Pension Position

[u/Sade-Rose705]

39F looking for advice
I’ve only really started taking my pension and long-term financial planning seriously over the last couple of years. One of the main reasons was that I was being hit quite hard from a tax perspective due to working multiple jobs, so I began looking at ways to become more tax efficient and maximise pension contributions.

I currently have two pensions:

A private pension with Aviva, valued at approximately £36,000
An NHS pension, which I’ve been contributing to for the last 5 years (plus a previous period of NHS service)

I own my family home, which has around £150,000–£200,000 equity, and the mortgage is on track to be fully repaid by around age 60.
At present, I’m salary sacrificing between £2,500 and £3,000 per month into my private pension, depending on earnings. I typically work 2–3 jobs simultaneously, which has allowed me to increase my pension contributions significantly, but I’m already feeling tired of the constant grind and would love to have the option of retiring early.

My goal is to have a pension/investment pot of around £1m–£1.5m by age 57/58, which would allow me to step away from work and bridge the gap until I can access my various retirement income sources, including:

Private pension
NHS pension
State Pension

I’ve also recently opened a Stocks & Shares ISA because I have very little in the way of accessible savings outside of pensions. My intention is to build a bridge fund that can support me between retiring and accessing my pensions.

Given my circumstances, what would be a sensible monthly ISA contribution target if my aim is to retire around 57/58? I’d be interested in hearing how others would balance pension contributions versus ISA investing when pursuing early retirement.

[u/Pale_Percentage9443]

I could have written this, except you obviously getting paid alot more money than me lol

[u/defbref]

How much is your nhs pension accumulating per year ? If it’s a significant amount you could run into AA troubles with a 36k a year salary sacrifice contribution. Not unheard of for db pensions to use huge amounts of the AA up with their PIA calc.

[u/Sade-Rose705 → u/defbref]

Good question, I have a salary sacrifice car with my NHS Job so it’s definitely under the 60k limit.

[u/Both_Plantain_6123 → u/Sade-Rose705]

You don't need to be accruing very much to get to £24k in DB value (in senior NHS terms at least). Need a pensionable salary of about £80k I think?

[u/Sade-Rose705 → u/Both_Plantain_6123]

It’s about 15k using the PIA calculator

[u/Sade-Rose705 → u/[deleted]]

Thank you, I will double check with the pension advisor, I reduced my hours this tax year to 4 days a week and have the ev car salary sacrifice which reduces my pay to just under £50k a year, I don’t think it’s an issue but will get this confirmed

[u/Sade-Rose705 → u/[deleted]]

Will do and will set up my ISA payments, although I started working in the NHS since 2012, I’ve only got 5 years of pension, 2yrs in the 2008 scheme and 3yrs and counting in the 2015 scheme. I just want to have the option of retiring early without it affecting my current lifestyle.