Should you cash-in your final salary pension?

By Patrick Goddard, Independent Financial Adviser

If you have a final salary pension scheme, many people may be rather envious!  These schemes, which usually pay a proportion of your salary at the time you retire, are now few and far between.  

Final salary schemes are a type of pension known as ‘defined benefit’ – no matter how the markets perform, you know how much you’re going to get when you retire.  

But most schemes now are ‘defined contribution’ schemes – the only certainty is how much gets paid into the scheme, not what your payout may be.

The certainty of a final salary scheme is what’s so appealing.  So who would give that up?

Well, with the pension reforms which come into effect in April 2015, everyone has considerably more freedom in how to use their pension fund – whether it’s a defined benefit or defined contribution scheme.

I am fed up with my job – can I retire?

by Peter Harrison FPFS, Independent Financial Adviser.

This is a question I get asked a lot: “I’ve been at work since I left college – now I want to live a little! Can I afford to?”

The first step in answering this question is to understand what capital and income you may need if you stop full time work – bearing in mind that you may need cash for a long holiday, buy a camper-van and travel the world, carry out some home improvements, help out the children a little.

After that, you need to remember that your resources will now have to last you for the rest of your life – and inflation will erode their value over time.