Best financial decision

firstly I deferred retiring and taking my pensions for 5 years.
This means I get more per month than the basic, which leaves me comfortable at least.
Also when I divorced I went to mediation. When my ex said no way could I have any call on his pension (which was very high compared to anything I could hope for), the mediators gave me the largest part of the house. So I downsized and paid off both the ex and the mortgage.

For me the bestest ever financial decision was putting every thing I could into paying off my new mortgage within three years after separating from my husband nearly 25 years ago. I know that housing is a lot more expensive these days and mortgages would take longer to pay off but it's a great goal and worth going without some non essentials to achieve.

I still savour the absolute joy of owning my own home outright, knowing no one can ever evict me and I will never be homeless. If money gets tight you can live pretty cheaply if not paying a mortgage or rent. And I'm still here and I still love it.

M0nica is correct - I was contracted out and will be 3 years short of the full pension in December 2021.

However I put the contracted out pension into drawdown and used some of the 25% tax free lump sum to buy 2 years NI (£1400) and will buy another year before the due date so will be no worse off. There is sometimes a way around these things .....

Yes, I was contracted out by my employer but I understand and always understoo how the system worked.

I was contracted out of SERPS so there is a sum on my state pension calculation where the total amount I was due to pay in SERPS is calculated and the amount of it covered by my occupational pension is deducted and I only receive the balance. This does not apply to pensions accrued since 2016, but equally you have to make higher NI payments. It is swings and roundabouts really.

@Suzyb

*Barclays still do Clawback like HSBC. My friend who’s 63 is retired and living off a very good Barclays pension which was topped up from part of her redundancy payment. Once she draws her state pension, Barclays will clawback some of her occupational pension.*

Completely and utterly incorrect.
A bank can’t “clawback” money from an occupational pension or indeed any pension

Barclays still do Clawback like HSBC. My friend who’s 63 is retired and living off a very good Barclays pension which was topped up from part of her redundancy payment. Once she draws her state pension, Barclays will clawback some of her occupational pension.

Monica, unfortunately in UK with some occupational final salary pensions your final salary pension can be reduced when you start taking your state pension. This is known as clawback and is based on a law passed in 1948. Very few organisations still do this clawback. One of the very few organisations still doing it is HSBC for its former Midland Bank employees in the UK. It’s in the news a lot at the moment with HSBC.

Maybe next week Peardrop

But I’m sure it will come one day

Deciding not to semi retire until my ex left.

Definitely buying the present house.
I had serious misgivings about it as it was a huge mortgage, we were approaching 50, and thought we'd never manage the payments once we retired, and would have to downsize. I used to have sleepless nights worrying about it. But DH insisted that we could afford it.
However things worked out and we were able to pay off the mortgage 5 years early.
Really glad that DH talked me into it.

Paid voluntary national insurance contributions to cover a period when I wasn't working in order to build up my state pension record. Bought past added years in a final salary pension - you can't do that anymore. Paid off the mortgage early. Invested in a stocks and shares ISA. Saved money in cash ISA and premium bonds.

I met a lovely man after struggling to bring up my 4 girls alone for 16 years. At age 64 I retired and move into his house and sold my own. Money not earning much so bought a house in Spain 2 and a half years ago and we love it. Spending more and more time here and may live here for a couple of years from next year. Will rent U.K. house out and have a great time with no money worries which I am forever grateful for and deeply appreciate

gillybob, hope you win, sounds as though you deserve a bit of good luck.

I will be more than happy to share my “forthcoming” lottery win with anyone who needs help. I’m not greedy and don’t need £ millions . Just enough to give up work, pay my debts off, the lads a good redundancy and help my kids up the ladder a bit... not a lot to ask is it? Or is it?

Oh we small business owners are treat so very well by the local authority.....NOT.

We really can’t take much more kittylester it’s not fair we only want to get by and pay our lads a fair wage. I don’t want a fancy car, big house or exotic holiday . Seems the fat cats in the town hall don’t see it like that. It’s a case of squeeze them dry .

The banks treat small businesses terribly LilyLaundry . We don’t ever deal in cash..... some would say, mores the pity (all of our work is business to business) but we do rely heavily on an overdraft for which the fees and interest are astronomical. They are all heart .

I have sent an email of appeal Jalima and am meeting with our accountant during the week, who is going to put some figures together which might help me. If I’m honest I don’t think it’ll make a fig of difference but I have to try. They are so bleedin’ shortsighted they would rather see empty factory units and shops than offer fair rents and rates. As I said before our LA see small businesses as cash cows .

We rent a small LA unit on an industrial estate PamelaJ . No farming around here and we need to be near the main road networks as we travel to sites. Also the practicality of moving machinery and all the other costs of moving a business will probably outweigh the benefits . Thank you for your suggestion though.

My best decision (though not financial) was marrying my lovely husband who was more savvy than me. He arranged for us to pay off the mortgage early which was good.
But the bad - he cancelled his critical illness/life insurance policy as he expected to outlive his mum and inherit half the house. He was diagnosed with a rare terminal illness which no-one could have foreseen, his mother outlived him by seven years.
However, arrangements were made, MILs' will left some to me so I get by.
Am awaiting a lotto win.

Investing in property rather than pension schemes .

Not having a joint bank account with my late, unlamented husband was my best decision. Nuff said!

Lumarei Occupational pensions can be reduced because of something called GMP (Guaranteed Minimum Pension) - if anyone understands how that works it would be interesting to know.

Lumarei, if you live in the UK and qualify for a Uk state pension, your occupational pension is not deducted from your state pension. I that was the case no-one would save for a private pension so the government would have to pay even more to pensioners.

annsixty That is so very sad. I'm truly sorry that you and your husband have not had the chance to spend your retirement years together, doing all the things you'd dreamt of while you were working and saving. Hope you have enough to spoil yourself occasionally ...
My best decision was to sell up and move back to the UK from Athens in the early nineties, thus avoiding the later Greek financial carnage.

annesixty ?

We did all the above.
Repayment mortgage, my H paid into a superannuation scheme for 40 years, we made wise investments. Mortgage paid off and then my H developed dementia.
Now half his occupational pension, all his retirement pension and some savings go towards his care.
I have a tiny pension plus half his pension to keep the house going plus keeping myself.
I do have savings fortunately and use those for my extras.
The pension my H paid for our comfortable retirement is keeping him in care not both of us in comfort.
I expect I will be told I am lucky.
It doesn't always seem that way.

Well the title of the thread is "Best Financial Decision" so most posts are about money!

It's not about the money money money ...