Taking your pension pot early

Can you believe that someone in their mid 20s has enquired about taking out their pension pot!

The general opinion is that many people are 'confused' about the new rules. What part of 'anyone over the age of 55.....' did they find confusing?!

Words fail me, yet again.

Re: Taking your pension pot early

I agree, I was also talking to a young man yesterday who thought he could take his pension early (he is 30) I said I was surprised he was paying for a private pension as he has been in and mostly out of work for years, turned out he thought it was the government provided pension and yes sadly he is that stupid.

Re: Taking your pension pot early

Take out your pension pot, squander it then rely on state handouts when you retire................that'll be the scenerio for some folk I guess.

Re: Taking your pension pot early

I think it'll be that way for many, sadly.

Re: Taking your pension pot early

But for those who won't live to see this long retirement people are always talking about it may be their only chance to get their money. I see yesterday articles saying our average age of death is coming down again. Won't be too long before we all die working if they keep putting up the age of retirement and age of death comes down to meet it.

Re: Taking your pension pot early

I took mine early when I retired at 60. For 5 years I was a self funded retiree until I received a part pension from the government at 65 now I live off a mixture of super and state pension. My state pension is indexed every 20th March and 20th Sept to the average male wage but this government wants to index it to the CPI however they can't get the legislation through the Senate (another win for democracy)

It is possible to retire at 55 but your superannuation is not tax free until you are 60.

Re: Taking your pension pot early

We are not allowed to retire until we are 67 ! For a family who die in their ate 50s early 60s not exactly fair IMO

Re: Taking your pension pot early

The pension age here depends on the year you were born - before 1952 its 65 after 1966 its 70 so between 1952 and 1966 it is somewhere between those two ages. The Government pension is non contributary so it is means tested. BUT that is not the same as retirement age you can retire any time but there are tax benefits to retiring after 60.

Superannuation has been compulsary for years since the Hawke/Keating government so most people will have super to retire on but whether it is enough is up to the individual because putting extra money into super has tax advantages.

Re: Taking your pension pot early

I was made redundant 2008 i didn't receive much and found it hard going as i was living on my own, i got a Jobseekers allowance for a short while until i found a job that didn't pay a lot my money dwindle down i remembered i had a small frozen pension so i got intouch with the company and i recieved a lump some from it with a monthly payment. I've been recieving this for 5yrs now and i incur a little each year. So to me this has helped i deserve it i've worked for 45yrs!

Re: Taking your pension pot early

Julie, I'm sure when you say "We are not allowed to retire until we are 67 ", that you mean the state pension age is 67. Otherwise, nobody could retire early!
I do wish we could take our state pension early and that it was tax free. I've got less that 6 months to go, but then the govt. will grab 20% back!
Thanks a bunch guys.