I can't fully transfer without losing the match so I have left it for too long. I am debt free including the mortgage and I have redirected my mortgage payment into my SIPP. My question is, at 47 3/4, is it too late to switch from the default fund? I'd welcome your take on that. Keep up the good work Kind regards, Matt 31:02 Question 6 Hello Pete and Roger, Really enjoy your podcast and find your advice really insightful, many thanks for what you do. My question is about pension planning and specifically about getting the balance right between pension contributions, ISAs and reducing my mortgage. I'm 46 and have saved from an early working age to build up a total pension pot amount of £510k as of today. I have prioritised my pension over other kinds of investments given the tax related attractiveness of pensions and use salary sacrifice as a way of keeping under £100k income - something important for us as a family in terms of qualifying for child nursery support, plus of course in maintaining my personal allowance. I find my job quite stressful and would like to be able to retire in 10 years at 57, or at least take on a lower paid (maybe even minimum wage) or part time role at that time for a few years until retiring fully. My assumption is that to be able to make this a reality it would be wise to build up my ISA, (which as of today totals only £15k), as a tax efficient bridge until nearer state pension age, and to minimise the need to drawdown excessively on my private pension in the early years. Assuming you concur, my question is would I be best to reduce my pension contributions to enable me to put more in my ISA? Of course this would mean potentially losing/ reducing my personal allowance. The other factor in play here is my mortgage which is higher than I'd like at £380k. Ideally I'd like to increase my level of mortgage overpayments significantly in order to try to reduce the balance as much as possible over the next decade whilst working full time but again this will see me going over the £100k income level in order to do so. I know I could probably clear whatever mortgage is remaining in 10 years from my tax-free pension amount but I'd like to minimise taking the tax free money in order to help the pot compound as much as possible to take me through to old age but also help support our two girls who are currently just 8 and 3 in their early lives. Your thoughts and advice would be gratefully received. Many thanks in advance and please do keep up the great work you do! Kind regards, Lee
Castro Coleman, aka Mr. Sipp, was born in McComb, MS and has been playing the guitar since the age of 6. A Malaco recording artist, he was awarded The Blues Foundation 2016 Best New Artist for his album, The Mississippi Blues Child. This week we feature a live performance from the Mighty Mississippi Music Festival captured during Bridging the Blues. (original air date 12.07.16) BSC contributor William Lee Ellis continues his series, Religion and the Blues.
In this episode of the Meaningful Money Podcast Q&A, Pete Matthew and Roger Weeks answer six real listener questions on UK personal finance - from inheriting a SIPP (and the under-75 vs over-75 rules), to how inheritance tax could hit a property-heavy estate. They also discuss what to do with a large Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) holding, whether a longer 35-year mortgage can be a safer option, and the realities of financial planning for UK expats. Finally, they tackle a growing concern for many UK investors - how to protect wealth from increasingly sophisticated scams and impersonation fraud. Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA49 02:04 Question 1 Hello Pete & Rog. Thanks for the wonderful podcast I will keep it as brief as possible as it means hopefully you can squeeze more content for your listeners. I am a 35 yr old renting in London with a salary of approximately 35k and would consider buying my own place if I could build up enough of a deposit. My mum died a long time ago but my dad has just been informed that he has a medical condition which will probably end his life in the next 5 years or so. He is currently 73. I don't have any siblings and my dad has shared with me the details of his assets which primarily comprise of a SIPP of around 200k (he has taken and spent his 25% tax free amount). My question may sound a bit morbid but it reflects the reality of life unfortunately. It's about the rules of inheriting this SIPP. I'm not sure I fully understand the 'rules' about if my dad passes away before 75 or after he is 75. My understanding is that if less than 75 I can just 'cash in' the 200k tax-free and for example use it as a deposit for a house. That seems straightforward. But hopefully he will get well past his 75th, so if that's the case I understand the 200k would be taxed as income, so I would be crazy to take it all out in that way. So what would be my options in that case? - Is there any way to take it out of the pension wrapper without having to pay tax to give a bit more flexibility? - could I just inherit it as a pension and if so, would I still be able to take 25% tax free? - can I draw down from before I reach pension age e.g. to pay the mortgage or rent (mindful not to go up into the next tax bracket)? Have I got the rules right and are there any other options I could consider? Regards, Steve 07:08 Question 2 Hi Pete & Roger Love the content and just discovered your YouTube podcast! I'm concerned about my wife parents (Mid 70s) inheritance tax liability and was wondering if you had any advice on how to structure the portfolio to reduce it or if it was worth considering a gifting strategy. Primarily I'm concerned as the recent inclusion of pensions into IHT from 2027 and I'm pretty sure their estate is over 2m and therefore a reduced residence nil rate. Rough figures are below: Current house - 1.1m (according to Rightmove - jointly owned) Own another house 800k (according to Rightmove - jointly owned) Own a holiday letting business (retirement business) which has three properties circa 1.1m (according to Rightmove - jointly owned) With this in mind I put their IHT liability at 2m+ without factoring their pensions Questions What do you consider the ball park IHT bill to be? How do you suggest my wife (mid 30s) approach this issue? Or should she just deal with the cards as they lie in the future? Tony 14:05 Question 3 Hi Pete & Roger, I wanted to start with a thank you for your podcast - specially for acting as the friendly, inclusive and relatable voices of finance. The podcast is a welcome change to the scarier world of finance which many of us sometimes run and hide from! My question for you is regarding my ESPP. I was employed by a US-based company around 10 years ago. During my time there I was able to sacrifice a percentage of my salary which was put towards the purchase of company shares at a discounted rate. It's a very effective scheme, and although my salary there was modest, I've been able to leave the shares alone which are now worth around £230k. The predicament I now have is what to do with these shares. I've been happy to let the shares sit and grow, which they have been doing extremely well, though the value of them now has me wondering what my future strategy should be. For reference, the 10 year growth on these shares is around 850%. As far as I'm aware, I'll need to pay tax on these shares when it comes to selling them as there's no way to transfer them into my stocks & shares ISA or similar. So it's either leave them where they are, or sell some/all of them now and transfer the cash (after tax) into my stocks & shares ISA, SIPP or elsewhere. I'm 40 and looking to purchase a house next year with my partner - though we don't need these funds for that purchase. I have a stocks & shares ISA, a cash ISA and a SIPP, as well as a modest amount in a LISA and cash savings. Whilst I don't feel like I have all of my eggs in one basket, I do feel increasingly nervous about the value of the shares which are entirely dependant on the success of one company. That said, the returns to date have been incredible and I wouldn't want to miss out on future growth. I'd love to know if you have any guidance on this, and if there's any factors that I haven't considered yet. Thanks again, Ian 20:36 Question 4 Hi Guys, Love your podcasts. You've helped me a lot with understanding my finances and I'd love to ask a question. My wife and I are 36 and have been back in the UK for 3 years. We are hoping to buy our first property in 2026. Due to our age, is it okay and safer to do a 35 year mortgage and pay more off monthly to pay the mortgage off quicker? We aren't high earners but hoping to put any extra onto the mortgage principle. Hope to hear from you. Kind Regards, Dhiren 23:49 Question 5 Dear Pete and Roger Thanks a lot for all the education and sensible insights you are providing to all I am an avid listener of your podcasts and watch your videos regularly. Now I can see Roger as well. Both very handsome and knowledgeable. Your discussions are lively and interesting. I am also a member of the academy from the beginning. Also on Facebook community. Currently working my way through retirement guide. I am working abroad for nearly 8 years. I was told by a financial planner that he can't advise non UK tax payers as per regulations. Since then you have been my main source of information and guidance. I am an Ex NHS consultant and now receiving pension. I have a very small SIPP and substantial Investment ISA which I can not contribute to. So my main investment is through GIA. All via Vanguard. Apart from this I have stocks and shares account with a couple of providers which helps me to keep thinking about investment opportunities. I am not a big risk taker and currently doing well with my stocks. I read and listen to a variety of educational materials to help with this I have 2 questions. Is it possible to get financial planner help for UK citizens while working abroad? What should I do with my investments before coming back to UK to live, for tax planning and reduce risk of huge tax for selling investments after coming back? Currently I am in Middle East with zero percent income tax. My pension is also at zero percent under DTAA arrangements. Sorry for long question. Thanks a lot again for your suuuuuuuuuper work. Continue great job Kind regards, Sudhakar Link: Perceptive Planning https://www.perceptiveplanning.co.uk/world-citizens 28:37 Question 6 Hi Roger and Pete, Love the podcast. Thank you for everything. This is about to be a long question, for which I'm not at all sorry. I've seen articles and videos about the increased sophistication of hacks and scams. Things like stealthily getting access to accounts and for years collecting information that can then be used to impersonate you to socially engineer access to bank accounts. AI plays a part in letting people change how they sound to make impersonating on calls easier than ever. Going forward, I'm worried that one of the biggest threats to my wealth is not a market crash, but someone getting access to my investments through fraudulently calling support lines and impersonating me, or alternatively getting access to my money through 'traditional' password leaks and viruses. To this end, I've been overpaying my mortgage as a way of having money locked away in an asset that cannot be liquidated without a solicitor (and hopefully more stringent checks of identity), but I'm going to be mortgage-free in less than 5 years at this rate. My question is: Am I overblowing the risk here, and what are my options if I want to reduce the my risk from this perspective? I have considered: - Having multiple S&S ISAs with different providers should mean that only a fragment of my portfolio can be lost through any one hack. - Buying 'real' estate as an investment seems appealing from a security standpoint, regardless of expected returns, and although recent changes have made BtL less attractive, the old Rothschild saying of "Buy when there's blood in the streets" could mean that now might be a good time to buy. Is there an advantage in having overseas property as a wealth storage mechanism? - Putting money in my DC pension pot will lock the money away until retirement, but suddenly becomes fair game to foul play once I do. - Buying an annuity is not as fiscally efficient as drawdown, but is an attractive way of mitigating risk of losing it all to a scam caller. Especially if I'm old and doddery and more likely to fall for a scam. - Buying physical gold (and a safe or a Swiss safety deposit box) doesn't appeal to me, but I have considered it. Please assume that I'm being sensible with passwords and 2FA. My question isn't about basic IT security practices, but which of these decisions you think might be a good/bad decision and whether there's anything I haven't considered. Thank you, Alex Link: Cal Newport - https://calnewport.com/
The Sipp-N-Chatt Podcast BACK In-studio AND They Took Over! Lots of laughs-good conversations-idea exchanges-and did I say laughs! Enjoy! Follow them and give them a listen: https://sippnchatt.com/ ===== THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS: (Welcome to our NEW sponsor) Signal Investigations: https://www.signalpi.com/ Nutrition World: https://nutritionw.com/ Vascular Institute of Chattanooga: https://www.vascularinstituteofchattanooga.com/ The Barn Nursery: https://www.barnnursery.com/ Optimize U Chattanooga: https://optimizeunow.com/chattanooga/ Guardian Investment Advisors: https://giaplantoday.com/ Alchemy Medspa and Wellness Center: http://www.alchemychattanooga.com/ Our House Studio: https://ourhousestudiosinc.com/ Team Montieth Real Estate - Lori Montieth: https://www.findchattanoogarealestate.com/ Ballinger and Associates - Risk Management: https://ballingerandassociates.com/ AirSpace Acoustics: https://www.airspaceacoustics.com/ BWELL4EVER: Labs and IV Therapies: https://www.bwell4ever.org/ ALL THINGS JEFF STYLES: www.thejeffstyles.com PART OF THE NOOGA PODCAST NETWORK: www.noogapodcasts.com Please consider leaving us a review on Apple and giving us a share to your friends! This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm
Time for another Q&A episode where Roger & Pete answer questions on retirement planning, passing assets to children. SIPP vs ISA and much more! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA47 01:42 Question 1 Hi Pete, Roger, and Nick, Thank you for the podcast - I've been listening for a while but fell behind and just binged about 15 Q&A episodes over the last fortnight! There's nothing like listening to the podcast to get me fired up about my finances! I have a question about the upcoming change to minimum retirement age, and a question about how to use my SIPP versus S&S ISA post-55/57. I was born in February 1972 and so by my reckoning should be ok to access my SIPP at 55. However, I heard somewhere that access could be removed at the date the law changes, because I wouldn't be 57 by that date. Can you shed any light please? It doesn't make sense to me to grant access then take it away. The reason I'm asking is because I'm thinking that in the next year I should favour putting money into my SIPP for the tax relief instead of into my S&S ISA, since I can access it within a short time anyway if I really needed to. Once I'm 55, does it still make sense to put money in the ISA at all, given the SIPP will continue to have tax relief so long as I'm working? All the best and looking forward to the videos coming out! Chris 07:04 Question 2 Hi Pete & Rodger, My wife & I are both aged 55 & I plan to retire aged 60 possibly a little earlier my wife isn't sure exactly when she will stop at the moment. I currently have a work place Scottish Widows default pension lifestyle turned off £225,000 I pay in 31%, company pays in 4%, salary sacrifice I then occasionally move funds to my 100% equities SIPP low cost global index fund £442000. My wife has a small DB pension and 45,000 in a SIPP again all in equities. My plan is to retire at 60ish on the SW pension to bridge the gap to state pension age 67. Leaving the SIPPS invested in equities both in low cost global index funds. Possibly adding some bonds a few years out from state pension age. Currently 20k emergency fund cash isa and my liquid assets whisky collection. Do you feel I could improve my plan or is it reasonably sound? Kind regards, Lee. 12:48 Question 3 Hi Pete & Roger, I have a deferred DB pension which in 2018 (when it closed) I was told my annual pension at age 62 would be £18270. The pension is capped at CPI or 2.5% annually, whichever is lower. As such it is getting deflated by high inflation. As of today it's £21840. (With CPI it would be £23830 or even £26050 with RPI). I have a decent DC scheme to top it up but what can I do mitigate this decline with transfer out values currently quite low? Thanks for your advice. Richard 18:08 Question 4 Hello Pete and Roger, Firstly, thank you for your brilliant podcast - it really is absolutely fantastic. Since discovering it early in 2024, I've listened to almost every show! I love the way you both make complicated concepts easy to understand and often have me chuckling along at the same time! I have a question to you both about inheritance tax and a potential way to reduce, or even eliminate, its effects. I don't believe you have covered this particular strategy, so I'm very interested to hear your thoughts. Here's what I am thinking. My wife and I are both 43 and have two lovely children aged 7 and 9. We both work full-time in well-paid jobs and save a good amount into our pensions and ISAs, whilst also ensuring we 'live for today' by going on regular holidays and spending as much time as possible with the children (whilst they still like spending time with us!). Our rough combined financial position is as follows: - £1m in company DC pensions, contributing at a rate of about £85k gross per year - £350k in stocks & shares ISAs, contributing at a rate of £40k per year - For each child – £40k in Junior SIPP contributing at a rate of £3600 gross per year, and £10k in Junior ISA with no significant annual contributions - A house that is worth about £700k with £400k still to pay on the mortgage (remaining term 15 years) I am aware that it's very early to think about inheritance tax, and I know that rules in the future will very likely change. However, it's very conceivable to me that our children will incur a very significant IHT bill when we both shuffle off (to use Pete's phrase!). My "solution" to this is as follows. When our children reach the age of 18, rather than paying £40k per year in our ISAs, we will pay it directly into their ISAs. We will fund this either through earnings (I still love my job and envisage working well into my 60s), and/or from one or both of our pensions. When we are retired, we plan to take regular payments from our pensions up to point where we would start paying higher rate tax; this will hopefully allow us to live comfortably whilst also contributing to our children's ISAs. Any shortfall will be covered by our own ISAs. We will give this money to our children on the basis that it is still our money if we ever need it (e.g., care homes, massive holiday, Lamborghinis, etc). In other words, we will tell them that we will continue paying them £20k a year each provided that they do not touch it and have it available for us if we ever need it. With a bit of luck, we will never need it, and both our children will ultimately receive a substantial sum of 'inheritance' without paying any IHT. I appreciate there are some risks associated with this strategy. The two that I can think of are as follows. Firstly, there's a risk that we fall out with our children and lose control of the money. Secondly, if one our children marries, then divorces, then half of the money we've given them may disappear to someone else. This is definitely a concern. However, provided we are both comfortable with these risks, do you think this is a sensible method of transferring wealth to our children, and can you think of anything other considerations we need to think about? I'm probably missing something really important so it'd be great to hear your thoughts! Thanks again for your amazing podcast – I really do love tuning in every week! Thanks, Martin 28:19 Question 5 Hello gents, My question is this : if someone is looking to retire pre-state pension, and bridging that gap, what are the primary options available? I've been looking at for example - fixed term annuity if rates are good; bond ladder (feel a bit overwhelmed on this); money market fund; bung it in a cash savings account. I'm assuming I want minimum volatility - is that the right approach to take? Richard. 32:18 Question 6 Hi Pete, Roger and Nick I have become an avid listener in the last three months, having just taken Voluntary Redundancy at age 63. I have benefitted hugely from your expertise and listenable style. Many thanks. I'm imagining that if you include this question in your podcast you might mention a tax tail wagging the dog. However, I don't want my dog to miss out on performing tax tricks. My question concerns whether I can take taxable income from my SIPP whilst leaving my tax-free lump sum untouched. I would then like to take the tax free lump sum at a future date to fund a home relocation. Is this possible? The background is as follows: My DB (£40k) pension will kick-in at 65 (18 months to go) when I will also take a lump sum which I will place into my and my wife's ISAs. I have to do this at 65 due to scheme rules. So in the meantime we're living on my £100k redundancy pay which is sizeable enough to also fill our ISA allowances for 25/26 financial year. I will avoid higher rate income tax on this VR payment via a SIPP contribution. This means that our current and future 2 financial years ISA contributions will be full and I will also have a SIPP bumped up to £250k. However, it will also mean most of my VR pay will then be in SIPP and ISAs leaving us short on spendable income next year! But next financial year, being un-salaried, I will have the opportunity to take £50270 from my SIPP whilst limiting my income tax to 20%. This will then fill next years income gap. (Once I start receiving my DB pension I will find it harder to get the remaining SIPP funds out without paying 40% income tax as the state pension plus DB will then take me over £50270). I don't want the tax-free lump sum next year as I don't have a need for it until age 65 when we plan to relocate and I can't put it in ISAs because I've already filled them. So can I start taking taxable income but leave the tax-free lump sum in the SIPP where it currently performs the function of an ISA (ie tax-free growth). Alternatively, am I just being a bit silly and making life overly complicated? Your wise observations will be eagerly received. I have done my own cash-flow modelling in detail and this is just a simplified summary of the main facts. Once I am in the new routine post-65 then it'll become a lot easier, but these few steps in the dance over the next couple of years require a great deal of thought. Kind regards, Tom
This week André Arian and Osaid is back to talk some football!Stockholm really showed up against a AIK team that doesnt look like they belong, Tyresö went down to Kristianstad and had a solid performance and Göteborg had their home opener for the first time in the SuperSeries. But the main topic this week is that Carlstad channeled their inner 2008 Miami Dolphins and played in WildcatWe also go through our Power Rankings and we talk about the 2 games that we have this week!
Topic: Malcolm and Carol take on Sipp & Savor 2026. They try food and chat with different chefs at The MAX in Meridian for their 6th annual fundraiser.Guest(s): Alon Shaya, Penny Kemp, Loma Xayalinh, and Diane Walton Host(s): Malcolm White and Carol PalmerEmail: food@mpbonline.orgIf you enjoyed listening to this podcast, please consider contributing to MPB: https://donate.mpbfoundation.org/mspb/podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
His Pension LOST £20,000 Since The Start of Iran War Ex-Teacher's SIPP lost 15%! Learn how to protect your pension and investments from a stock market crash. Watch video version - https://youtu.be/fc3NXqqWgAw 3 Steps To Success Money Management! I want to take you to the next level, help you get control of your money, learn how to invest and become financially free. Join me online on my free live money management training Wednesday at 7.00PM. Places are limited, so register now below to avoid disappointment. https://bit.ly/3QPp8IH Why Invest in Gold and Silver? See full video - https://youtu.be/or-8kiTZZxM See my interview with Josh Saul, gold expert, discussing the merits of including precious metals in your portfolio. Click here https://pure-gold.co/charles-kelly for a free gold, investment report, and discovery call. For a free gold, investment report, and Discovery Call, click here. https://pure-gold.co/charles-kelly Landlords Dragged Into Section 24 TAX As 7 million people set to pay higher rate, 40%, tax this year, 16,000 millionaires will leave the UK this year under Rachel Reeves tax policies. Watch video - https://youtu.be/zH1p2uXz4C8 More landlords are being sucked into higher tax bands and paying more tax due to George Osborne's ‘Section 24' tax hike. If you are a buy-to-let property landlord and help with Section 24, contact: Charles@charleskelly.net #section24 #landlordtax #MoneyTipsPodcast #MakingTaxDigital #UKLandlords #PropertyInvesting #stockmarket #pensions #iranwar #Trump #oilprices #goldandsilver
Topic: Malcolm and Carol get prepared for Sipp & Savor 2026 and welcome Octavio "Tavi" and Shannon Arzola to the show to talk about their unique businesses in Gulfport, Tavi's Salumeria and Pop Brothers. They discuss Tavi's Spanish heritage, culinary journey across the United States, and how he and his wife brought a unique European dining experience to the Gulf Coast. Guest(s): Octavio "Tavi" and Shannon Arzola Host(s): Malcolm White and Carol PalmerEmail: food@mpbonline.orgIf you enjoyed listening to this podcast, please consider contributing to MPB: https://donate.mpbfoundation.org/mspb/podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Sipp-N-Chatt Podcast Takeover: Carlos Hampton, Randy Stargin Jr., Darrell Hinton, and Special Guest - David Karnes! 24-Hours of podcasting raising money for Lana's Love and the YMCA/YCAP program! You can still give by texting 'podcast' to 44834! Over 40 guests from Chattanooga, Nashville, Atlanta, New York, California, and Austrailia! Infotainment at it's best! Business-Culture-Life----conversations designed to keep people tuning in, sharing, and giving! (Pod-A-Thon Sponsors: Quality Tire, Barn Nursery, Optimize U, Ballinger and Associates, Nutrition World, Montieth Realty KW, Eric Buchanan and Associates, Chattanooga Fitness Expo, and The Nooga Podcast Network) ===== THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS: Nutrition World: https://nutritionw.com/ Vascular Institute of Chattanooga: https://www.vascularinstituteofchattanooga.com/ The Barn Nursery: https://www.barnnursery.com/ Optimize U Chattanooga: https://optimizeunow.com/chattanooga/ Guardian Investment Advisors: https://giaplantoday.com/ Alchemy Medspa and Wellness Center: http://www.alchemychattanooga.com/ Our House Studio: https://ourhousestudiosinc.com/ Team Montieth Real Estate - Lori Montieth: https://www.findchattanoogarealestate.com/ Ballinger and Associates - Risk Management: https://ballingerandassociates.com/ AirSpace Acoustics: https://www.airspaceacoustics.com/ BWELL4EVER: Labs and IV Therapies: https://www.bwell4ever.org/ ALL THINGS JEFF STYLES: www.thejeffstyles.com PART OF THE NOOGA PODCAST NETWORK: www.noogapodcasts.com Please consider leaving us a review on Apple and giving us a share to your friends! This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm
UK Dentists: Collect your verifiable CPD for this episode here >>> https://courses.dentistswhoinvest.com/smart-money-members-club———————————————————————Renovating a dental practice can feel like writing cheques into a black hole. Chairs, HVAC, electrics, partitions, compliance work, reception fit-out, lighting, plumbing, fire systems… the invoices stack up fast, and the tax impact is usually treated as an afterthought. We want to change that. Tax relief through capital allowances can turn a big chunk of commercial property and fit-out spend into real cash flow, and when it's done properly it is solid, HMRC-recognised planning rather than anything gimmicky.We're joined by Chris Lonergan from Bonham and Brooke, a specialist team that blends tax, accountancy and quantity surveying to find what many practices miss. We unpack the key categories dentists need to know: structures and buildings allowance (slow, 3% per year) versus plant and machinery allowances (often far faster). Chris shares a real dental fit-out where around £470,000 of £471,000 spend qualified, and explains how that can translate into tens of thousands in corporation tax savings or even a six-figure income tax repayment for the right circumstances.We also get practical on the “who can claim and when” questions: what happens if the property sits in a SIPP, how allowances can be unlocked when you buy from residential use, a charity or a developer, and why leasehold improvements can still qualify because the relief follows the party who paid. Then we finish with the weird but real edge cases that show why itemised invoices and specialist review matter, right down to doors, hinges and functional finishes.———————————————————————Disclaimer: All content on this channel is for education purposes only and does not constitute an investment recommendation or individual financial advice. For that, you should speak to a regulated, independent professional. The value of investments and the income from them can go down as well as up, so you may get back less than you invest. The views expressed on this channel may no longer be current. The information provided is not a personal recommendation for any particular investment. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and all tax rules may change in the future. If you are unsure about the suitability of an investment, you should speak to a regulated, independent professional. Investment figures quoted refer to simulated past performance and that past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results/performance.Send us Fan Mail
If you're a UK beginner and you're not sure where to start investing in 2026, Pete and Roger talk you through a calm, step-by-step investing order to follow. They cover when to build a buffer, tackle expensive debt and use employer pension matching, plus how to choose between a Stocks and Shares ISA and a pension. You'll also hear the key beginner mistakes to avoid so you can invest with confidence and stay the course. Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA43 02:00 Question 1 Hi Pete and Roger I'm late to investing but thanks to your informative and entertaining podcasts and books - I feel on track to at least a decent retirement. I'm on a £60K salary and currently manage to contribute around £25K annually via salary sacrifice - which keeps me happily and comfortably within the 20% Income Tax bracket. However, with the Salary Sacrifice Cap coming in April 2029, I will end up in the higher-rate tax bracket. I was thinking about using my employer's Car Benefit Salary Sacrifice Scheme to help bring down my taxable income – whilst still maintaining the maximum salary sacrifice and utilising Relief at Source my AVC. I'm fully aware of the saying "don't let the tax tail wag the investment dog" but I was planning on getting a car in 2029 – when my mortgage is completed – so this might be a good alignment. My question's are: Can you confirm whether the Salary Sacrifice Cap applies to pensions only — and does using the car salary sacrifice scheme seem like a sensible idea in this context? Is there anyway that paying into my AVC via Relief at Source and claiming the higher-rate relief via Self-Assessment would result in HMRC issuing me a new tax code for the following tax year. Keep up the good work – and all the best to you and your families for the festive season. Thanks, Cris 06:43 Question 2 Hi, I recently came across your podcast and have not stopped listening to all the older episodes, and look forward to the new ones each week. Keep up the great work! I'm a 53 year old business owner looking to exit my business within the next 3 years via a sale and hope to receive around £1.5 - £1.8m from my share of the proceeds after tax. My wife is 8 yrs younger than me and will probably still be working doing some consultancy work. She has her own pension and savings in ISA's (currently a combined pot of around £250k which will hopefully grow over the next 10+ years) but we wouldn't need to access that till much later as required. My 2 questions are: 1. What would be the best way to invest the lump sum from the sale of my business to provide an income to support my retirement without having to necessarily eat into the capital or touch too much of my savings / pension early on as it will need to provide for my wife and I for quite a few years if we retire / semi retire in our mid 50's. Having looked at our living costs we would need around £60k p.a - albeit to live comfortably. Any holidays / large purchases etc could be funded through savings. 2. How would you prioritise what pot of funds you use first to make it the most tax efficient, enable growth and ensure that the pots do not run out. Given the new IHT rules on pensions is it now wise to use those first including the 25% tax free lump sum or use the ISA's / savings first leaving the pensions to continue growing in their tax wrapper. Thanks, Jeremy Meaningful Academy Retirement Planning: https://meaningfulacademy.com/retirementplanning 14:53 Question 3 Hello Peter and Roger You answered a previous question for me on the podcast so thank you for that, and I hope you don't mind me asking another one! We're in the very fortunate position of being able to pay the full £60,000 annual allowance into my pension scheme this tax year and are considering making additional contributions using unused allowance from previous years. I understand that the total contribution we could make would still be limited by my annual salary this tax year - my question relates to how that is defined. The contributions are made using a combination of salary sacrifice into my work scheme and lump sum contributions to my SIPP which is separate from the work scheme. So, would my "salary" that would be the limit for total contributions be the salary before salary sacrifice or after? And is the "salary" further reduced by the contributions to the SIPP, as I believe my adjusted net income for calculating tax bands is? Perhaps some hypothetical numbers would help. Let's say my gross salary before salary sacrifice is £125,000 and I salary sacrifice £25,000, and my employers' contribution is £5,000. Let's say I also pay £24,000 by bank transfer into my SIPP, so I'd receive £6,000 of tax relief into the SIPP. If I've understood it correctly, my adjusted net income for tax purposes would be £70,000 (which is £100,00 salary after salary sacrifice minus £30,000 gross contribution to SIPP). In total, £60,000 has been paid into my pensions which is the full annual allowance for this year. If I had £120,000 of unused pension allowance from the previous three tax years, what is the maximum additional amount I could pay into my SIPP this tax year? Is it £65,000 gross (so £52,000 net), to bring the total paid into my pensions up to £125,000, my pre-sacrifice salary? Or £40,000 gross (so £32,000 net), to bring the total paid into my pensions up to £100,000, my post-sacrifice salary? Or some other amount, if the salary that counts for this year is limited to the adjusted net income? Thanks so much for your help - I know it's a bit technical but I can't seem to find the answer anywhere! All the best, Fran 19:33 Question 4 Dear Pete and Roger, I've been listening to the podcast for years now, and it always makes my Wednesday commute more enjoyable. Every time I hear your names together, I think of The Who, so thanks for all you do, helping people of My Generation become Finance Wizards and make smarter decisions so we don't get Fooled Again. I'm 34, and after working in the small charity sector since university, I've accepted a role in a larger organisation which comes with a significant pay increase, taking my income over the Higher Rate threshold. As I step into this new tax band, what reliefs, allowances, or financial planning considerations should I be thinking about? In particular, I'm aware there are some reliefs (particularly for Gift Aid donations and pension contributions) that I will be able to claim through self assessment; do they 'compete' with each other in any way, or can I claim the full relief on both? Thanks for all you do, Tim 23:40 Question 5 Pete & Roger Great podcast - don't ever retire! I've just started receiving my state pension (now you know how old I am) but I was wondering how I can check that the government are paying me the correct amount. I have more than a full set of NI class 1 contributions but I've also had some years contracted out and some years working abroad in a country with a reciprocal arrangement with the UK (which I've claimed for). The government just sent me a statement telling me how much I would get paid without any detail behind it. How can I check that they have made the correct deductions for contracting out and the correct additions for my time abroad? Call me cynical but I don't always trust the government to get these calculations right. Many thanks, Glen 26:58 Question 6 Hi, great show by the way, very informative, it has certainly helped me and I'm sure is great help to many others. My wife Michelle is planning to retire at the end of March, age 58.5. She is self employed, a relatively low earner and finds the work tiring now. I myself am 56 soon and likely to work another 2 year (max), I am luckily enough to receive a decent salary and have above average pension provision. Michelle has the following pension savings - £143k in bank savings (not isa), £130k S&S ISA, £118k SIPP - all combined £391k. I realise markets are high at the moment. Plan to use 4% rule and reduce when State Pension kicks in (have full NI Contributions). So assuming want £15k pa (and rise annually with inflation), my query (that many others may have) is it best to use the cash or the ISA or the SIPP first or mix it up? Michelle is very unlikely to have to pay income tax, until State Pension triggers at 67. Any advice much appreciated, Jason
This is a special episode. Ian, a previous course student, joins me to discuss his investing journey... and he drops a lot of gems!From not even having a credit card and selling at a 3p loss due to nervousness.To now having a Stocks & Shares ISA and SIPP, and a workplace pension he's taken control of, investing for the long term. If you're a nervous investor or a beginner investor, this episode will be perfect for you.It will help you out and show just how much you can change within a few months.Mentioned in this video:Get involved in the next 4-week Investing Course - click hereWorkplace pension video - click herePrevious podcast where I answered Ian's questions during the course - click hereListen to the episode for the full details!-----------------------------------------More Investing:
Pete Matthew and Roger Weeks cover self-employed saving rates, inheritance tax and estate planning, and how dividends are treated inside pension drawdown (including SIPPs). They also discuss salary sacrifice and contribution limits, the pros and cons of recycling tax-free cash, and whether to overpay your mortgage or invest via a Stocks & Shares ISA. Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA42 01:07 Question 1 Hi Pete and Roger, Thank you for your amazing podcast! My question is about budgeting & savings percentages: Should you aim for a % of your gross pay or your net pay when it comes to aiming for a savings percentage? e.g. Invest 20% of gross or net? I'm self employed and work contract to contract. From each contract payment I have to give 25% to agents and lawyers. Then I get paid the rest and have to put aside some of the money ready for the Tax man. When planning for how much I should save / invest from each contract payment should I be putting aside: 20% of the original contract amount? (which would be prior to the agents taking their cut and prior to the tax man taking his cut?) 20% of the amount left after the agents but prior to the tax man? Or 20% after both the agent cut and tax man cut? Thank you! Isabel 05:50 Question 2 I am a 70 year old widow with no children. My current net worth is about £2 million. This is made of of a house (£500,000), savings and investments (£1,150,000) and a drawdown pension pot of £350,000 which I inherited from my husband. My husband died aged 68 so the pension pot is currently tax free. I plan to leave our inheritance tax free allowances of £650,000 to family, mostly nephews and nieces and the reminder to charities. The drawdown pension will also go to named family members until the rules change in 2027 after which this will also go to charity. I understand that this would mean my estate wouldn't be subject to inheritance tax. Am I right about this? Is there anything I might not have thought about or any flaws in my thinking? Thank you for your very informative podcast, Susan 08:24 Question 3 Hi Pete and Roger, I'm still catching up on the back catalogue and am still loving the show, the listener questions are a great alternative, absolutely brilliant :) My mind has been wandering as it usually does, and this time thinking about my retirement plan and what dividends will look like at retirement. I have some queries I would love you to clarify please if possible. As it stands I have a combination of SIPP and stocks & shares ISAs all globally diversified with various stocks and ETFs etc and also a NHS DB pension. I'm about to turn 49 and planning on a retirement at around 60. I'm trying to plan in the most tax efficient way (obviously this may change with future governments). For now though I am trying to max out my ISAs regularly for the tax free benefits and in particular focussing on a goal of using global ETF high yield dividends as income annually at retirement. I have a Vanguard SIPP with 3 ETFs. I plan to take the 25% tax free amount from this when I retire. The rest (75%) I plan to leave as is, in the same ETFs and as they will hopefully still be paying dividends, I am a little confused as to how these will be regarded, such as for tax purposes? My assumption is the dividends will be added as cash to my now 75% remaining pot and then if I start to drawdown on this then I guess I will be taxed as normal depending on my tax status at the time only on what I drawdown as income. However when the dividends are added to my drawdown (75%) portfolio will this be part of my annual tax free (currently £500) dividend allowance OR will they not count as they are in my "pension pot" (and not classed as income) as is the case currently pre-retirement? At the present should I actually be adding the dividends that I currently receive in my pension pot to my annual tax free allowance (£500 for me)? (I assumed dividends in a SIPP don't need declaring/adding up towards your annual tax free dividend allowance). I hope that all makes sense? Thanks for all your work with the podcasts and Listener Questions too, you guys are awesome! Cheers lads, Jon 13:22 Question 4 Dear Pete and Roger, I've just turned off lifestyling on my pension thanks to your excellent podcast and videos. You may have saved me thousands so many thanks! I now have a cunning plan! I work for a university and have a hybrid pension with the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS). Payments for my regular defined benefit (DB) pension are made via salary sacrifice. I'm also making additional voluntary contributions to the defined contribution (DC) part of USS, also by salary sacrifice. I've increased these DC payments to a level where my reduced effective pay is just above the level of the National Living Wage. As all my USS contributions, DB and DC, are made by salary sacrifice, they count as employer contributions. As I understand it, I am also allowed to make employee pension contributions to an entirely separate SIPP up to the full level of my Relevant Earnings, which in my case is my salary alone. Is that correct? If so, am I allowed to make employee contributions up to the level of my original salary (before salary sacrifice reductions)? Or am I only allowed to make employee contributions up to the level or my reduced salary (after salary sacrifice), just above the level of the National Living Wage? Is my plan a sound one or is it a cunning plan worthy of Baldrick? I'm 54 years old and a basic rate tax payer with a salary of about £37,000 per annum. I do not expect to be promoted. Simon 17:56 Question 5 Hi Pete and Roger, Long time listener and watcher on YouTube and think it is absolutely wonderful all the free good advice you put out there. I hope you give yourselves a pat on the back for helping so many people build their wealth and no doubt have a better future in their latter years than they would have had without you. As I reach a certain age I am pondering a strategy and was wondering if you could advise if this is a flawed approach, letting the tax tail wag the dog or perfectly valid. I've never heard anyone suggest it and can't believe that I have an idea that experts haven't thought of. It involves recycling tax free lump sums from an existing DC pension. My understanding is that you have to "break" ALL the conditions to breach the recycling rules and the one I am considering not breaking is "tax free lump sum is less than £7,500 in any 12 month period". The idea is this: - Crystalise 30K. £22.5K into a drawdown pot and left untouched so as to not trigger the MPAA. £7.5K tax free cash withdrawn - Take the £7.5K tax free cash and recycle it into a new SIPP - Benefit from 40% tax relief to gain an additional £5K - Do the same a year later and repeat until actual retirement If I did this for the 10 years between first accessing my DC pension and retiring from employment at state pension age that's an extra £50K "free". The only downside I can see is that by crystalising you remove a portion of your existing DC pot from being able to have a 25% tax free slice of a bigger pie in the future. However I would have thought by putting the tax relief and tax free cash into a new SIPP, plus 25% of that total being tax free second time around when withdrawn, it would outweigh the downside, particularly if you think you're going to be a lower rate tax payer in actual retirement. Any thoughts gratefully received. Keep up the great work and fantastic content. Kind Regards, Tom 24:40 Question 6 Hi Rodge & Pete Love the energy of the show, both educational and also very funny one of my favourite financial podcasts! I recently purchased my first home solo at 35 on a 39 year mortgage term which takes me above the standard retirement age and I do hope I am not working full time by the age of 74. I went with the longer mortgage term to keep monthly costs down initially with the plan to possibly review this when my fixed term comes to end in 2030. I contribute monthly to my S&S ISA currently £200 with the plan to double this in 2026 but should I be diverting some of these funds instead to overpay the mortgage? I'm conflicted about this as I believe I will get better returns on the S&S ISA over the 39 year period vs saving interest on the mortgage. I currently contribute to my employer DC pension and also have a fully funded 3 month emergency fund so any spare cash can be put to work for my future. Thanks, Chantelle
UK Dentists: Collect your verifiable CPD for this episode here >>> https://courses.dentistswhoinvest.com/smart-money-members-club———————————————————————Want gold exposure but not sure whether you should buy a bar, a fund, or something more speculative? We dig into the real reason people reach for gold in the first place, and it is not because it has the best long-term return. We contrast gold's historic performance with equities, then get specific about what gold is actually good for in a UK investment portfolio: diversification, an inflation-aware store of value, and a hedge against the failure of paper promises.We also unpack the key tension that trips most investors up. If you buy gold to diversify away from the financial system, you need to think hard about custody and counterparty risk. Physical gold in your own possession is the “pure” form, but storage and security become your problem. Use a vaulting provider and you gain convenience, yet you reintroduce trust in a company that could fail. We talk through UK-specific tax angles too, including Capital Gains Tax on disposals and the useful detail that certain Royal Mint gold coins can be CGT-exempt.From there, we map out four practical ways to get gold exposure: holding physical gold yourself, buying gold and paying for storage, owning gold companies or a gold ETF inside an ISA or SIPP, and spread betting on gold prices (tax-free in the UK but high-risk and not for beginners). Along the way, we flag the questions that matter most: what outcome are you aiming for, what risks are you truly hedging, and how much complexity do you want to manage?———————————————————————Disclaimer: All content on this channel is for education purposes only and does not constitute an investment recommendation or individual financial advice. For that, you should speak to a regulated, independent professional. The value of investments and the income from them can go down as well as up, so you may get back less than you invest. The views expressed on this channel may no longer be current. The information provided is not a personal recommendation for any particular investment. Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and all tax rules may change in the future. If you are unsure about the suitability of an investment, you should speak to a regulated, independent professional. Investment figures quoted refer to simulated past performance and that past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results/performance.Send us Fan Mail
In this Meaningful Money Q&A, Pete Matthew and Roger Weeks answer listener questions on UK personal finance, focusing on pensions, tax, and planning ahead. Topics include SIPP vs Lifetime ISA, retirement drawdown and which accounts to spend from first, Junior SIPPs, gifting company shares (IHT and CGT), and UFPLS vs drawdown. Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA41 01:47 Question 1 Hello Pete, Roger and team. I'd first like to say thank you for all the wonderful information you provide, it has been a great aid for increasing my financial intelligence and helping me secure my family's financial future. My question is regarding the benefits of a SIPP vs a LISA in terms of retirement. My understanding is they both benefit loosely from the same boost. 25% Boost for LISA and in effect 25% boost to a SIPP due to the 20% tax relief as a basic rate tax payer? They are both locked away for a long period and are both released early if I was to suffer from any serious ill health or death? Due to this is there any benefit I am overlooking in terms of a SIPP over a LISA invested in a world wide fund? Other than age of access? I am currently 36 and due to the increasing demands of public finances it would be logical to assume a possibility of the state pension age being raised above 70 (above 60 if taken early) or becoming restricted to who can collect (means tested) before I am to reach pension age. Whereas I would be able to claim a LISA at 60 regardless with the added benefit of it not being subject to tax? I have a generous company pension of 6% personal and 13.7% company contributions with an additional 1% matched salary sacrifice. I also put in an additional unmatched personal 3% contribution. As well as a small military pension. so I would not be without a pension at retirement. Due to this is it worth hedging my bets by maxing my LISA contributions rather than a SIPP to cover potential future scenarios? Apologies for the long winded question and I hope it makes sense. Thank you, Adam 08:42 Question 2 Hello Pete and Roger! Thank you for your wonderful podcast, I started listening several years ago and have found your advice incredibly useful. I am here to ask a question about planning a future for a disabled child. My husband and I are in are late 30s and we have a 5 year old daughter who is autistic and has profound learning difficulties. The challenge we have is how to plan for her future care and our future careers with so much unknown. We both work full time and are currently both basic rate taxpayers (although we are both getting close to that boundary). We receive child benefit and some DLA for our daughter. When our daughter was born we started saving small amounts regularly into a JISA for her, but as her disabilities became clear we switched and started saving money for her within our own S&S ISAs. We still put money into her JISA when she gets gifts from grandparents etc as it seems disingenuous to keep that money under our names. We have an emergency fund, workplace pensions and are saving regularly into S&S ISAs, as well as mortgage that will last until we are about 60. Is there anything we should be thinking about or trying to plan for our daughter's future. At this stage, it is difficult to determine how much she will understand about money and investing or whether she would have the capability to work or live independently. It may be that she will be under our care for the rest of our lives. It is also possible that one of us may need to reduce working hours or stop working when she turns 18 and needs care after she leaves school. Is there anything you think we should consider or advice on how to navigate the unknown? We are in the process of putting together a will and in the event of something happening to both of us, the care of our daughter would be covered by my husband's sister, but unsure how to navigate the financials. I appreciate that there are several questions within this question but any advice or areas that we can research on ourselves would be appreciated. Thank you so much, Laura Centurion (specialist IFA for people with children with special needs) https://centurioncfp.co.uk/special-needs/ Scope https://www.scope.org.uk/advice-and-support 16:34 Question 3 Hello First of all, thank you both for your wonderful podcast. I have learned so much. I have a question about the order in which to spend in retirement and how to hold our various investments. We have worked out a cashflow ladder using cash, short-term money markets funds, a defensive mixed asset fund, a 60:40 mixed asset fund and a 100% equity fund. But we also need to think about our various wrappers- about half of our investments are in DC pensions (mine and my husband's), a quarter in ISAs and a quarter unwrapped (which we can gradually move into ISAs). Is there a rule of thumb for how much of each investment should be in each wrapper? I'm also not sure about what we should be spending first- assuming no disasters we are hoping to give some money to our children before too long for IHT purposes. But if we take a large sum out of our pensions to do this, we'll pay 45% income tax on it which makes the IHT saving a bit pointless. So should we be making any gifts from our ISAs and using the pensions first ourselves (taking care to stay within the basic rate)? Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you Elizabeth Meaningful Academy Retirement Planning - https://meaningfulacademy.com/retirementplanning For a discount, use coupon code: PODCAST 24:03 Question 4 Hi Roger (and Pete!), Firstly, thank you from the bottom of my heart for the education you provide to me and so many others. You've really helped me sharpen my financial tools. After spending the last 12 years self-employed, I didn't take my personal finances too seriously. Now that I have a steady, "grown-up" job, I've been able to get organised. I have a workplace pension, a private pension, a Stocks & Shares ISA, and a Lifetime ISA, all thanks to what I've learned from you both. My question is about Junior SIPPs. I often come across opinions suggesting that these should be the last thing you do, only after every other financial base is covered. I didn't receive a financial education growing up, and there's no pot of gold or property waiting for me down the inheritance road. That's why I'm motivated to change the course of my children's future — even if the benefit is far down the line. For a relatively modest target amount £15,000 each at age 18 (they are currently 1 and 4), I believe my children could have a very strong footing in later life due to the extensive length of compounding available, even without continuing contributions beyond that point, or perhaps with me matching their own contributions as an incentive in adulthood. I believe this will take some of the pressure off them which I currently find myself in having to aggressively play catch up on my retirement plan. They also have Junior ISAs, which I contribute to each month, to give them more flexible money when they turn 18. Their future stability would mean the world to me, even if I won't be here at that point to see them enjoy it! I'd love to hear your opinion on Junior SIPPs, as I don't think this topic is discussed enough — and it sometimes feels dismissed altogether. Thank you, Steven 29:15 Question 5 Dear Pete and Roger, You do marvellous work in educating us all. Thank you. I am a company director with 9 alphabet shares. 5 for me, 2 for my wife and one each for my adult independent children. I have substantial IHT liability so want to gift my shares to my children. The company has seven figures invested in the stock market. Can I gift the shares? How do I go about? Will that help reduce my IHT liability if I survive 7 years after gifting? Will there be a CGT liability on the gift? The company still trades but is unlikely to qualify for BADR (Business Asset Disposal Relief) as majority of assets are in investments. Thanking you, Narendra 36:35 Question 6 Hi Pete and Rog, Firstly, thanks for all that you do, your podcasts, videos and the Academy have really changed mine and my family's life for the better. A pensions drawdown question: If you plan to use all of your tax free allowance on retirement. Am I right that there are no benefits to using UFPLS over drawdown? I think there used to be a benefit with the lifetime allowance but I can't see any other benefits now. Thanks for all that you do, James
On this week's Merryn Talks Your Money personal finance episode, Merryn Somerset Webb and John Stepek tackle a listener’s question about an issue many young UK professionals face: where should retirement savings go after auto-enrollment—a SIPP, an ISA or a Lifetime ISA? With markets volatile, rules changing and political risk on the horizon, the pair break down the pros and cons of each option. Sign up to the subscriber event here: https://www.bloombergevents.com/ZZ3kna?utm_source=Podcast&utm_campaign=Podcast&utm_medium=Podcast&RefId=subSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In this episode we answer listener questions covering emergency funds for higher and additional rate taxpayers, and inheritance tax considerations around beneficiary SIPPs. We also discuss whether couples should rebalance pension contributions, the key steps to take before retiring abroad, and what to know about DB pension transfers. Finally, we look at cross-border pension taxation using the UK–Denmark double taxation treaty as an example. Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA40 01:20 Question 1 Hi Pete & Roger, Thanks for all your helpful and easy to understand information. I have only been on my financial wellbeing journey for a year. I work in the NHS and am in a higher tax bracket. I am fully enrolled in the NHS pension, more out of previous disinterest than any actual action on my part. I am single and currently saving up for a down payment on a house in about 4/5yrs. I maxed out my ISA last year and expect to do the same this year; this includes money for the down payment. I also took out a SIPP which I only recalled last year; I took it out 20+ years ago. However I am still waiting for a statement from the pension office before my accountant can work out how much more I can add to the SIPP. In the interim I have my emergency fund in a premium bond (20k) but am worried it's being eroded by inflation. I expect to be an additional tax payer in the next few years. Where should I keep my excess cash? More in premium bonds with no tax but erosion by inflation; or open GIA or more in high interest savings account and pay the tax? Or is there another option you would recommend? Btw I have £600 in crypto (Coinbase and Etherium) but don't plan to put more than £400 more in then plan to forget about it. It's a tiny fraction of what I put in my ISA. Thanks, Joy 04:46 Question 2 Dear Pete and Roger. Love the podcast. I think it is essential listening for those wanting to elevate their knowledge of the incredibly important subject of financial planning and it also highlights the value add that financial professionals can provide. My mother is 79 and has a comfortable guaranteed inflation linked income via state and civil service pension, which is supplemented by savings (maxed premium bonds & healthy cash savings) and investments held in ISAs and a beneficiary SIPP from my late father who passed before 75yrs old (therefore the assets are income and CGT free). My mother is keen to minimise the IHT on the estate both her and my father worked so hard to create. Despite her comfortable situation, I still have to encourage her to spend and use your very helpful '40% off sticker' analogy on a regular basis. It is my understanding that SIPPs will be subject to IHT and income tax from 2027. As my sister and I are both additional rate taxpayers, we will potentially be subject to 67% tax on any assets remaining in the SIPP if the estate is above £1m IHT threshold. While the '67% off sticker' analogy is even more helpful to encourage her spending, it has triggered some planning. We are drawing down the beneficiary SIPP to fund ISA each year for my mum – keeping the income and CGT tax benefits for my mum while removing it from the double income and IHT tax on death. As part of the IHT planning we are now considering regular gifts from surplus income. When combined with her guaranteed income, the assets in the beneficiary SIPP are more than sufficient so sustain her lifestyle until her age would be well into three figures. Based on my reading, it appears any drawdown from SIPPs are considered 'income' for gifting purposes, regardless of if they come from capital or income. Therefore she could start to draw more 'income' from the SIPP and gift this surplus which could be considered IHT free. Are there any limits to how much or how quickly she could reasonably drawdown from a SIPP so that it would no longer be considered 'income' by HMRC for IHT purposes? i.e could she empty the SIPP over a 5 yr period, gift that as excess income, then reduce the gifts to reflect a different income and or expenditure? While all the drawdown from SIPPs is considered 'income' for IHT purposes, the treatment of withdrawals from ISAs or other investments are distinguished between whether they are actually capital or income. Therefore, we have the added complication of needing to balance the 'income' drawdown from the beneficiary SIPP to make sure she doesn't eat into 'capital' of the ISAs and savings which would then mean the gifts from regular surplus income would then be considered part of the estate again. Our circumstances mean my mum feels slightly trapped between keeping the SIPP (so it is considered income for gifts from regular income but gets IHT taxed at 67%), continuing to use the beneficiary SIPP to fund ISAs (reduce IHT liability but lose flexibility to gift it as income), maybe change the investment engine of the ISAs from a lower yielding balanced solution to something with a higher natural yield, or do something else altogether (lump sum gifts and hope to survive 3yrs for taper or 7yrs). Any thoughts or suggestion would be appreciated. While there are some relatively niche circumstances, I think it covers two more broadly applicable IHT planning considerations SIPPs v ISAs under the new rules and regular gifts from surplus income. Thanks in advance Stephen 17:06 Question 3 Hi Pete and Roger Thank you both for your continued help in navigating the financial maze and I am enjoying the listener questions. My wife works part time and is a basic rate tax payer. She pays into her workplace pension and contributes an additional 15%. Her pension provider receives 20% tax relief on these contributions. I am a higher rate tax payer and I make contributions to a SIPP. My pension provider receives 20% tax relief and I claim an additional 20% directly from HMRC. As a couple, we could stop making the additional contributions to my wife's pension and instead make them into my SIPP. This would give us an additional 40%, rather than 20%. Mathematically this makes sense. We haven't done this so far, as I like the idea that we are equally contributing to both of our pensions, for the future. It also helps keep things simple. I am mindful that one day, we may kick ourselves for not making this simple switch which may leave us with a significantly bigger pot, when we need it. What options would you consider in this decision of splitting pension contributions. Many thanks, Rob 20:17 Question 4 Dear Pete & Rog, I just wanted to say a heartfelt thank you for your podcast and the incredibly valuable information you share. Your conversations are not only insightful but also reassuring as I start to think more seriously about my own retirement planning! One of the things I'm considering is retiring abroad (somewhere sunny!) Spain most likely, and I wondered if you might explain the process you go through with such clients. Specifically, do you have a checklist, or a list of key questions, that you typically ask clients to work through before moving overseas? For example, I've learned that ISAs are not recognised in many EU countries (so it may be better to sell before leaving), and I imagine there are similar considerations around SIPPs/UK DC pensions and other investments. Do you also tend to liaise with financial planners or accountants based in the EU when helping clients prepare for such a move? I would be very grateful for any wisdom you could share. Thanks again for all the work you put into the podcast, it really does make a difference. Warm regards, Chloe 24:55 Question 5 Hi Pete, Love the podcast. Very informative and user friendly. I have a question, once popular but maybe not so much now and one that will make advisers sweat again! I'm a sophisticated investor (so to speak!), I manage my own SIPP etc and I'm an accountant so I guess I have a head start over most people. I have a net worth excluding my house of circa £2.5m spread across a SIPP, ISA, FIC and GIA. I also have an old DB pension. I'm 59. It pays out circa £6,500 from the age of 65. My dad died aged 63. Given my circumstances I want to transfer the DB scheme into my SIPP. I have two children so would like them to get it rather than die with me so to speak. The last transfer value I got was pre covid at circa £100k which I know isn't a brilliant multiple but I'm happy with that. I'm fit and healthy but I'm not relying on the guaranteed pension given my other pension provisions. So, firstly is it likely the transfer value would have gone up or down given the increase in interest rates and secondly do you think I could get a positive recommendation from an adviser? Thanks, Oscar 31:35 Question 6 Dear Pete and Roger, Love the podcast. I'm a bit more of an adventurous investor than you usually caution, but you provide a certain "passive-tracker-Yin" to my "property-investment-Yang". Given your backlog I'm going to ask you a pension question that I probably don't have to think about for 20 years, so you have time to get to it. I worked in Denmark for several years and paid into a pension scheme while I was there. I believe it is structured similarly to a UK DB pension scheme. There is an initial lump sum plus an income for life. This pension fund is not covered by QROPS, so there is no transferring my way out of this complexity. The Danish pension fund thinks I'll be paying Danish income tax (presently 37-38%), Chat GPT is adamant that I'll be paying UK Tax. Who's right? If taxed in the UK I can imagine getting the tax free cash allowance right might be complicated. Is there anything else I should be considering? Best Wishes, James
Topic: Malcolm and Carol are back after another Monday holiday. Lindsey Magee, Digital Engagement and Events Coordinator for Extra Table, gives an update on this year's March of the Mayors. Friend of the show, Enrika Williams, joins the show to catch up and talk about some upcoming food festivals across the state. And finally, MAX Events and Studio Manager, Elizabeth Williams, gives an update about Sipp & Savor 2026.Guest(s): Enrika Williams, Lindsey Magee, and Elizabeth WilliamsHost(s): Malcolm White and Carol PalmerEmail: food@mpbonline.orgIf you enjoyed listening to this podcast, please consider contributing to MPB: https://donate.mpbfoundation.org/mspb/podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Blues Radio International With Jesse Finkelstein & Audrey Michelle
On this Edition of the Blues Radio International Podcast, hear a live all star tribute to BB King from the 2025 Blues Music Awards in Memphis, featuring Mr. Sipp, Danielle Nicole, Tony Braunagel and Jim Pugh,Find more at BluesRadioInternational.net
This is Part Two of our conversation.Since opening in 1932 as Paintsville's first “talkie,” the historic SIPP Theatre in Paintsville, Kentucky, has been a centerpiece of the community — hosting films, live performances, and gatherings for generations. With nearly a century of history inside its walls, it's also become a location where some believe unexplained activity may still be taking place.John Marshall of Ghost Hunter Guys joins us to discuss reported paranormal experiences inside the SIPP Theatre, including organized ghost hunts, unexplained sounds, and moments investigators haven't been able to easily explain. As we explore the theatre's history and the activity reported there, we also discuss the Stafford House and the personal experiences that first drew John into the paranormal — experiences that continue to shape how he approaches investigations today.On this episode of The Grave Talks, we examine the mystery surrounding the SIPP Theatre and the stories that keep people searching for answers.#TheGraveTalks #SIPPTheatre #PaintsvilleKY #KentuckyHauntings #HauntedTheatre #GhostHunterGuys #ParanormalInvestigation #GhostHunts #ParanormalInvestigations #ParanormalInvestigator #SmallTownHauntings #JohnMarshallLove real ghost stories? Want even more?Become a supporter and unlock exclusive extras, ad-free episodes, and advanced access:
Listen to this next - EVERYTHING You Need To Know About Pensions (State, Workplace, SIPPs & more)In this podcast episode, we answer a great question:'Should I use a workplace pension, SIPP or Stocks & Shares ISA?'In really comes down to tax optimisation vs flexibility.In this episode we break down the key differences, when each one makes sense and the simple framework I use to decide which one to focu on.Listen to the podcast episode for the full details.And thanks for the question Craig! If you have a question, feel free to email me: makingmoneysimple1@gmail.com -----------------------------------------More Investing:
Since opening in 1932 as Paintsville's first “talkie,” the historic SIPP Theatre in Paintsville, Kentucky, has been a centerpiece of the community — hosting films, live performances, and gatherings for generations. With nearly a century of history inside its walls, it's also become a location where some believe unexplained activity may still be taking place.John Marshall of Ghost Hunter Guys joins us to discuss reported paranormal experiences inside the SIPP Theatre, including organized ghost hunts, unexplained sounds, and moments investigators haven't been able to easily explain. As we explore the theatre's history and the activity reported there, we also discuss the Stafford House and the personal experiences that first drew John into the paranormal — experiences that continue to shape how he approaches investigations today.On this episode of The Grave Talks, we examine the mystery surrounding the SIPP Theatre and the stories that keep people searching for answers.#TheGraveTalks #SIPPTheatre #PaintsvilleKY #KentuckyHauntings #HauntedTheatre #GhostHunterGuys #ParanormalInvestigation #GhostHunts #ParanormalInvestigations #ParanormalInvestigator #SmallTownHauntings #JohnMarshallLove real ghost stories? Want even more?Become a supporter and unlock exclusive extras, ad-free episodes, and advanced access:
Changes are coming to UK inheritance tax legislation. From April 2027, many expats with UK Self-Invested Personal Pensions (SIPPs) could face a 40% UK inheritance tax hit on pension values above the £325,000 nil-rate band, but the way the new rules are drafted may allow non-long-term UK residents to structure their SIPPs so that non-UK underlying assets sit outside the UK inheritance tax net. Richard Taylor, dual UK/US citizen and Chartered Financial Planner, is joined by Tobias Gleed-Owen, Senior Associate at Birketts, to discuss the upcoming changes to SIPPs and inheritance tax. This episode of Expat Wealth explores how UK expats, or future recipients of a UK inheritance or pension, can prepare for the April 2027 changes. Richard and Tobias unpack how the draft UK rules will treat pensions for inheritance tax, why the position most people have assumed is likely wrong, and how looking through to the underlying investments in an SIPP may keep large portions of a UK pension outside the UK inheritance tax net. In this episode, Richard and Tobias take a detailed look at: The big picture: An overview of the 2027 UK inheritance tax change on pensions. Practical planning opportunities: How to structure or restructure your SIPP investments. What to do if you have an old defined benefit pension. Pension Commencement Lump Sums: Whether or not the UK 25% “tax-free lump sum” is tax-free in the US. -- Expat Wealth is supported by Plan First Wealth. Plan First Wealth is a Registered Investment Advisor serving fellow expatriates and immigrants living across the US on matters such as retirement planning, investment management, tax planning and non-US asset management. https://planfirstwealth.com/ -- Expat Wealth is affiliated with Plan First Wealth LLC, an SEC registered investment advisor. The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of Plan First Wealth. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. Investments involve risk and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial adviser and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed herein. Plan First Wealth does not provide any tax and/or legal advice and strongly recommends that listeners seek their own advice in these areas.
John and Josh react to some of what was said with Sipple in the last segment.
Sign up to my email newsletter - https://www.makingmoneysimple.co.uk/NewsletterWorkplace pension YouTube video - https://youtu.be/idEI30WR5RYHow I can help you - https://www.makingmoneysimple.co.uk/-----------------------------------------More investing:
It's another Meaningful Money Q&A, taking in the £100k tax trap, splitting pensions on divorce, safely switching investment platforms and much more! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA38 01:59 Question 1 Hi Roger and Pete, Long time listener, first time questioner. My wife and I have both earned in excess of £100k for a few years now, meaning I am acquiring a peculiar set of skills on the various ways to use pension contributions, rollover allowances, gift aids, etc to keep us both below the (entirely bananas) £100k cliff-edge each year. My question is on the £60k pension annual allowance. Does it only apply to the amount of pension savings in a given year which can be made without paying a tax charge, or does it also count as the maximum amount of pension deduction which can be taken to calculate net adjusted income as part of completing our tax returns? The (slightly over-simplified) situation in my mind is that if I earned £160,500 in a given year, I would prefer to pay £61k into a pension, thereby reducing my net adjusted income to £99,500 to stay below the cliff-edge, even if I had to pay 40% tax on the extra £1000 above the pension annual allowance. As a fun aside, I asked this to my preferred AI - and I leave a link to see if you agree with it's answer or not - https://g.co/gemini/share/8c23e91cb658 Stephen 07:58 Question 2 Hello Pete & Roger Listen and enjoy all your podcasts regularly but every now and again you get one that addresses specific points to the individual listener. For me it was Podcast QA18. A really great podcast. 1. The 2015 changes to pensions made significant differences to pensions and most financial experts have rightly advised using your pension as one of the best places to put savings. It does seem unfair that you plan your savings and pensions well in advance for retirement based on government rules. and then you you find you are likely to have a sizeable IHT bill. At 78 it is difficult to turn the ship around quickly. Many more people will be affected by this over the next decade. The main reason however for my question relates to ways to reducing the effects of this IHT change. The general allowances and the 7 year rule are all clear. However the main exemption that could help is the little used Gifts form Excess Income. I have read up as much as I can and the whole system seems rather vague and many things open to interpretation, even by financial experts. There is no clear and precise set of rules whereby you can be certain something is capital or income. Your executor will have to understand all this and have all the back up documentation to convince HMRC that the gifts are justified. I do have excess income and spent significant time over the past weeks analysing all our expenditure and income sources ending up totally confused and with a severe migraine. Any advice on how best to handle this can of worms would be appreciated. 2) So many of us these days have children living in different countries with their families. All with different citizenship and residency situations in different countries. There seems to be very little information about IHT and general tax issues in relation to gifts and inheritance of money and pensions for children and grandchildren in this situation. Best regards, Peter 16:52 Question 3 Hello Roger and Pete, Thanks for a great series of podcasts. Some of them confirm what I already know and some give me insights, ideas and an understanding I didn't have. You provide a great service. My wife and I are 54 and 55. We are getting divorced. The divorce is amicable and we want to share everything evenly. I take home £5k/month and she takes home £2.3k. We will split this evenly as long as we both work. Our pension funds are not of equal value. I have DCs and SIPPs worth £800k and ISAs worth £100k. I also have a small DB pension that will pay out about £3k/year in today's money at age 67. My wife has a DC pension worth £210k and ISAs worth £220k. She has a DC pension that will pay about £2.5k/year in today's money at age 67. As you can see, the majority is in my name. This makes sense as I have worked whereas she has taken time off to raise our children. We have equal claim to the money in my mind. I think the ISAs are straight forward. We can balance the value by selling some of hers and investing more in my name. The DC pensions are more difficult. By right I should give her £295k to make them of equal value but how do we do this? We want to avoid expensive solicitors and accountants but are not sure if we can DIY this. Please share any advice you can give. Regards, Jay 25:43 Question 4 Hi Pete and Roger, Thanks so much for what you do with the podcast. It's completely changed my approach to my finances, especially over the last year which has felt even more important after the birth of my son. I have a question about investment platforms. I currently have about £70,000 invested in passive world index trackers via a platform. I estimate my total annual fees including fund and platform fees to be about 0.66% pa. I don't think this is terrible but I think it could be less. I'm considering transferring my investments (which is a mixture of stocks and shares ISA, LISA and (very small) SIPP) to a cheaper platform. Do you have an advice on the transfer process, especially in whether to transfer all the funds in one go or is there a strategy you'd recommend to avoid falling foul of market fluctuations? Thanks, Jack 30:47 Question 5 Hi Pete and Roger, You guys are the best. You've given me my only financial education. Never underestimate what a difference you are making to ordinary people's lives. THANK YOU. I am 42 years old saving into my workplace DC pension. I have a bit of a gap because I started late and then freelanced for a few years, so playing catch up, but thanks to you both, seeing the positives in this, rather than beating myself up. I am basing the 'gap' on not quite having 3x salary saved by age 42 - is that a decent rule of thumb? As you both say, arming people with knowledge can be a good thing and a bad thing, because armed with this new knowledge we can go off and overcomplicate things. I decided to pull my pension from the default fund and pick 6 funds. What's the best route for working out if I am paying too much in fees, if I have got too much crossover across funds, and if the more pricey ones are worth it? Do I need to get financial advice or could I do this myself (being a complete layman obvs)? Do you have any tips on the process of comparing, finding inefficiencies and consolidating? What's a reasonable number of funds would you say? 3? 1? BTW I've done the same thing with my ISAs since they let us have more than one. How do you just pick one and stick with it, and not get distracted by the new shiny providers? It seems like newer, better products and platforms come out all the time. Or am I worrying unnecessarily and might it be ok to have fingers in many pies? Thanks again for all you do. Hayley 37:47 Question 6 Thanks for all the content, I listen to every episode and often share the pod with others to share the good word! My partner will soon be able to get her NHS pension. While we were looking at the numbers, I began to wonder whether there is any benefit in taking the maximum lump sum and investing it outside of the pension. My thinking was that she would probably be able to generate the same amount of income from investing it in the stock market, but that when she dies she will be able to pass the capital on, whereas her pension will just stop paying out. I think the maximum she can take is about £70k. Presumably she could put this in a GIA and feed it into an ISA over a few years, accepting that any gains in the GIA would be subject to tax. I just wondered if there were any other tax implications that I hadn't considered? If not, then presumably it's just a case of comparing the drop in the annual pension payment against the expected returns (after tax) from investing outside the pension? Would love to know your thoughts on this. Thanks again, and keep up the good work. Tim
Welcome to the first podcast of 2026 where Roger and Pete answer more of your varied and interesting questions, covering everything from what to do when you've maxed out your pension and ISA, to whether you should borrow on your mortgage to invest! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA37 01:30 Question 1 Hello to Roger and his trusty sidekick Pete, Only kidding Pete, but it will make Roger feel good briefly. I must credit the pair of you for your continued dedication and commitment to educating the wider population on all things financial. I have gone from strength to strength in planning my retirement with the guidance and abundance of free information you have provided, the books you have written Pete, as well as signing up to the Meaningful Academy Retirement Planning and now planning to retire several years earlier than originally intended. Using the information provided and learnt, I have got my finances in order but more importantly, that decision is to align my future life (and that of my wife) to the finances we need and when our needs are likely to be met, hence the realisation retirement is not as far away as we had originally perceived, so I really appreciate what you have done for me and my family. My question maybe very simple, but it was sparked during a previous Q&A session Listener Question – episode 20 - 30th July – Question 2 – The question surrounded company Shares. I am employed by BAE and I purchase company shares each month, partially as a sensible Tax saving being a higher rate tax payer (purchase them pre Tax) but also for the first £75 worth each month I buy each month, the company will match, so effectively £150 worth of shares which technically costs less than £50 in real money each month. Now whilst I do sell some shares along the way (after the 5-year maturity to avoid tax payment), I continue to have a reasonable amount invested (£35k subject to tax relief period on some). A statement you made during the above session was "as a sideline issue we tend to say to people that investing in shares for the company you work for is a bad idea at any scale, thus to avoid backing one horse and it's not a good idea to hold onto shares for a company you work for." Now I thought I was onto a winner and being tax efficient and building an amount of money which I tap into on an occasional basis as well as additional source of income once retired, but are you implying, as you did to that listener, I might consider cashing some in and transferring the money else where? Perhaps in this instance it is suffice leaving it there, as the examples you gave were for smaller companies (in comparison) that folded, whereas BAE one of the larger Defence industry companies, doesn't appear to be going anywhere soon? I do have a Royal Naval DB pension already paying out, as well as a part DB and part DC pension with BAE (continuing to build), so I'm not reliant upon the money, which is another factor why I've not considered moving them away or am I doing myself a bad deal, id value your opinions (not advice ha ha)? Thank you for your time Regards, John 08:02 Question 2 I'm 39, a basic rate taxpayer and I have a Lifetime ISA and a SIPP with HL. Can I save for retirement in my Lifetime ISA and invest in the same funds as my Pension after receiving the 25% bonus to achieve similar growth. Then at age 60, withdraw all that money tax free and pay it into my pension (up to my allowances and possibly using previous years) to gain the 20% tax relief just before I draw the pension? I would also save some money on platform fees as the LISA is 0.25% vs the SIPP at 0.45%. I know I can get cheaper platforms elsewhere but I find HL easy, intuitive, and feel like I can trust them with my money, which really encourages me to save in the first place. Thanks, Robert 13:40 Question 3 Hi Pete and Roger, Longtime fan and listener, thanks for all the great work you do! I'm 40 years old and a member of the LGPS DB pension scheme, which I've been paying into since my early 20s. My partner is also in a DB scheme (Central Government). We have no debt other than our mortgage. We currently live in a modest home we bought for £89k, but are thinking about upgrading to a bigger property for more space and comfort (no plans to have children). That said, we've enjoyed the low cost of living here. We've built up around £160k in savings, split roughly 40% in a Stocks & Shares ISA and 60% in Premium Bonds and cash. I've tried to keep the ISA intact as a form of flexibility/security around retirement, potentially to retire early or reduce hours in the future. The dilemma is: 1. Do we spend most of the savings on a better house and accept working longer? 2. Or do we stay where we are, keep our financial flexibility, and potentially one of us works less or retires earlier? 3. Or is there a sensible middle ground, spending some of the cash to improve our living situation while still preserving part of our financial cushion for future flexibility? We're just trying to balance quality of life now with freedom and options later, and would love to hear your take on it. Is there anything else we haven't thought about? Thanks so much for your thoughts! Gez 19:25 Question 4 Hi Pete and Rog, big fan of the show and I appreciate the helpful topics you cover. I am currently going through a remortgage and am extracting equity from our house to invest. The new mortgage rate is around 4% and our LTV will be around 80%. The additional monthly costs are within our budget too. My strategy is to invest the extracted amount in a stocks and shares ISA with my wife, utilising the £20k allowance each per tax year. This will be invested into globally diversified index funds. I have ran calculations on how much I will be paying in additional interest vs how much is probable from stock market returns. Over 25 years, the additional interest paid on £50k extracted at 4% is £29k Over 25 years, having invested £50k, I would need to return 1.84% to break even from this deal. This is due to the way mortgages are amortised via repayment vs the investments compounding positively. With conservative returns of 7% used, this will net £236k of interest. Am I missing anything here? Keep up the great work and I'm very interested to hear whether you have done this in the past. Stephen 26:40 Question 5 Hi Pete and Roger, Recent discoverer and now big fan of the show here - I have now caught up on all the Q&A episodes and am continuing to work my way through the back catalogue: a lot of material! My questions centre on tax-efficient options once ISAs and pensions are maxed out, and how to "bridge" savings if retiring before pension-age. I am 36, married and have 2 young daughters who are the apple of my eye. We have a very manageable mortgage and I benefit from a very well paid job. However, an extremely stressful period last year sent me on the track of better understanding personal finance (and ultimately finding you) in order to achieve financial independence and not need to tolerate that kind of situation ever again, as well as be free to dedicate my time and energy to things without worrying about how much money they pay. 1) I am trying to get to functional financial independence (i.e. paid work is entirely optional) as soon as possible - I now max out my annual pension and ISA allowance each year and am likely to continue to in the future. Are there any other normal vehicles I can use for additional saving and investing? Giving money to my wife to use her ISA allowance? Anything else? I don't want to overpay the mortgage for the next several years as we managed to get a fixed rate that is below the current rate of inflation. 2) I have a good understanding of our essential and discretionary spending, and with a conservative annualised rate of return I could theoretically stop contributing to my pension pot in the next 7ish years and compounding would mean it would be big enough to fully support us once we can access it. My question is - is there a good rule of thumb or approach for working out how much I need to save outside the pension if I wanted to stop working for money before 57? Is it just a case of working out # years x expenses or is there anything more sophisticated to it? 3) bonus question - feel free to cut if it doesn't fit: I'm familiar with the idea of asset allocation and rebalancing to "smooth the ride" for my portfolio. Most things I've read or listened to have focused on equities vs. bonds. When I was looking at a number of bond indexes recently the returns have been pretty flat, often 4% from a cash ISA, what's the point of the bonds? Am I missing something? Thanks so much for all the knowledge you put into the world, giving people the tools to look after themselves. The chat is pretty great too! Kind regards, Martin 37:18 Question 6 Hello Pete & Roger Thank you for your fantastic materials, so well explained. We're 62. We already have a standard pension pot Annuity and we have around £300,000 in savings in building society accounts. (We value peace of mind over the potential for big gains, so we're not really considering stocks and shares). We're wondering whether, rather than rely entirely on savings accounts, it would make sense to use a Purchase Life Annuity. With current annuity rates, it looks like that's a Yes, so we're curious what your expert view is on this. We're aware of the downside: that it leaves us without much of a savings pot for any unexpected very large need. Have watched the Annuities: Back from the dead? video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alTTzrd2NbY - which talked about buying an annuity with pension, but in our case it would be Purchase Life Annuity, so does that make a difference when purchasing an annuity? Thank you again! Moira
Welcome to the last Q&A session of 2025. In this show we cover selling properties to invest in pensions instead, starting to invest for the first time, UFPLS vs FAD and SO MUCH MORE! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA36 02:05 Question 1 Big thanks to Pete and Roger for all the excellent advice. This question is for some of the 2.8 million UK landlords. Even those with just one property in their own name—not through a limited company—are increasingly affected by fiscal drag. Looking ahead, I plan to sell down much of my property portfolio in later life (because who wants to be a landlord at 70?). Plus, mortgage finance becomes trickier in your 70s. That said, even if I retain one or two of the best properties, the rental income alone may push me into the higher-rate tax bracket. I'm 49 and don't currently have a SIPP, but I can invest up to the £60k annual allowance via my limited company. Would it make sense to start building a modest pension over the next 10 years as a risk mitigation strategy? If so, how should I think about the opportunity cost? I'd save 25% corporation tax going in, but pay higher-rate income tax on the way out (less the 25% tax-free lump sum)—so is the net tax cost around 5%? Or am I overlooking other factors, like the benefit of CGT and income tax exemptions on growth within the pension? Appreciate your thoughts—and keep up the great work. Regards, Cameron. 07:29 Question 2 Hi Pete, Roger and Nick, I've recently discovered your YouTube channel and podcast, and it's been a real eye-opener - thanks so much for all the great content! I'm 45 and currently have £74,000 in a Fidelity SIPP, but it's all sitting in cash. I know that's far from ideal, especially with 15–20 years until I plan to retire. I also realise it's a relatively modest pot for my age, and it's not earning anything while it just sits there. How would you typically advise someone in my situation to begin investing some or all of that cash? I'm keen to make up for lost time but want to do so wisely. Thanks again, and keep up the brilliant work! Joanne 15:15 Question 3 Hi Pete & Roger, Firstly thanks so much for all your hard work - I devour your podcasts, videos & books - so much hard work on your behalf & I hope you realise how appreciated they are. I am just at the stage of life where in the next few years I need to start thinking about drawing money out of mine & my husband's pensions and I am considering the most tax efficient way of doing this. I have been reading all about UFPLS and FAD. As background, it is unlikely that either my husband or I will ever have much Personal Allowance unused in the years up to receiving our State Pensions due to rental income we receive; it is also unlikely that either of us will ever become higher rate taxpayers. I also understand that to get the most out of ones PCLS it is best to only crystallise the funds actually needed from an uncrystallised pension so the rest of the pot can hopefully grow and therefore the 25% tax free sum also grows. So, my question is, what am I missing, in what situations would it be more beneficial to take an UFPLS payment v making a partial crystallisation into a FAD pot (I am with ii who offer this). I feel like an UFPLS payment would give me 25% tax free and 75% taxed right away, whilst a FAD would give me the same 25% tax free and 75% could be taken straight away or drawn down over time as desired and could also be left invested to hopefully grow? Thanks so much, Tracy 21:12 Question 4 Hi Pete and Roger, thanks for hosting such a great podcast! I've recently been searching for a new job and was lucky enough to receive an offer with some interesting compensation features that I thought I would ask your opinions on. I actually turned down this role in favour of something else, but wanted to ask nonetheless as the offer came with an interesting feature that I have not come across before. Firstly, and probably most straightforward to answer – The salary on offer was £50,500 per year, which seems a weird figure – suspiciously only slightly above the threshold to tip me into the higher tax bracket, which got me thinking – are there any benefits (to the employer or employee) of being only just into the next tax bracket up? Why not £50k, or £51k? Secondly, in addition to a very generous DC pension scheme (they would pay in 12% if I pay in 5%) they offer a "Savings Scheme" whereby 5% of my salary would be deducted (and paid into this scheme) each month and at the end of 12 months the company would then top up these savings with another 5% of my annual salary – (actually 6% to "account for the extra tax"). My real question is this – what are these "savings schemes" in a nutshell, and are there any benefits of them over trying to negotiate for increased employer pension contributions instead? Interested to hear your thoughts on these. Thanks so much! Jamie 29:09 Question 5 Hello Pete and Roger I've recently found your podcast and wanted to say thanks for all the insight you are providing. Not only do you make a fairly dull subject tolerable, you even manage to make it reasonably enjoyable
It's episode 600 of the podcast, not that we're doing much to mark that milestone! We have some excellent questions today, taking in retirement planning, getting a mortgage if you have a new business and how flexible ISAs work! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA35 02:43 Question 1 Hi Pete, I'm a single household, due to pay my mortgage off in my early 50's….I have very little savings and pensions are everywhere and been 'balanced fund choices' as I either do self employed work or fixed term contracts. I'm really concerned I won't have 'enough' to retire. Where do I start to know how much I need? I don't have an extreme fancy lifestyle but want to live comfortably with running a car, having a nice home and having a holiday every few years. I would also like to help my siblings out if possible when they need it. Also for your business…..have you thought of making it an 'employee owned trust' in the future? This could be a good option if you don't want it swallowed up by larger organisations and want to keep a people focussed culture. Thanks, Anna 12:57 Question 2 Hi Pete and Roger Recently discovered the podcast and it's been really helpful in getting my thoughts straight about future planning - thank you! My job gives me a DB pension that as it stands will give me £4617 per year at 67 - for every year I work that will go up by one 54th of my salary, (£57k) so £1055 annually if I stay at the same grade. Increased by cpi plus 1.5% annually at the moment; and by CPI only once in payment. I can exchange part of this for a lump sum when I take it but that's a decision for another day! I'm projected for full SP at 67 after another 2 years contributing. I have £30k in a pensionbee that I'm adding to £100 a month, and after listening to the podcast I have started an AJ Bell SIPP (vanguard lifestrategy 60% equity) which I'm adding £200 a month to. Also working on the cash ladder/emergency fund - currently just £5k in a cash ISA I am hoping to get this up as much as possible. After overpaying mortgage and contributing to PensionBee/SIPP I can save £200 in a good month. I am aiming to retire as soon as I possibly can after 60, when the kids will all be in their 20s. I am sure this seems impossible but might as well aim high!!! So my priority is to build for the years between 60 and 67. And leave something for the kids, eventually! So…my question!! I have an old tiny deferred DB pension that I can take at 60, £3461 lump plus £1153 per annum (no option to take either a smaller or larger lump sum). I can't trivially commute this due to the rules of the scheme. As it's deferred there are no other benefits eg death in service. Or, I can take this now (age 53) with a reduction for early payment so it would be worth £3076 lump and £869 per annum. The pension increases each year by CPI while deferred and also when it's in payment. Does it make sense to take now, and put lump and monthly payment into either mortgage, or SIPP, or cash ISA? And if so which - SIPP gets me extra 25% from the gov as it's under pension recycling amount? But £3k off my mortgage now might be better. Cant get my head around the maths of this...but my gut feel is it would be working harder for me in my hand despite the fact I'd be taxed on the annual amount? I'd make sure that with my work and personal contributions I stay in 20% tax band and reclaim from HMRC when I do my tax return. Sarah 19:39 Question 3 Hi Pete and Roger, great show and love the new format to allow listeners to ask lots of questions. My question is around pension inheritance. When a person dies and passes a DC pension to a spouse or child, does the inheritance remain in the pension wrapper when it passes on or does it lose its pension wrapper status which allows the person inheriting to use the cash as they want without the pension restrictions? Many thanks, Kavi 26:04 Question 4 Hi Pete I've been watching your videos and listening to your podcasts for about two years now and I'll start by thanking you (and the youthful Mr Weeks) for the public service you provide outside your paying work. I have what I think is a simple question, but I don't seem to be able to find a definitive answer on-line. I retired about this time two years ago at the age of 62 so I'm 64 now. I have a DC pension in the form of a SIPP which is currently worth a little more than £600k. I also have a similar amount in savings (some in cash, some in an S&S ISA). I live on a combination of the income provided by the cash and the S&S ISA, plus a series of small UFPLSs taken roughly quarterly from my SIPP throughout the tax year. At this stage the SIPP withdrawals are relatively modest (totalling maybe 12k a year, of which of course 3k is tax free). My intention is to continue doing the UFPLSs at roughly the same rate, possibly increasing a little as a result of inflation. State pension will add another 12k or so to my annual income in 3 years so that will likely reduce the need to increase my SIPP withdrawals for a while. My SIPP is currently growing faster than my rate of withdrawal. I understand that the maximum tax free cash I can have out of my pension in my lifetime (under current legislation) is £268,275 and obviously at my current withdrawal rate, I'm not getting to that total anytime soon. However if I've understood the rules correctly (and I may not have), I think my ability to have tax free cash once I reach the age of 75 goes away. If that's true, presumably I need to crystallise my SIPP pot just before I reach age 75, taking a quarter of it or my remaining LSA (whichever is smaller) as a tax free lump sum, at which point the remainder turns into an entirely taxable (crystallised) draw down pot? Alternatively, have I completely misunderstood what happens at age 75 and I can continue to do UFPLSs (with 25% tax free) until the cows come home, or I reach the LSA, whichever is sooner? I don't think it's relevant to my question above but just for background, I have a wife who inherits everything if she survives me, or a few nieces and nephews and charities that benefit if she doesn't. We have no children of our own. Keep up the good work gentlemen. Regards, Robert 31:05 Question 5 Hi Pete My son, who has never been a saver (apart from workplace pension) and never seems to have any spare money (single dad, renter) is in the process of going self employed with a colleague. If all goes well, he has a chance to make a reasonable income, not be hand to mouth and periodically take lump sums as a company director. E. G £5k to £10k starting in a couple of years. My question is not about the viability of the business but this business will open up the prospect of my mid 30's son, David, owning a house while I am alive. As in, building up a deposit as dividends are paid. It may take several years and then, I assume, he would have to go through the pain of a self employed mortgage. An area that I know nothing about. In effect, he is just starting out, but we would be really interested in your thoughts about the longer term aim of buying a house. Many thanks again for your wonderful books and podcasts Helen 37:55 Question 6 Hi Pete & Roger, I continue to recommend your podcast to others. Please keep up the excellent work. My question is on the process of using flexible Cash ISAs. I cannot find any worked examples online and a few IFAs I have approached suggested kicking back the question to the ISA provider but I would appreciate your thoughts. My wife and I have £200k in flexible cash isas. We plan on using these funds for a house purchase. Should I reduce the balance to zero, can I top the ISA back up to the full £200k provided the money goes in and out of a 'flexible' cash isa (and is within the same tax year)? I would be in a position to do this following the sale of some investment property.. And the second part of the question would be can the money move freely between a stocks and shares isa and a flexible cash isa eg £200k in a flexible cash isa moved into a stocks and shares isa > then back to the flexible cash isa. We are both higher-rate tax payers and I won't drop a tax bracket in retirement so I feel the ISAs are the most useful savings bucket we hold. Take care and all the best. Stuart
Do the hard laws of thermodynamics apply to your money? What can avalanches, boiling water, and quantum mechanics teach us about markets? We explore where physics meets finance—and what it reveals about volatility, crashes and portfolio decay. And in today's Dumb Question of the Week: What should you study if you want to work in finance? --- Today's podcast is sponsored by Freetrade, the commission-free investing platform. New Freetrade offers: 2% cashback when you transfer £10,000+ in pensions (ends 31 Dec 2025) 1% cashback for new ISA customers transferring £10,000+ (ends 31 Dec 2025) Plus, get a free share worth £10 - £100 when you sign up via a referral link! Freetrade makes investing simple and affordable, with award-winning service and transparent pricing. Learn more at freetrade.io/pensioncraft Capital at risk. ISA & SIPP eligibility, tax rules, and T&Cs apply. Cashback capped at £1,000. Annual subscription required for SIPP offer. ---Get in touch
Designing an investment portfolio that matches your goals is hard. Sticking with it through thick and thin is even harder. Today, we're delighted to be joined by the creator of Portfolio Charts to consider risk, return, drawdowns and—crucially—your own behaviour, so you can find something that truly fits you. And in today's Dumb Question of the Week: Does rebalancing improve returns? --- Today's podcast is sponsored by Freetrade, the commission-free investing platform. New Freetrade offers: 2% cashback when you transfer £10,000+ in pensions (ends 31 Dec 2025) 1% cashback for new ISA customers transferring £10,000+ (ends 31 Dec 2025) Plus, get a free share worth £10 - £100 when you sign up via a referral link! Freetrade makes investing simple and affordable, with award-winning service and transparent pricing. Learn more at freetrade.io/pensioncraft Capital at risk. ISA & SIPP eligibility, tax rules, and T&Cs apply. Cashback capped at £1,000. Annual subscription required for SIPP offer. ---Get in touch
Some excellent questions this week, as always, and with the added bonus of moving the podcast onto YouTube! Join Pete and Rog as they answer questions about finance management apps, investment platform selection and transitional tax-free allowance certificates! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA32 01:39 Question 1 Hi Pete and Roger Thanks so much for all the work you do, I've only found the podcast recently but already enjoying learning more and thinking about things differently. My question relates to saving for retirement and specifically the period leading up to retiring. Nearly all of our (mine and my husband's) pensions are in SIPPs where we have been happy to be 100% equity, in global index funds. We are now maybe 7-10 years from the point where we could retire, and I've been able to research withdrawal strategies to the point where I'm confident managing that when we get there. We have determined our target asset allocation split between equities / bond funds / individual gilts and money market funds for the start point of retirement. I haven't been able to find much information about the period of transition from 100% equity to the asset allocation we want in place for the start of retirement. Obviously it's a balance between reducing exposure to volatility as we approach retirement and accepting a drag on the portfolio caused by the increasing allocation to cash and bonds and my instinctive (but not evidence-based!) approach would be to gradually move from one to the other over a number of years. So my question is this - is there a better approach than just a straightline shift from one to the other? How far out from retirement is it appropriate to start making the transition? The best advice I can find online is just to pick whatever makes you feel comfortable and do that but surely there must be some more robust guidance out there? I appreciate it might not be a one size fits all answer but would appreciate your thoughts on how to approach this. The one piece of advice I do seem to have found is that however we decide to do it, to stick to a predetermined schedule to avoid temptation to try to time the market - does that sound sensible or have I missed the mark on that? Thanks so much for any help you can give. Fran 08:28 Question 2 Hello I listen to your show when out on walks and find it helpful for somebody who struggles at times with pension planning I am 55 and myself and colleagues were told we had to leave the Final Salary pension scheme in 2019, the flipside being we would still have employment and our final salary pension would be triggered at reduced age of 50, although we would only get the years paid into rather than the magic 40 years which would give 40/80ths of your final salary. So, for me , mine was triggered in 2020 and it was around 32/80ths (paid in since age 17), and I still remain in employment. At this time I received a statement saying my pension had triggered, I had opted for the smaller lump sum (we had two options and some took the larger sum). There was no option to not take a tax free lump sum. I received a statement from the pension provider and it stated I was using 57% of the LTA Now, since 2024 the P60 I receive from the pension provider annually now shows how much of the LSA I have used, this shows an amount of £153k , which equates to the same 57% , this time of the tax free lump sum allowance of £268k (I have rounded the figures). However, the actual lump sum I received was £80k - so should I not have £199k left to use up ? As I got my lump sum prior to 2024 and it is far lower than the standard calculation used to generate £153k used figure , do I not have any protected rights and able to dispute this ? It seems unfair that others who opted for double the tax free lump sum I received will be treat the same as myself regarding what tax free lump sum they can get in future (We all pay into a company DC scheme these past 6 year, with a different provider). I have read about Transitional Tax Certificates but unsure if they are relevant to my scenario. I was unsure if the onus is on myself to take some action, or if the above is correct and that is how it works. Any advice would be appreciated and may help others in a similar scenario also. Many thanks, Jason 13:15 Question 3 Hi both, Thank you for all the great content, my question relates to financial planning as a couple. My partner and I are getting married next year and plan to combine finances at that time. We will also be looking to buy our first home in the next few years. Aside from some lifestyle creep, we are both 'good' with money and have worked with monthly budget systems before. We are looking for a system to help us manage our *total wealth/finances* on a larger scale as opposed to the majority of online finance spreadsheets which focus more on monthly budgeting. Do you have any recommendations for spreadsheets or software to help us keep track of the 'big picture' i.e. emergency fund, pensions, ISAs, investments. We WILL be seeking financial planning but are keen to keep track of this stuff ourselves. We would be happy to update spreadsheets quarterly, but not get bogged down in tracking specifics of bills etc! Best, Maddie 18:44 Question 4 Hello Pete and Roger, The older of my 2 sisters has been diagnosed with a terminal illness at the early age of 46 and because of the late stage diagnosis the timescales could be as short as 3-6 months without treatment. Myself and my other sister have been looking through her work pension/ finances to sort out her estate to get everything looked after for her only daughter, who is under the age of 18. She works for a government department and after reading the small print with her pension/ employment contract her estate would be about £130k worse off if she continued to be on sick leave but employed compared to taking medical early retirement. We have advised and started the process to get the lump sum and early retirement pension for my sister, as she is unlikely to benefit from the higher yearly pension payouts of around 23k vs 15k with £100k lump sum. My younger sister is applying for power of attorney as my older sister is too unwell to deal with all the admin and is becoming very forgetful with her condition and medication. My sister's entire estate will be around £300k, we are concerned about my niece inheriting such a large lump sum at the age of 18. We are considering setting up a trust so that the money can be fully invested and paid out in smaller staggered lump sums to her on a 6 month or 12 month basis, just to get her used to dealing with larger sums of money and when she needs a Deposit for a house etc this will be available. Are there any reasons not to go down the Trust route and would this even be practical? Are there other options? We have been thrown into the deep end trying to make the best decision and could use your advice. I'm 38 and if I'd have inherited such a large lump sum at the age of 18, I probably would have blown it on expensive cars and motorcycles and have had some great fun in my 20's, but probably would have little left to show. Regards Mark 24:03 Question 5 Hi Pete and Rog Long time fan here! Love the accessibility of your information in the pod and the books! I've learnt a huge amount. But.... I still have a probably rather stupid question... I have a SIPP with funds in a Vanguard Global Index fund with Interactive Investor. It's taken a bit of a battering, but I'm hopeful it will grow in the next 10 years! My question is, how does it grow? I keep reading about interest and the magic of compounding, but it seems to me that there is no interest in an index fund? I dabble for a while with a dividend specific pie on Trading 212 and clearly saw dividends being paid to me on a regular basis, but this doesn't seem to happen with the Vanguard fund. What is it that's compounding? Please can you explain (as if I was a child!) how and why the fund grows and (hopefully) keeps gaining value over the long term? Many thanks! Alex 29:34 Question 6 Hello Pete and Roger, Great podcast! We are all very aware of costs eroding returns over time. On reading the Sunday Times review of investing platforms (8th June 2025 entitled, *'Switch investing platform and save £30k*'), this would seem to advocate changing platforms as funds increase to minimise costs. However, what this article doesn't go into is the flexibility on each platform to invest in individual shares / ETFs etc. Please could you and Roger give your insightful views about investment platform selection and particularly keeping with the most cost effective platforms as invested funds grow in value. Thank you for helping so many of us! Ivana
You've done the maths. You've cut the lattes. You've maxed the ISA. And you're still decades away from financial freedom. So how are some people retiring in their 30s and 40s while the rest of us are stuck on the hamster wheel? And in today's Dumb Question of the Week: How much will I spend in retirement? --- Today's podcast is sponsored by Freetrade, the commission-free investing platform. New Freetrade offers: 2% cashback when you transfer £10,000+ in pensions (ends 31 Dec 2025) 1% cashback for new ISA customers transferring £10,000+ (ends 31 Dec 2025) Plus, get a free share worth £10 - £100 when you sign up via a referral link! Freetrade makes investing simple and affordable, with award-winning service and transparent pricing. Learn more at freetrade.io/pensioncraft Capital at risk. ISA & SIPP eligibility, tax rules, and T&Cs apply. Cashback capped at £1,000. Annual subscription required for SIPP offer. ---Get in touch
You already know you're not supposed to time the market… and yet here you are, hovering over the “sell” button because everyone's yelling about a bubble. So where's the line between reckless market timing and sensible risk management? We discuss the least destructive ways to panic. And in today's Dumb Question of the Week: What's the difference between a crash, a correction, and a bear market? --- Today's podcast is sponsored by Freetrade, the commission-free investing platform. New Freetrade offers: 2% cashback when you transfer £10,000+ in pensions (ends 31 Dec 2025) 1% cashback for new ISA customers transferring £10,000+ (ends 31 Dec 2025) Plus, get a free share worth £10 - £100 when you sign up via a referral link! Freetrade makes investing simple and affordable, with award-winning service and transparent pricing. Learn more at freetrade.io/pensioncraft Capital at risk. ISA & SIPP eligibility, tax rules, and T&Cs apply. Cashback capped at £1,000. Annual subscription required for SIPP offer. ---Get in touch
A couple of questions this week about having too big a pension fund, plus a great question on platform choice where Rog and Pete discuss their own experiences. Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA31 01:58 Question 1 Hi, really enjoying the podcast. Started by watching your YouTube videos and still like getting the notifications of your new content. I have a question regarding early retirement, before pensions are available. I'm 50 and my wife is 52 and we would like to retire now. We have a mix of DB and DC pensions that will be sufficient for our retirement. She can start taking her pensions at 55 and I'll start at 57. We have a savings pot outside of pensions of £700k in a mixture of investment funds (ISA being maxed yearly) that we would like to live on between now and our pensions becoming available. Based on £5000 per month to live on, we would need to withdraw £60000 in year 1, year 2 and year 3. After that, we would need to withdraw £32500 in year 4, year 5, year 6 and year 7. Based on these figures and your experience of the expected interest we should gain over the period if our pot is sensibly invested, what are your thoughts on how low the pot will drop to over the first 7 years and how long would the amount we spent take to recover to the original value of the pot? Many thanks, Adam 10:39 Question 2 Hi Pete and Roger, Thank you both for all of the content and guidance – it has really helped me build my confidence in planning my finances. How much is too much in a pension? I'm 42 years old and have always prioritised pensions as a relatively high earner. I'm now in a position where I have a fairly healthy £530k in my pension, and wondering if I need to throttle back the contributions soon? If I take an assumed 5% growth rate, I'm on target for a £1m pot by age 55 without any more contributions (my access age is protected at 55). Should I just pay in enough to get employer match - I get 7% employer contributions for my 5%? My employer offers salary sacrifice, so as an additional rate taxpayer, I benefit from 47% relief (the employer savings are not shared unfortunately). I do already manage to fill my S&S ISA every year and have an adequate emergency fund, so really it's a question of pension vs GIA at this point. My concern is that I may have to pay 40% tax on withdrawals on the way out, so I might be better to keep the money accessible and support an early retirement before pension access age. What is the maximum pension pot size to target at age 55? – what do you think? Many thanks and keep up the good work, Steve 15:55 Question 3 Hi Pete and Roger, Thank you for all you do! My mum is 63 and retired a few years ago. She has a DC pension, which she won't need to take until she's around 68 as they currently live off my dad's income. Her pension has been in the default fund, which automatically de-risks as she approaches retirement age. We only recently learned that this default fund probably isn't ideal for her circumstances, when I discovered your podcast and forwarded some episodes to her! She doesn't intend to buy an annuity, so what can she do with her pension pot at this late stage to stop it being entirely de-risked and losing value as she gets older? She plans to start taking an income from it in around 5 years time. Many thanks in advance! Kathryn 22:23 Question 4 Hi Roger and Pete, Listening to your podcast has me feeling like a money ninja - ready to conquer my finances one episode at a time! Here`s my question: My workplace pension match is 3% and I also I contribute 3% - it`s auto enrolment and a DC pension. I would like to put 15% in my retirement, but can`t find any advice on how to best do that – do I just up my contribution into my workplace pension to 15% and that`s that, or do I also open a SIPP and GIA and split between all three? What do people usually do? :D Thanks so much – Leah 27:22 Question 5 Hi Pete and Roger Been a fan of your podcast for a long time and have put some of the lessons from yourself and others into practice since I was 19, now 46 . Regularly saving and investing as much as possible by way of ISA , high interest accounts etc I have been able to build a decent portfolio over the years My question is regarding the most efficient platform for Stock and Shares ISA regarding fees. In the past I had an FA and the ongoing fees I always felt eroded investment gains and switched to Hargreaves Lansdown. I have a mix between individual shares/funds and trackers totalling £210k with Hargreaves Lansdown. I have heard about other cheaper platforms such as AJ Bell Trading 212 and wondered if your opinion would be to move over to something cheaper with an in specie transfer. I remember well the financial crisis and Lost money with the bank ICESAVE, only saved by the then PM Gordon browns decision to reimburse. So although I am attracted , once bitten twice shy for lesser know companies. My end goal is to scale back or stop work mid 50's For fullness of info , Pension DC £240k , Cash Isa £30k, House Paid off in Full £550k, Trust £50k No debt , No loans, 2 kids well looked after. Keep up the good work , that regular saving and diligent invest has worked really well over the long term .. thanks in advance and keep up the great work. regards Blair 36:11 Question 6 Hi Pete, Roger and Nick! My question is: when should you stop making additional pension contributions over and above those matching contributions from your employer? I am 43 and have amassed £450k in defined contribution pensions. For the past few years I have been topping up my contributions to the maximum £60k. But given that I still have 15 years until I will be able to access my pension, I assume with standard growth rates I will have amassed a significant sum even without the extra contributions (the extra is about £33k). I plan to withdraw approx £50k per year (up to the high rate income tax band) so assuming a 4% withdrawal rate I would need £1.25m at age 58. Should I just stop contributing the extra now and instead make contributions to my wife's SIPP instead? She has a salary sacrifice pension via work and has headroom to pay more into that pension or a SIPP. I am at the 62% marginal income tax/NI rate but my wife is a basic rate tax payer. I don't love the idea of paying 62% tax but only getting 28% tax relief (via salary sacrifice) if I do this! Many thanks, John
It's another varied mix of questions, with a couple on catching up after a late start, avoiding the 60% tax trap and lots more. Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA30 01:03 Question 1 Hi, I'm curious if you have advice, best practice or tools to advise people who have a reasonable rental property portfolio on how to plan for retirement? I am 55, have taken 50k tax free cash, and 13k a year drawdown, approx 40k left. I have 11 rental properties, but I am still remortgaging and buying more properties. Currently have about 450k available to reinvest into a few more properties, and then probably stop buying. I'm really struggling to understand how much I can/should have available to spend each month, especially as I'm still reinvesting into properties. I'm sure I should be spending way more than I am, but can't work out how best to put a retirement plan together to show how much I truly afford to spend each month. Love your content, and thanks for any advice you may be able to give. Thanks, Paul 09:49 Question 2 Hi Pete and Rog. Big fan of the podcast, keep up the good work. I am looking at ways to stay under 100k income each year to remain eligible for childcare benefits. I know if I were to make AVC into my work pension this would help to remain below that figure. I would prefer to put this money into a SIPP. My question is if I got paid the money and deposited it into a SIPP instead of my work pension will this reduce my income tax and prevent me from going over 100k and losing childcare benefits. Kind regards, Joshua 12:33 Question 3 Hello Pete and Roger, Firstly, thank you so much for such an informative podcast. I don't think I listen to a single episode without taking away something valuable! My question relates to what I should do to with money as I accumulate it for the next financial year's ISA and SIPP allowance. For context- I am 39, an NHS doctor with an NHS pension, have a paid off mortgage and have started making SIPP contributions to bring my adjusted net income below the 60% tax threshold. I am in the privileged position to be able to contribute maximum S&S ISA contributions at the beginning of each tax year and already have filled premium bonds allowance as my emergency fund. Should I put my accumulating savings in a high interest savings account until April, or am I missing out on growth each year and should I be using a GIA with a bed and ISA approach? I appreciate there may be tax on savings interest above £500 or CGT on anything over £3k gains. I just don't want to be missing out on the best approach for the next 20+ years as I hopefully continue to max out ISA and pension contributions. Thank you so much in advance and keep up the fantastic work! Paddy 16:36 Question 4 Dear Pete and Rodge, I am relatively young (36) and have started listening to your podcast relatively recently (in the last year). What I like about it best is the calming relaxed attitude that money matters are discussed in and the comforting belief that life is more important than money I think shines through. Comparison is the thief of joy I know but I find it hard to situate myself in relation to where I ‘should' be financially. I stayed at university a long time (10years) and so always perceived of myself as ‘in debt' and living to the brink of my means, I didn't have a credit card but I would spent all my money and save nothing. When I did eventually get a job it didn't pay much and again it was paycheck to paycheck for many years. Then came three big changes almost at once. First me and my wife had a baby daughter come along, next the company I worked for went bust and third I found your podcast! Something about the mix of these three made me sit up, take notice and want to engage with my finances where previously my head had been in the sand. I did very much feel like I was way behind the running. I managed to find a job which paid almost a third as much take home pay again and decided to set up savings for my daughter, set up an emergency fund, increase pensions contributions, open a stocks and shares ISA, all of the good stuff that you guys continually discuss. However, I still am very much of the opinion that I am way behind the game and starting late which is a shame seeing as time is such a valuable component in investing. My question to you guys is, were you in my position, where would be the first places you would look to educate yourselves on the right things to do next? I feel like I don't know what I don't know and things continually surprise me (for instance I didn't realise that having a car on finance was considered bad debt until the other day). I have this constant nagging doubt that I will be missing something because I haven't started from the beginning. I did consider going back to the start of the podcast when I found it, but Rodge wasn't even around in the first few so I didn't enjoy it as much and also felt like maybe some advice would have gone out of date? Is there a key place for me to start, non-negotiable sources I have to get to grips with in the first place that you can direct me to? What would you do? Very keen to learn your thoughts and hugely appreciative of all your efforts! Kind regards, Dan 24:16 Question 5 Hello Pete & Roger I've gained Incalculable value from listening to you so keep up the amazing work! I have a DB-DC hybrid scheme and at my target retirement age (64) my projections say I'll have £33K p.a DB income + £345K DC pot. This would give me ~ £86K TFC allowance at the pot. My plan has been not to take any TFC on the DC pot upfront and to use regular UFPLS withdrawals to reduce income tax over the long term. However, as this is a hybrid scheme, if I take both DB and DC components at the same time I can keep the DB at £33K p.a. and take £220K TFC upfront. This has made me question my slow TFC strategy as I can realise far more taking it upfront by leveraging the DB ‘value' but only at that point in time. My thoughts are to then find a way to get this £220K TFC into S&S ISAs where they would be invested in the same way as in my DC pension. This would allow me to reduce income tax massively over my lifetime. This seems too good to be true! Is it? Problem will be finding a home for such large amounts of cash Options Max mine and wifes ISA allowances (£40K p.a) £10K p.a. contribution to mine and wifes DC pots (MPAA limited) (£20K p.a.) Any other options? Thanks, Duncan 28:46 Question 6 Greetings Pete and Roger, Speaking as a fellow Gen X gruff Northerner (…Pete!), I'd just like to express my huge gratitude to you both for rescuing me from years of financial ineptitude, misdirection and investing ignorance. I can only blame myself, but losing a parent in my late teens, then late 20s, and subsequently finding myself on the non-receiving end of ‘Sideways disinheritance' (Dad remarried / mirrored will / sold our family home to pay second wife's debts….) didn't help with establishing good long-term financial habits. Thankfully, the financial clouds parted 21(ish) months ago when I discovered your excellent Youtube videos, first book, and podcast back catalogue, including a tour de force in ‘tough love' re: DC pension catch up. Since then, I've been desperately trying to catch up, with a rough target of getting a DC pot to support an UFPLS annual 3.5 - 4% withdrawal of, the magic, £16,760. Starting from a very low base, I've been using direct payments from my own Limited Company into a Vanguard SIPP, approximately £3k+ per month (yes, I'm living on lentils..) combined with transferring personal contributions of £10k from money sat in a S&S ISA, thereby getting tax relief up to my small wage of £12.5k. Using this mechanism, I've placed £48k into the pension (mindful of the £60k limit – tax relief is added on the 10k personal, but 19% corp. tax is saved on the employer contributions) in the last financial year, but won't be able to sustain this forever. My question is as follows – provided I still make a net profit after the Employer pension contributions, am I correct in assuming I'm ok re: the ‘Wholly and exclusively' HMRC test? The employer pension payments dwarf the remaining net profit, from which I then take a small amount of dividends, and a smaller corporation tax payment is made at 19%. Also, provided I don't transgress the personal earnings limit (£12,570 for me), is that ok also re: also putting in from the employee side? Am I missing anything at all? E.g. could you use the ‘carry-forward rule' to top up previous years with employer contributions from the Limited company? I'm assuming the answer is ‘no', as dividends don't count as earnings / they don't exceed £60k, but thought I'd ask anyway! Apologies for the ‘War and Peace' length question, and thanks again. Stay intentional, Bill PS: Really like the ‘Catching up' section of your, also excellent, second book Pete.
Frank Swart was born and raised in Boston. He grew up hearing the big band swing records and classic Broadway show albums that were in his parent's record collection, along with the music that his sister (who was ten years older) listened to including the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Sly and the Family Stone, and Led Zeppelin. He also developed a love for Miles Davis' 1970s recordings, the spiritual Jazz of John and Alice Coltrane, and the deep soul and blues of Chess and Stax records. After some ungratifying drum lessons, when he was 13, his sister bought him a bass. “I was able to play it immediately, learned some riffs from a guitarist, and was soon practicing eight hours a day.” As a teenager, he worked with rock, blues, and acid funk bands. Very interested in making recordings, Swart rented a recording studio in the basement of a hair salon on the graveyard shift and taught himself how to engineer and produce records. After meeting his future wife and deciding to leave Boston, he spent periods living and working in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Nashville where he led the experimental jam band Funkwrench (which is a nickname for a bass). He engineered the first Pixies demos, worked with Patty Griffin off and on for 17 years, recorded with Morphine, produced and performed with cult underground art-rock band Billy Nayer Show, was part of the acid jazz group Junk/Post Junk Trio, was a founding member of the psychedelic electric blues trio SIMO, and recorded and toured with such artists as Norah Jones, The Indigo Girls, John Hiatt, and Buddy Miller. After settling back in San Francisco in 2017, Swart and publisher-producer Brian Brinkerhoff founded the Need To Know label, Skunkworks Studios, and Funkwrench Blues. Utilizing Swart's instrumental blues-oriented compositions and such talents as guitarist Rick Kirch (who worked with John Lee Hooker) and a variety of drummers, they have made recordings with over 200 notable artists. A partial list includes Guitar Shorty, Cash McCall, Fareed Haque, Jim Campilongo, John Hammond, Sonny Landreth, John Primer, Albert Lee, Vieux Farke Toure, Mr. Sipp, Tommy Castro, and Duke Robillard but that only hints at the wide variety of performers. Swart will release his newest endeavor, Funkwrench Blues—Mischief In The Musitorium, in the summer of 2025. The album features collaborations with Lenny White, Vernon Reid, Donald Harrison, Nduduzo Makhatini, Jason Marsalis, Joseph Bowie, and more.
In today's Q&A episode, we're answering a bunch of questions from those on the threshold of retirement, getting into the nitty-gritty of age-difference planning, DB scheme reductions and all sorts! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA29 01:04 Question 1 Hi Pete I am really enjoying listening to the podcast, thank you. They make what can sometimes be a complicated subject much easier to understand. I have a question which I have asked my SIPP provider but even they don't appear to know the answer so here goes: If someone has a SIPP valued at say £1.2m and a DB pension valued at say £300k, in order to maximise the favourable annuity provided by the DB pension, is it possible to draw the full LSA (25% tax free cash) from the SIPP? Or is there a requirement to draw the LSA on a pro rata basis from both the SIPP and the DB pension? Thank you, AJ 07:07 Question 2 Hi Pete and Roger, Thanks to The Meaningful Money Handbook, The Meaningful Money Retirement Guide and listening to all of your podcasts, I'm now in the fortunate position to retire in three years at the age of 55. However, I have a couple of questions about building a Cash Flow Ladder: Q1 - Should I be moving my investments into the various rungs of the ladder now, or just wait until I retire? Q2 - Most of my investments are in a pension, but I also have an ISA for a bit of flexibility. Would it make sense to use the same ladder structure in both the pension and the ISA? Thanks for all your good work. Tim 11:17 Question 3 Hi guys Loving the podcast - helped me through the COVID years and it's been a staple ever since so thank you for that. My question is around investing in older age. At what point, if any, is it worth cashing out GIA investments if other sources of income such as state pension and DB pensions are more than enough to live off and I have sufficient other capital (cash isas) for those big things still ahead? I'm not planning to leave any sort of inheritance (unless I pop my clogs early !) so is there some rule of (age) thumb of when to cash out and spend investments? I sort of don't see the point of continuing to invest after a certain age and to spend the money. But I guess it's not easy switching from investing to spending. Thanks, Chris 16:33 Question 4 Hi Pete & Roger, Great show gents, always interesting and informative. I've been an avid listener for a couple of years now and have been encouraged to write in on the off-chance that my question may have relevance to others with a similar dilemma. I fear you may feel it's too niche but here goes: I'm 59yrs old and for all intents and purposes retired, in as much as I quit my career in business 18months ago to take on the full-time parental care role of my 6yr old twins which enables my wife (15yrs my junior) to continue in the career she loves. We are fortunate that my wife is an additional higher rate tax payer (as was I before I quit), we live mortgage free in a ~£1.5m family house - all of which means I have no plans to draw a pension until my wife is also ready to retire, which despite her occasional gripe, is not likely to be until our children leave school (by which time we will be ~ 72 and 57 respectively). I have a small index-linked Public Sector DB pension that kicks in in a few months time when I hit 60 (£7k per year) and expect to get a full State Pension which should provide me with around £20k p.a. at todays values as a base income when I reach state pension age in 7 years time. I also have a Pension pot currently valued at around £1.2m, made up from £1m SIPP and £200k S&S ISA) and my wife's Pension pot is currently valued at around £520k (£400k SIPP & £120K S&S ISA). I no longer contribute to my SIPP but my wife invests around £30k Gross in to her SIPP annually and we plan on continuing to fill both ISA allowances each year until she retires. We are both 100% invested in equities using low-cost Global trackers to maximise their growth potential. Here's my question, I was burnt a few years back (before I started listening to podcast like yours to educate myself on how to manage my finances) when I was persuaded to join SJP and combine all my old workplace pensions into a single pot managed with them. I even persuaded my wife to join and I opened Junior SIPPs for my twins when they were born (not their advice, my own) which we continue to pay the full amount into monthly to hopefully secure their future retirement. Long and the short of it, the more I learned about investing, the more I regretted my decision to tie myself into SJP and the more I begrudged paying their relatively high fees (for what turned out to be a lower return than much lower cost tracker options could / would have produced over that same time period). I eventually sucked up the exit fees and bailed out a few years back, taking my wife and children's accounts with me and whilst I haven't looked back, it has made me reluctant to spend money on financial advisors, given the perceived poor advice I felt I received last time. To that end, I'm currently planning on managing mine and my wife's finances through retirement without recourse to an advisor but have started to have niggling doubts as to the whether I'm being too arrogant in my own abilities. In simple terms, our aim to build a combined Pension Pot (incorporating a healthy ISA element to aid in tax-efficient drawdown, allow my wife to retire early(er) if she so desires and to cover one-off expenses that may from time to time will come up) that's large enough for us to live off comfortably based on a flexible 3-3.5% drawdown rate annually (index-linked). The plan is also to remain 100% invested in equity throughout retirement with the exception of and maintaining, a 3-5yr cash-like buffer (invested in MM Funds / short term government bonds) from which to take our living expenses. My wife and I are not extravagant spenders and can easily cut our cloth according to circumstances, so my feeling is, with a small but decent guaranteed income that we will have as a foundation, when combined with what I hope/expect to be a sizeable joint Pension Pot and a relatively low and sustainable withdrawal rate that should see us right even through the harshest of winters (metaphorically speaking) this should provide all the income we'll need for a comfortable retirement with a good chance of leaving a fair amount left in the pot for our children at the end, without over complicating our portfolio or expensive management costs. The obvious concern I have is around IHT but even there, I feel like that's a concern to address further down the road once we know we are financially secure and when we know more about the needs of our children as they grow-up and can plan what to do with any excess cash we might have using the rules in place at that time. Sounds simple, but is it too simple? Can you spot any obvious flaws in this plan or reasons why you think seeking professional advice would make sense that may not have considered? Thank you and keep up the good work! Regards, Aaron 27:42 Question 5 Hi both Love the podcast. I listen regularly and enjoy hearing the banter between the two of you, as well as providing answers to thought provoking questions. As an additional rate taxpayer in Scotland, my marginal income tax rate is an eye watering 48%. So I get significant benefit from tax relief when topping up my pension. It can cost as little as £33,000 to enjoy a full input of £60,000 once I get money back on my tax return. I have been diligently stuffing my pension as much as I could afford for years now as it was always the prevailing financial advice. I'm now only a couple of years away from retiring at age 55. I am fortunate enough to be now over the old LTA (which is now of no consequence). However the tax free limit is still set at 25% of that old allowance (£268,273?). Given I am now NOT going to benefit from any further tax free money on the way out, I wonder whether continuing to contribute to my pension is a good idea anymore. My choices are either : 1) Pay into the pension and enjoy tax relief of 48% now, allow the fund to accumulate tax free over the coming years, then pay income tax on the way out at 40%. (I expect to be high rate , not additional or basic rate tax payer in retirement) 2) Take the tax hit now on income, don't contribute to pension, put the nett amount into a GIA, and pay 24% CGT on the gain on the way out. I did some numbers and while the pension wins out, it's not by much over a 10 year term assuming 5% growth. But tax rates could change, pension rules could change, and inheritance tax changes are pending. Can you compare the pros and cons of each approach to help me make a decision, or is there a third option to consider? (I hear Roger sometimes suggest a strategy of taking the tax hit now rather than later e.g better the devil you know) I hope this makes sense. Thanks, Martin 33:47 Question 6 I became an avid listener of the podcast during the first lockdown and have learned so much in the past 5 years. I really enjoy it and appreciate all the effort you put into it. My question is with regard to age gap relationships and planning for retirement. I'm 59 and am currently contributing to the NHS Pension Scheme. Part of my pension can be taken at age 60, without deduction, and I hope to have an income of £16,000 plus a £50,000 lump sum. The rest of my pension I'll be able to take at age 67 and by the age of 63 I hope to have a further pension of £18,000 without a lump sum. In addition to this, from my career before the NHS, I have a SIPP and the current value is £400,000. 63 is the age by which I hope to have stopped working at my current level but it might be sooner. My wife is ten years younger than me and has not been working for most of her adult life. Currently she is paying into a local authority DB scheme but by the time she is 58 her pension entitlement might only be £5,000 per year, but this would need to be discounted by 40%-50% in order to take that income. By the time we are eligible I expect both of us to qualify for the full state pension. We have no other cash savings to speak of and our mortgage is due to be paid off next year, when I will be 60. My question is what advice do you have for couples who face this age gap issue. The plan is that we want to spend our retirement together while I am fit and active (well fit-ish). Once we both have the state pension, with my NHS Pension, we should have an income of £58,000 at todays values, which will be enough for our needs when I am in my late seventies, but might make me a higher rate taxpayer in requirement. Before then, we'd like to spend a bit more and we are planning to use my SIPP and my wife's DB scheme (when she is 58) to fund our pension, until it is replaced by the second NHS Pension and the state pensions. I never realised this would be so complicated to get my head around. When the mortgage is paid off, we'll have some money and should we concentrate in paying it into an ISA so that we can get an additional income without me having to pay higher rate tax, or should we set up a SIPP for my wife so that she can build up a pot of money that she can drawdown on from when she is 58. This would be with the aim of her utilising as much of her annual tax free allowance as possible. I've assumed there is no way that I can transfer part of my SIPP to her before I die. I very much hope that you can help. Best wishes, Steve
After a winning week that took Aston Villa from the chaos of Rotterdam to the comfort of Villa Park, My Old Man Said returns to make sense of it all.From the surreal experience of being herded behind Perspex to watch Villa play Feyenoord to the sight of Napalm Death on the flight home, the European trip had everything - but most importantly, it reminded fans what Unai Emery's Villa can be when fully switched on.Back on home soil, Burnley offered the perfect chance to consolidate that rhythm. With Marlen's ruthless finishing, Bogarde's composure under pressure, and a midfield that finally hummed again, it felt like the real Villa had clocked back in. Yet, the familiar sight of a soft goal from a set piece showed there's still work to do before they can start dreaming bigger.In this episode, we unpack the growing control in Villa's play, the tactical tweaks behind the win, and why this run might just be the spark to reawaken Emery's machine - plus a few laughs along the way.UTVAs mentioned in the show:InvestEngine – Build Your Own ETF Portfolio (ISA and SIPP options available)Build your own SIPP (Self-Invested Personal Pension) by choosing your own ETF's for long-term flexibility and specialisation in how your pension is invested. Zero trading fees. One of the best ways to build a low cost pension and beat the commission drag of pension companies that shave off your earnings. You'll also get up to a £100 bonus - Start with InvestEngine hereGET AD-FREE SHOWS and JOIN MATCH CLUBGet ad-free shows and extra shows, and join My Old Man Said's 24/7 Villa community, Match Club.For more details and to become a member, click here: Become a MOMS MemberJoin the show's listener facebook group The Mad Few.Credits:David Michael - @myoldmansaid Chris Budd - @BUDD_musicPhillip Shaw - @prsgameMy Old Man Said - https://www.myoldmansaid.comThis Podcast has been created and uploaded by My Old Man Said. The views in this Podcast are not necessarily the views of talkSPORT Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
It's another mixed-bag of questions this week, covering income protection, the local government pension scheme, avoiding the 60% tax trap and much more besides! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/2025/10/08/listener-questions-episode-28/ 01:33 Question 1 Hello Pete & Rog I like to think of you as a couple of great mates offering me life changing information in a relaxed & entertaining fashion. When putting income protection in place, how do people/planners typically frame a target? Just replacing essential income? Or also replacing large contribution to pensions (including lost employer contributions) and S&S ISAs for long term wealth building? Thoughts on how I should frame these questions are very welcome! Many thanks, Duncan 11:27 Question 2 Dear Pete and Roger, Firstly thank you so much for all the free resources you put out there to try and help make the world more financially literate and astute. I myself started a journey of self awareness a few years ago thanks in no small part to your content. I have a question about pension recycling and what is allowable. I've read the rules on the criteria, all of which I think have to be met in order to fall foul of the rules, but am not clear on my wife and my specific situation. My wife and I met later in life and have been married for 13 years in a happy and stable relationship. I've just turned 50 but my wife is eight years older. In summary when we came together I brought earning potential but no assets (previous divorce wiped me out!) and she brought assets (house, SIPP pension built up, inheritance) but, through mutual agreement, no earning potential. Fortunately we have a healthy open discussion about money. I am an additional rate tax payer and use my £60,000 limit of pension contributions every year. We have paid off our mortgage and we have always lived using my salary for all our outgoings and live within our means with little consumer debt. I max out my ISA allowance too. Essentially I have no more tax breaks we could take advantage of by her giving me money, save for CGT or dividend allowances. After thinking about her tax implications I have encouraged my wife in the last couple of years to start to withdraw from her DC pension the maximum amount that would result in no income tax being paid (currently £16,760 of which 25% is tax free). Since we don't need the money for living expenses she tops it up with her savings to £20K and puts it in a S&S ISA so really is just moving investments from a less flexible tax free wrapper to a more flexible one while she pays no income tax. We will do this for the next ten years until she reaches state pension age and I retire myself. She'll still have a sizeable SIPP at this point as this strategy won't deplete all her pension. She still has significant other assets that attract tax as she earns more interest than the starter rate for savings allows tax free. She's fully paid up all her NI through additional contributions, has the maximum in premium bonds and I also have started to get her to put £2,880 into a new SIPP in her name every year to get 20% tax relief. My question (sorry it took so long to get here) is that now she is drawing an income of sorts from her DC pension could she recycle more than £2,880 into a SIPP? Clearly it fails on the intention front, on the >30% of the tax free cash and the fact she has actually taken tax free cash. But she's not taking in excess of £7,500 of tax free cash in a 12 month period (another one of the criteria) and I'm also not sure if her taxable DC withdrawals (on which she pays no income tax as
Some great questions this week about planning for the loss of the personal allowance, investing in GIAs, persuading an aunt to write a will, and much more besides! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA26 01:11 Question 1 Dear Roger and Pete, I enjoy listening to your show driving to work. You are both down to earth and humble with your opinions. I read a lot on finance and have been investing in stocks and share ISA since 2004 and VCTs since 2017. I have built a healthy portfolio of nearly 300k in VCT, 400k in Stocks and share ISA. I also have a healthy DC pension of roughly 700k and DB pension worth around 10k per year from age 60. I am approaching 50th birthday this year and so decided to use up some of my cash savings which is in excess of my target investment of 20k in ISA and 50 k in VCT(as unable to go over 10k in pension (due to annual allowance threshold). I know I am fortunate and I also live frugally as that's my nature and don't have too many wants. The question is if I have roughly 80k in mortgage and I have the ability to clear it, should I invest that 80k in VCT on top of my regular VCT allocation of 50k and get the 30% tax benefit(as I am unable to get much tax benefit from my pension) or clear my mortgage as the mortgage is coming up for renewal and likely interest rate will be 4-4.5%. I am torn as I understand in my head that 80 k invested is better than clearing the mortgage over a 20-30 year time frame, but as I am going to be 50 and would like to clear the mortgage and have freedom to decide if I want to enter a life of FIRE or have the ability to FIRE if I get bored. However, I have kids in school and so unlikely I will FIRE until they go to university. Sorry about the long question. Thank you, Fred. 06:25 Question 2 Hello Pete / Roger, Great podcast! I hope karma holds true and all the good you give out back comes back to you both! Question: I am a higher rate taxpayer who maximises their pension, stocks & shares ISA and other best tax sheltered places so need to also build wealth in a taxable GIA. What is best strategy for a higher rate tax payer to do this... dividend / income generating stocks or accumulating (non dividend paying) investments and pay CGT at some stage (regularly)? Thanks, appreciated as ever and hope may help others Ivana 10:43 Question 3 Hi, Nick (who I assume will read this first), Pete and Roger, I'm not sure if this is a suitable question for the podcast but here goes. How can we persuade an aged aunt that she needs to write a will, as us knowing what her wishes are is not sufficient. I have an aunt who has no children but she has said she wants her estate split equally between her 8 nieces and nephews but she refuses to make a will. The problem is that if she dies intestate there is an estranged brother who would be a beneficiary as far as we understand and so what she wants to happen won't happen. Richard J 15:50 Question 4 Hi Pete and Rog My husband and I have been MM diehards for many years. We think It's a sad reflection of the state of nation when David Beckham gets considered for a gong before Pete does! I wanted to ask you about UK T-Bills because they are rarely (if ever) mentioned in your discussion of financial instruments. We are at retirement age I have a few DB pensions and a SIPP with Interactive Investor of approx. £300k. About ½ is sitting in Cash (including short term money market funds) because we want to draw out our 25% tax free allowance within the next 2 years and we want to minimise risk until that time arrives. I still want to diversify my low risk investments as much as possible into bonds but my experience of bond funds is that they can also drop significantly with economic conditions whereas we want something to deliver us a (near as possible) guaranteed return. Our platform (ii) allows us to purchase bonds on the primary market however they are too long-term for us to see them through to maturity given our timescales. The platform has started to release UK T-Bills which seem typically much shorter term (3 or 6 months) and therefore appear to give us what we are looking for (guaranteed rate at a decent %) and very low risk. I know the % return is determined by the ‘auction' but it currently looks to be around 4.5% on average (especially the 3-month ones). We plan to apply the bond ladder concept and buy these T-bills over the next few years on a rolling basis. As they are very short term, if rates drop we can change our strategy mid-plan so I think it also gives us a degree of flexibility too. Have we overlooked something obvious as it seems to fit our needs perfectly for the next couple of years? We are very hands-on on the platform so we don't mind getting stuck into the action process (which looks straightforward). I'd be interested if you had any additional insight / comment on T-Bills being used for this or other strategies. Regards, Gilly 22:55 Question 5 Hi Pete, Roger, Thank you for the podcast, I always look fw to listening to it on my Wednesday commute. I'm trying to figure out when it makes sense to accept paying more income tax versus increasing my pension contributions? My total compensation this tax year is estimated to be £125k meaning I will lose all of my personal allowance with an effective 60% marginal tax rate on the last £25k of my earnings. Part of my compensation is made up of RSUs and very predictable quarterly bonuses. My base salary is approx £85,000.Last year, my total compensation was £105k, with a smaller base salary. My pension contributions kept my taxable income below £100k. I do not have any children, so the loss of funded childcare is not a concern. I've been contributing 15% for the last 5 or 6 years, starting when I was earning about half what I earn now. I chose that percentage to bring earnings under the 40% threshold at one point. At the start of this tax year, I increased my pension contributions to 20% because my income increased and I had no immediate need for the extra money. My employer only matches up to 5%. I am in my mid 30s and have roughly £140,000 split between my SIPP and my current workplace pension. Both invested in 100% equities in a global fund. I am considering increasing my salary sacrifice from 20% to around 30%, to keep my taxable income below 100k to avoid the loss of personal allowance. I'm hesitant because, playing around with the compound interest calculator, starting with a £140,000 balance, contributing £1,700 per month (20% salary sacrifice), and assuming a 7.5% return (which may be slightly optimistic), I would end up with a pension pot of about £1.5 million at age 55. Which might be too much. I have £80k in my stocks and shares isa, also in global equities and I'm on track contribute 20k this tax year. I own a flat with a mortgage, fixed at less than 2% for a couple more years with no interest in over paying. I'm worried I might end up with too much money left when I (eventually!) die, I have no kids and I am not interested in leaving a legacy. Shall I just accept the tax bill and increase my lifestyle today given I'm already saving enough that I know I will be comfortable later in life. I read die with zero a year or so ago, and it resonated with me a lot. What else is there to consider? Thank you, Mark. 29:15 Question 6 Dear Pete & Roger, I have one question on my financial planning. This year I had received extra bonus which lead to my salary at the end of tax year of £123k. I have contributed £17k to my pension using employer contributions but remaining £6k is through my company stock which was vested and I got £3.1k income after paying 47% tax. My question is as my salary threshold for this tax year crossed £100k, for this additional £6k do I need to submit self assessment and if yes, do I need to declare this £6k full stock amount completely as a separate income even though I already paid tax on it, does this mean I am also liable to pay capital gains tax on this £3.1k? I look forward to hearing from you what are my options to submit to HMRC through my self assessment so I can calculate if I owe any additional tax or HMRC will refund me some money due to £17k pension contributions? Many thanks, Vai
Ethel Cain. Charley Crockett. J.I.D. Plug in to the week's top new releases with NPR Music's Stephen Thompson and guest DeShun Nance of WJSU's The Sipp in Jackson, Miss.The Starting 5:• J.I.D, 'God Does Like Ugly' (Stream)• Ethel Cain, 'Willoughby Tucker, I'll Always Love You' (Stream)• Amaarae, 'BLACK STAR' (Stream)• Charley Crockett, 'Dollar a Day' (Stream)• Gordi, 'Like Plasticine' (Stream)The Lightning Round:• Hayes Carll, 'We're Only Human'• Big Freedia, 'Pressing Onward'• Ashley Monroe, 'Tennessee Lightning'• Bryson Tiller, 'The Vices'• Ada Lea, 'when i paint my masterpiece'See our long list of albums out Aug. 8 and sample more than 50 of them via our New Music Friday playlist on the All Songs Considered blog.CreditsHost: Stephen ThompsonGuest: DeShun Nance (WJSU's The Sipp)Audio Producer: Noah CaldwellDigital Producer: Elle MannionProduction Assistant: Dora LeviteEditor: Otis HartExecutive Producer: Suraya MohamedLearn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy
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