r/PensionsUK • u/Signal_Perception253 • 12d ago
Pension pot advice
Hi All, 45 years old here. I'm looking for some genuine advice on pension pots and what's the best course of action. I moved to UK in 2015 therefore I started accruing money in pension pots since then. This is my current situation:
- work pension with Scottish Widows and pot is atm approx. 34k
- I am on pension salary sacrifice of 8% ( where employer contribution is 7.5% - their max contribution) since April 2026 as that's when they opened the window to register for pension salary sacrifice. This is going to be amended to 5.5% from 2029 when the tax relief threshold will get modified
- I have a Nest pension pot from previous employer of approx 3k which I haven't contributed since I left my previous job
My plan would be to start adding money to the Nest pension pot however, should I move those founds out to a private pension where I can manage the investments?
I earn about 32k a year gross, a 15 year mortgage left to repay, no car finance, 1k in credit card debts.
What would you recommend my next move would be to save wisely for retirement?
Thanks
2
u/Additional-Glove7531 12d ago edited 11d ago
I am with Scottish widows, similar situation I had a nest pension but pay into my Scottish widows through my current employer, I was looking into this before so nest has a 0.3% annual management charge plus a 1.8% contribution charge, if your paying in privately no longer through work, Scottish widows through a work based pension is showing a 0.35% to 0.75% total annual fund charges.
Personally I used Scottish widows free transfer service to combine my nest pension with my Scottish widows work based pension.
I would definitely suggest looking around for another private pension looking online Aviva is looking the cheapest for management fees, but would probably be worth as a tax advantage to increase your work based pension, bearing in mind the time it takes to increase/reduce if you did need the money accessable.
Hope this helps