Well i seem to getting nowhere. i was thinking about using the money to reinvest in my self such as doing something i like, to make money as a extra income when i retire hopefully before. i am a local historian in my area which i have a passion for, also a member of the local heritage society. The area has such diverse history that no one promotes it. i want to learn how to make my own videos for Youtube and learn how to better myself in public speaking, i have done local talks at the schools nearby but could be better. I have been asked to do history talks for old folks home. I also want to do drone work to promote the history videos i will make. there is potential there. Trouble is its money for training. I was wondering if i could use some of my pension pot money by investing i could avoid tax so it doesn't get added to my yearly job income. Otherwise i will seek free funding.

Big re think.

At the moment i am paying into the local government pension scheme. Every year i get a annual pension statement, this pension i stopped paying in years ago. Although its now under Aviva, this pension was owned by many companies before who were bought out by other companies until Aviva took over. I haven't contributed for many years it just the interest that accumulates. It states on the annual statement my transfer value that could be paid to another pension scheme which is the current plan value. It looks like it saying that it could be paid to another scheme, not sure if the LGPS is flexible to accept it to bump the current paid in pension.

I think a drawdown plan is what he is talking about. I will have to look into that. So if i put £7,579 into my pension what would that amount roughly boost a pension by, a lot, an very small amount or not worth the bother. If i were to to that amount in, how quick could i draw my pension, do i have to wait a few years.

Floating pension, i mean a pension i took out years ago paid it for a year or so and stopped, just left it. Over the years its just accumulated interest. Its with Aviva. I looked into cashing it in but the tax man would have his share plus what i took out would be added to my yearly income. I think it can be transferable with another pension, so i believe. I spoke to a friend today about this and he said I could take out small sums of this old pension over time and maybe avoid being taxed, i could then put it in another account make use of it in a high interest account or invest into something that makes me money like buy machinery ???

Hi Everyone, not sure if i have put this in the right section. I have just reached 60 and have a Local Government Pension which i have paid into over 15 years. My recent planned outcome would be to semi retire so my pension would pay the mortgage and i would get a part time job to make up the other income that would give me the same wage i am getting now, hopefully, by doing this i would have some free time to enjoy the rest of my life. My pension would cover the most important bill, a roof over my head until its paid off. i managed after faffing about with passwords and account names had a look at my LGP pension pot, not very good, pretty crap, which means i would have to wait till the age of 67 to near get half i am earning now. It seems that quite a lot of people at my works have had the same disappointment with their LGP and its only good for high paid management. So my next plan was to boost my LGP with a floating pension i took out years ago and stopped paying, that is sitting in a floating pension gaining some interest every year. I thought about spending it on machinery to boost my income but by the time i have taken it out i will be taxed to death especially hearing about horror stories from friends who have not only been taxed, but the value they have taken out has been added to their current income which had put them in a much higher tax bracket like 40%. in some cases. Usually in the past my works had a LGP man turn up every year so you could have a chat about your pension but that has stopped, apparently not enough people take up the service, not everyone is thinking of retiring so it was dropped. So i contacted Hampshire County Council who run this LGP, they said they no longer advise you have to get an independent financial advisor which can cost a fortune and can be very dodgy in the process and the outcome may not give you the answers you need. I only need to ask a couple of question yes or no and if so what next. I only need to find out if i can boost my LGP with the other floating pension pot i have and see if the outcome would be worth the effort to semi retire. My pot is around £10,000, just wondering if that amount would boost my LGP by a lot or it would barely touch plus are there restrictions on amounts to up pensions, i heard that moving one pension into another is tax free. I have tried to enquire and get other advise with Pension Wise etc but they cant give me a simple answer i want, they talk about pensions in general but they whole thing just goes over my head. The whole pension section has become a very complicated system ruined by government hands who want to tax you to death to grab every penny they can, a system that is now a mine field. Can any one advise?