Interesting statsā¦ divorce rates go UP at retirement. A historic study showed that civil servants lived on average just five years after they retired.
You wonāt know for sure what youāll do til you hit retirement age. If the job remains interesting, minimal hassle (WFH helps that no end) and with enough flexibility to suit you, Iād say many people would work longer than theyād have expected. Different situation if youāre in a boring job, lots of hassle, etc., of course.
You donāt need to take out the non taxable bit in one go. For example, if you had Ā£100k, you could take Ā£12500 of it in years one and two, then from year three up to (at the moment) Ā£12500 per year also tax-free.
I donāt think you can have a joint SIPP so that part of your plan wonāt work. Max you can contribute if youāre not working is Ā£2880 (Ā£3600 gross).
We have a joint SIPP. Iām not sure how many firms offer them, theyāre quite specialised. But as I said, although the funds are invested āas oneā, they keep track of how much belongs to each of us. And theyāve already suggested the contributions in and out of the bank account as a tax- and cost-efficient way to draw down.
Donāt forget too that the state pension is taxable and will pretty much use up your tax-free allowance at current rates. I.e. any other pensions on top will be fully taxed.
But you can take the taxable element before your state pension kicks in and only pay tax above the personal allowance. From 55 in my case, 57 for my wife. And the tax free 25 percent is just that, tax free even on flexible drawdown irrespective of how much else you take.
Thatās not a joint SIPP, itās two separate SIPPs that are managed together.
Iād be asking for a second opinion as, if my understanding of what youāve said is correct, itās breaking tax law in a bad way.
To be clear, when you stop working then the maximum that you (or anyone else) can contribute to your SIPP is Ā£2880. Any more and you will get hit with a 55% tax charge. It is NOT a joint SIPP as I say.
Also, if youāre still working when the state pension starts, you could put it into a SIPP and reclaim the tax.
The SIPP is a wrapper for investments. It has a name, The ānameā SIPP, itās a trust with me, my wife, and the management company (Mattioli Woods) as trustees. It has both our pensions in it. As long as the contributions are correctly tracked and allocated itās fine. Itās a joint SIPP and not breaking any laws.
And with the mechanism I mentioned, I wouldnāt be contributing.
I would be getting a view from another financial advisor if I were you.
You might not be able to afford to retire then 
Wives and children are quite expensive.
Iām already lost even with that! We have an app that I can see my pension (but only since 2020 so my previous pensions are with other providers) and I canāt seem to find my total amount so far, only what I would get currently per year if I retired and added nothing more to it (about Ā£3.5k a year).
Thereās a calculator for adjusting when I retire, and how much of a lump sum I could take (but again this is assuming my salary remains the same now and I would like to think my salary is going to increase between now and when Iām 68):
Sometimes itās fun to take the 100% lump sum and dream:
Iām assuming roughly 68 as a retirement age, though I can retire from 55 if I wanted to.
The lump sum never goes above Ā£250,000 so I assume thereās a limit to that. I can retire at 75 with Ā£141,767 pension but still only Ā£250,000 lump sum.
*I doubt Iāll be here at 75!
The projections they use assume fixed growth rates of, if memory serves, 3, 5 and 8%. In practical terms, these are largely meaningless.
Itās just as meaningless to use real past figures. T212 for instance tells you the real past performance of your portfolio over the last five years (to a max of 20%). Does that mean that Iāll actually get 20% return each year for the next 20 years on my portfolios? Somehow, I suspect not and equally the 22% that itās gone up since January is unlikely to continue.
Currently contributing 11% to my employer pension. After 5 years I will join the Railway Pension Scheme and happy days, thatās me sorted.
It actually says āAssuming 0% increase in salary and contributionsā and I think there are ways of setting increases but I havenāt done it on these.
They always assume no increase in salary or contributions. What they should say is your fund will be worth X assuming a low, median or high growth rate (those being the 3, 5 and 8% I mentioned earlier).
What you can do is run up a spreadsheet and put more realistic figures in. Not that difficult really and it will likely give you a better feel of what you can expect. More importantly, it can highlight if you need to put more money in and youāll see why the advice is always to start saving earlier.
See Iām already lost. I literally just have money go from my salary to my Civil Service pension and thatās it. What I get at the end isnāt going to be an exact science but generally itās a good amount and everyone in my team who retires either does so a good 10 years early or has a Ā£150k+ lump sum at normal age 
Iām as Iāve said Iām putting in 4.5% and my employer 29.5%; from what I know I donāt think I need to add much more myself.
29.5%!!!
Cries in 4%
I contributed a very small amount into a pension when I was 21-23, and then I switched jobs and didnāt contribute anything for about 4 years.
Then at 27 I got a new job and started contributing straight away, and have been contributing ever since, maxing out the employer/employee contribution.
Itās definitely worth it in the long run, especially if youāre a higher/additional rate taxpayer.
