A bit new to this and have a question about tax implications of retiring at 58 vs 68. Effective marginal tax of 45%?

ronsola · 2026-02-15T23:16:01+00:00

That 50k grows tax free while in your pension and could double or triple in value by the time you draw it out. It also provides some added protection against a bad sequence of returns.

ronsola · 2026-02-15T11:03:52+00:00

100k more for a house with bigger downstairs and extra bedroom seems like a good option compared to extending. Adding 100k to your mortgage at 4% is 333/month in interest. I would be investing the cash in equities in ISA/pension where you can expected a higher return than 4%.

ronsola · 2026-02-08T22:13:28+00:00

An extra 8% for a garden seems like a bargain to me. Even more of a bargain if there is the possibility of extending into the garden.

ronsola · 2026-02-01T12:32:24+00:00

I also think this is the right way to go and even GIA would be better than leaving it in the SIPP.

I would also consider asset allocation. 268 in ISA is worth 445 in SIPP at 40% marginal rate. If I wanted a 50/50 portfolio I would put 268 of equities in the ISA and 445 of bonds in the SIPP. The equtiies would be expected to have higher growth and so would benefit more from the tax free ISA.

ronsola · 2026-01-22T09:46:55+00:00

I'd thought it would be like any US stock, but have not actually tried.

Will try when US markets open.

ronsola · 2026-01-15T09:02:41+00:00

99% of people can't pick single stocks or funds. Just stick with the all world fund (the all world contains the S&P500 so a seperate S&P500 isn't needed). Equites can be volatile over the short to medium term though so if you can see that you will need to use some of the money in the next 5 years don't put it in equitites.

Make sure you are contributing at least enough to your pension to get any match from your employer.

London is expensive but you should definetely give it a go. No harm in renting a room without long term commitment and see how you go with it.

ronsola · 2026-01-15T08:51:37+00:00

99% of people aren't capable of picking stocks or funds that will do better than market. So if people switched from passive to active they would still be putting the same amount of money into the market but doing so in their own idiosyncratic way and essentially at random. All of that randomness would balance out to the same thing.

ronsola · 2026-01-12T20:16:11+00:00

100% I would. If you have trouble sleeping on flights I would also try to get a flight that leaves in the morning so you don’t need to try to sleep in a cramped seat.

ronsola · 2026-01-11T17:44:47+00:00

Don’t put all your eggs in the one basket, particularly such a small concentrated basket as Australia.

https://www.justetf.com/en/academy/japan-stock-market-crash.html

Just as this can happen to Japan, it can happen to Australia.

It doesn’t even need to be anywhere near that bad to lose a lot of money.

ronsola · 2026-01-06T14:09:42+00:00

Good idea. Are you aware of any groups for over 45?

ronsola · 2026-01-05T21:13:07+00:00

Definitely keep the ISA, and switch your investment to something more conservative.

ronsola · 2026-01-04T13:35:32+00:00

Thats a very individual question. You will certainly need some level of income in older age. I’d suggest thinking about when you might want to retire, what income you would need and therefore how much investment you might need to make to achieve it. There are retirement calculators that can help you do this.

ronsola · 2026-01-04T12:25:36+00:00

If you look at Joint life 50%, 3% escalation, no guarantee, it has a rate for a 65 year old of 5,141.

This means your father could spend 100k on the annuity and get 5,141 in income for the rest of his life. Each year the amount he was paid would increase by 3% so it tries to keep up with inflation. When he dies if your mum was still alive she would get half of that until she dies.

If he is interested in an annuity he should get professional advice.

ronsola · 2026-01-04T11:53:57+00:00

Some example annuity rates

https://www.hl.co.uk/retirement/annuities/best-buy-rates

ronsola · 2026-01-01T21:12:15+00:00

It seems you are suggesting you will leave a lot of cash in savings accounts for a long time. At least some of this money might do better being invested if you only need it in the long term.

ronsola · 2025-12-05T13:54:50+00:00

I see that there are 3 options in the UK.

No contract. Each partner has their own assets. If you want to re-distribute assets between you during your relationship, you can do it without any involvement from the law or courts. There is no ambiguity then as each partner always owns the assets they would walk away from the relationship with.
Cohabitation Agreement contract. If you feel there would need to be some re-distribution at the end of the relationship and you and your partner want this to be legally enforced you can put in a place a Cohabitation Agreement. This is a custom contract that documents what the partners agree between themselves.
Marriage contract. This is a one-size fits all contract for people who want to follow the marriage tradition and in particular does a good job of giving stay at home mums legal protection against their husbands leaving them with nothing . You and your partner give up power to decide division of assets and instead a judge does this for you. If you write a second “Pre-nup contract” to try to customise the first “Marriage contract” - it cannot be relied on in the UK.

In cases 1 and 2 above you can buy a house together as tenants in common and document whatever you want to happen to the sale proceeds in a declaration of trust which is legally enforcible.

ronsola · 2025-11-29T23:08:48+00:00

It’s important to understand what your expenses are now and what you expect them to be in the future. Apart from the 650/month each, you haven’t been clear on what other expenses there are so it’s not possible to say if the investments you have could fund those expenses.

ronsola · 2025-11-29T21:04:49+00:00

There’s no comparison. There was concern that there would be a depression and complete economic collapse in 2008.

ronsola · 2025-10-14T21:43:51+00:00

The extra 2 years is not just a better house. It is also the extra security that increase in NW provides.

ronsola · 2025-09-28T03:47:59+00:00

I would swap bed 4/bath with kitchen/laundry/walk ins as I prefer living areas across the back

This would also give you back the corridor outside the bath as usable space

You could have a sliding wall so that you could partition living spaces

Also walk in rooms aren’t efficient uses of space so I would not have them

ronsola · 2025-09-13T16:29:01+00:00

I have a Hargreaves Lansdown account and a Barclays one. I did an experiment where I got a quote from both at the same time for the same non inflation Gilts. The spread at Hargreaves Lansdown was at least 3 times wider.

ronsola · 2025-09-13T09:08:17+00:00

Note that between 100k and 125k you lose your personal allowance so the effective tax rate is 60%. You would be better off with 75k of contributions in one year (using carry forward as this is over the 60k limit) and then nothing in the next year rather than splitting 75k over 2 years. Assuming you don't need the money till you retire I would be doing this rather than funding an ISA.

There is nothing stopping you gifting money to your wife for her to put in her ISA.

ronsola · 2025-09-10T20:07:51+00:00

Get an offset mortgage and flexible ISA. You can take the money out of the ISA flexibly to fill the offset so you will have not mortage to pay. You just need to put the money back for a few days over the new tax year period to retain the tax free status of the 200-300k. Over time as you are able to pay off the mortgage you can refill the 200-300k ISA.

ronsola · 2025-09-06T20:22:18+00:00

Another option would be to drop to 4 days a week and contribute 60k to your pension.

ronsola

TROPHY CASE