Pension planning with Nutmeg

Before having my son I used to work for a large financial company and was fortunate to have a great company pension, the future seemed sorted. However in the last few years, my life has changed dramatically. I was made redundant whilst pregnant and now I home educate my son who has complex learning needs. I'm officially self employed and have limited hours I can work and it's all a bit of a juggle to be honest with making sure I can both earn an income and help my son with his speech and learning. At some point, sooner rather than later, I need to think about our future. It's a big deal and a worry.


However, when thinking about a personal pension, I have been having a look at Nutmeg who have such a great and easy to understand website as to be honest I normally find pensions and investments quite confusing. They have a handy pension calculator where you can alter the amount of income you would want per annum upon retirement and it then tells you how much to save each month into a Nutmeg personal pension in order to achieve that.

Your portfolio is managed by Nutmeg and regularly rebalanced by their expert team so you have the best return on your investment. You can check upon your pension at any time online to see how the value is changing over time and any fees -  there is simply an annual fee of between 0.3-1% for the management of it.

A personal pension is of particular importance with being self-employed as a State pension is around a maximum of a mere £115 a week, based on full National Insurance contributions and retirement age for me will be 66 years old. It seems such a long time away but to plan now before I am 40 gives me sufficient time to hopefully catch up a little.

If you are a basic rate taxpayer the government adds 25%  tax relief of any amounts you put in, up to £40,000 per year or the value of your annual salary, whichever figure is lower. So a personal pension is a great savings and investment solution for your future to ensure you have enough cash for the later years in life.

There are now new pension rules that give greater flexibility in how you use your pension upon reaching age 55, which is the earliest you may draw on the funds. It is a lot to consider when taking out a personal pension so do spend a lot of time researching but the Nutmeg site can help guide you and answer a lot of questions.

Are you organised and have a pension or as bad as me and need to still sort one out?

Featured post for Nutmeg, words are my own. If you need help with pensions, seek independent financial advice. 
Image sources: Nutmeg and  Financial Growth by Shutterstock