Intelligent Money - your investment questions answered

[KTF]

On the IM web dashboard, is there any plan to have a 'growth' view rather than a total?

For example Vanguard have a Performance page with starting amount, contributions, growth (£) and growth (%) which makes it easy to see at a glance.

[JulianPH]

RowanF said:

Many thanks Julian, I have signed up. I forgot to put the code in (duh!) so have emailed your enquiries mailbox copying in Nik to beg forgiveness

Don't worry, we will sort it!

May I be the first to welcome you as a Private Client. Anything you need please contact Nik or give me a shout.

Cheers

Julian

[JulianPH]

Mazinbrum said:

Would it be worth creating an PH IM FAQ ? There are a lot of pages to go through now.

Good idea. I'll speak to CarGurus and see if we can add this.

Cheers

[JulianPH]

KTF said:

On the IM web dashboard, is there any plan to have a 'growth' view rather than a total?

For example Vanguard have a Performance page with starting amount, contributions, growth (£) and growth (%) which makes it easy to see at a glance.

Another very good idea.

At the moment we, as you say, only provide a total.

I'll run this pass our operations and software team to see exactly what we can do. I know they are already processing many updates to the client dashboard to make it more user friendly (much of this being pulled through from the traditional IFA view we had before Private Clients).

If you would be happy to give your feedback and suggestions on this to us that would be really helpful.

Cheers

Julian

[KTF]

Sure, am happy to get a ‘beta’ view rather than the standard login view if you want some testers.

[CharlesdeGaulle]

Isn't today's date significant in the JulianPH household? If I haven't made a boo boo and it is, congratulations!

[Intelligent Money]

dmahon said:

Julian suggested I post my pension question here. Rather than copy and paste, I will add a link.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Thanks!

Hi dmahon,

My apologies for the delay, A long trip back through some bad traffic so a late finish and I have some family commitments this evening so I will pop a summary of how this works up over the weekend.

Regards

Nik

[Fermit and Sexy Sarah]

CharlesdeGaulle said:

Isn't today's date significant in the JulianPH household? If I haven't made a boo boo and it is, congratulations!

My memory is one of my weak points, I could speak to someone 30 seconds after being introduced and have to say, 'st, what's your name?'

Yet, my memory for numbers is incredibly strong. I can remember EVERY phone number and number plate ever close to me, I could now phone my first girlfriends parents (28 years on) by dialing (code) 815689.

Hence, I recall that 2607 is indeed Julians girls birthday!

(I'm now bksed if I'm wrong!)

Edited by Fermit and Sexy Sarah on Saturday 27th July 14:50

[JulianPH]

CharlesdeGaulle said:

Isn't today's date significant in the JulianPH household? If I haven't made a boo boo and it is, congratulations!

Fermit and Sexy Sarah said:

My memory is one of my weak points, I could speak to someone 30 seconds after being introduced and have to say, 'st, what's your name?'

Yet, my memory for numbers is strong, almost Savant syndrome. I can remember EVERY phone number and number plate ever close to me, I could now phone my first girlfriends parents (28 years on) by dialing (code) 815689.

Hence, I recall that 2607 is indeed Julians girls birthday!

(I'm now bksed if I'm wrong!)

Thanks to you both for remembering the date. Yes, it is my daughter's Birthday and I am a very proud and happy Dad!

Thank you so much for taking the time to post this. We had a fantastic day/night with family and friends and she has her best friend over for a sleepover!

Cheers guys

Julian

[Fermit and Sexy Sarah]

I do need to mention you to Dad, who as you know is local to you. He has, IFAIK, a good amount of investments, would you extend the PH offer to him maybe? (no worries if not, you need to draw the line somewhere!)

Just on a side note to say, to anyone debating using Julians services. Whilst we don't need his professional services at our current point in life, I wouldn't hesitate to be straight on to him at such a point that we do.

He really is one of the good eggs on Pistonheads, a true gent, and a pleasure to be in the company of - he's as straight as you could find. Recently I did some work for him on his cars, and we spent so long nattering that I didn't get away until the evening!

And lovely BTW to hear that F had a brilliant birthday

[JulianPH]

Fermit and Sexy Sarah said:

I do need to mention you to Dad, who as you know is local to you. He has, IFAIK, a good amount of investments, would you extend the PH offer to him maybe? (no worries if not, you need to draw the line somewhere!)

Just on a side note to say, to anyone debating using Julians services. Whilst we don't need his professional services at our current point in life, I wouldn't hesitate to be straight on to him at such a point that we do.

He really is one of the good eggs on Pistonheads, a true gent, and a pleasure to be in the company of - he's as straight as you could find. Recently I did some work for him on his cars, and we spent so long nattering that I didn't get away until the evening!

And lovely BTW to hear that F had a brilliant birthday

Hi Rob

Thanks for the very kind feedback mate.

It is true that I cost you time as we were chatting on both days and I thank you for coming back another day to finish the third one (anyone looking for professional leather restoration - car or home - get in touch with Rob!).

We will look after your parents, obviously. No minimum and no initial charge is always available to family and friends of PHers in any event.

I'm looking forward to seeing you again in the next few weeks (not investment related!) for a beer and a catch up..

Thanks again,

Julian

[Intelligent Money]

dmahon said:

Julian suggested I post my pension question here. Rather than copy and paste, I will add a link.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

Thanks!

Hello again dmahon

Here is a more detailed answer to your question. I hope it helps.

It is probably best to answer this by going through the carry forward and taper relief process stage by stage.

The first stage is to calculate this years allowance.
Calculating this tax years allowance can be a little more complex where taper relief applies, and as you have identified revolves around Adjusted and Threshold Income. Anti Avoidance legislation in 2015 now means that salary sacrifice pension contributions are added back in to both Adjusted and Threshold Income. However you can deduct personal contributions.

Adjusted income is all your taxable income plus all pension contributions minus any personal contributions.

Threshold income is all your taxable income plus any salary sacrifice set up after July 2015 minus any personal pension contributions (Gross)

If your adjusted income is over £150k and your Threshold income is above £110k the taper relief applies at a rate of £1 for ever £2 that your adjusted income is above £150k.

You now know your allowance for this year.

You can then go back three years and make use of any unused allowance from the previous three years, beginning with the earliest year first and then working through to the current year.

Each year is treated in isolation so you can go back and work out what your allowance was in each year, deduct any contributions made in the year and the balance is the allowance that you can carry forward to this year.

If taper relief applied in any previous year then carry forward any of the unused allowance with the taper applied.

So taper relief is only applied in any tax year where your adjusted income was over £150k and your threshold income was over £110k

By adding together the unused allowance for the previous three years and this years allowance you now have a figure that tells you how much you can contribute this year without being subject to an annual allowance charge.

Any contribution above your allowance will be subject to a charge.

If this is greater than £2,000 and is due to over payment into one scheme, you can request that the scheme administer pays the charge and it can be deducted from the pension fund.

I hope this helps clear up the position for you. While pensions offer great tax benefits and are a very efficient way of investing for retirement there are a few wrinkles that can catch you out.

If you need any further detail or would like me to look at your position in a little more detail just drop me a pm to [e-mail] and I will be happy to help.

Regards

Nik

[JulianPH]

A great technical overview Nik.

If dmahon, supersport or anyone else would like Nik to work out these calculations for their own personal circumstances just drop him an email.

Cheers

Julian

[JulianPH]

KTF said:

Sure, am happy to get a ‘beta’ view rather than the standard login view if you want some testers.

Hi mate, sorry, I managed to miss this.

That would be great thanks. I'll keep you in the loop and still have your email address from our other conversation that I can't believe was nearly 3 years ago now!

Cheers

Julian

[KTF]

Great. The email address hasn’t changed.

I finally got round to start the transfer of some of my pensions over to IM after speaking to Nik about it as well.

[JulianPH]

KTF said:

Great. The email address hasn’t changed.

I finally got round to start the transfer of some of my pensions over to IM after speaking to Nik about it as well.

Thanks.

Nik did mention that you had been in touch and I remembered your name. I'm happy we have been able to assist you, particularly given the previous confusion you were being presented with.

Nik will be there for anything you need and always feel free to come to me directly (in the rare event I might know something that Nik doesn't!!!)

Cheers

[dmahon]

Thanks for the detailed info Nik. Really appreciate it.
You got mail!

[JulianPH]

dmahon said:

Thanks for the detailed info Nik. Really appreciate it.
You got mail!

I'm glad Nik was helpful and that it was worth your time posting here. He will be able go through all the calculations (based upon your circumstances) with you.

We don't charge for doing this and there is absolutely no obligation whatsoever to become a private client.

We work on the simple basis that if we can help you at no charge, you will consider using us at the right time and will also tell others about us.

[supersport]

JulianPH said:

dmahon said:

Thanks for the detailed info Nik. Really appreciate it.
You got mail!

I'm glad Nik was helpful and that it was worth your time posting here. He will be able go through all the calculations (based upon your circumstances) with you.

We don't charge for doing this and there is absolutely no obligation whatsoever to become a private client.

We work on the simple basis that if we can help you at no charge, you will consider using us at the right time and will also tell others about us.

Also thank you from me.

[BertieWooster]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask this as, although it is pension-related, it is related to state pension additional voluntary contributions.

I left the UK in 2012 and haven't paid any NI contributions since then. From the UK government pension calculator, it appears I can make annual voluntary contributions of £780 for the next 21 years to be eligible for a state pension.

Is this worth doing or should I invest that money elsewhere?

For context, I'm in a DB pension scheme here in the USA and also have 15 years in the UK Civil Service Classic Scheme (2002-2017, although from 2012 to 2017 I was on secondment so didn't contribute).