Norn Iron

Thanks for the comment, however, I'm basing it on my knowledge when giving best advice on Pensions from more than 25 years ago! I know so much has changed since I have hung up my hat, but the basic principles of why and when to retire haven't! I did though have to go through this process of tapping into my Pension Fund. In my case, I had to fight my own provider to get access to my works pension as per the 2015 Financial Services Act change brought in by George Osborne. In my case, it wasn't as simple apparently. I thought I might do an Erin Brockovich at one point and expose the red tape that pension providers are using to stop people from tapping into pension funds at a young retirement age. Eventually, another indie Financial expert was able to get through the bureaucracy. What George Osborne was trying to do was great. What the providers are doing, deplorable. The Financial Ombudsman was next to useless as well....all of the above is in my opinion of course! No male equivalent of Erin Brockovich either! Having tried to take on the Benefits Agency in the High Courts regarding registered blind people with Retinitis Pigmentosa, left me mentally exhausted/battle weary! Because of the Indie Advisor and that I can get his advice any time in the future, I accept the commission he gets from my fund per annum. It is a very small price to pay for the incredible stress he relieved from me so that I could provide a home, a need and a want and my dream, for my registered blind wife and son. We now own a bungalow that is beyond our heart's desire and all because of my pension. Ok, we may not be living beyond our dreams and having luxurious treats but we have a quality of life back, something we wanted- a house and where it is located. This is why I stress what do you want from your pension fund when you retire and what is achievable with the fund you currently have? Martyn Lewis on his excellent moneysavingexpert gives great insight. Here is the link for his overall pension advice. https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/pensions Back again to the basic questions.. Lager Loud and I stress what do you want out of life when you retire? Lager L is more switched on re the financial rules and regulations especially as he, unlike me, has been in the finance business this century! I am more than happy to recommend an Independent Pension advisor in South Bristol. Please PM me and I will gladly pass on his details as I already have to another otiber.

RR, the first thing I'd do is look to see where you'd like to live in retirement. If you live in Reigate... House Prices in Reigate - Rightmove The average price for a property in Reigate is £596778 over the last year. Use Rightmove online house price checker tool to find out exactly how much ... That's 240k more than Bristol and 400k more than Northern Ireland. You could buy a lovely detached property over here, play golf on some of the world's best courses right on your doorstep, buy a City season ticket and use Easyjet as your chauffeur (23 flights at around £1725 total return. Currently there are no return flights Saturday evening so you'd have to find accommodation)! Even if there will be the inevitable house price crash, it's all relative as the house you buy in Bristol will be lower in value for instance. It's great that this thread from Ska J has provoked people to think seriously about their retirement. Another English friend of mine who I play golf with, moved over here when they retired. They realised Northern Ireland had so much to offer especially as they could sell their Oxfordshire home and buy cheaper and better here. Their extra profit from the sale funds golf, motorbiking and other holidays! My question is the same to you and others, where do you see yourself in retirement and what do you want to do? Looking forward to your subsequent posts as to what you've done/going to do. And finally for all the younguns reading this thread. Please take out a pension if you haven't already or get it reviewed if you have. You can retire using your pension pot from 55 now (or earlier due to ill health etc).

And tonight's lottery numbers are.... If you had called yourself Wurzel Junkie I would have suggested Nailsea!

Great SJ! Would you like me to respond to your response of 17 mins ago? I think Lager has explained it really well. What I am also trying to say is that when you take into account what can be coming to you at 67 means less money to take out of your pension pot. This means your Pension Pot should still grow far better than having it in a building society account! You can dip into the Pension pot at any time so you're not handcuffed. If it was me....I would take my TFLS (tax free lump sum) of 25% from your Pension Pot which plus max allowable of your annual tax free allowance ( the £12570 before you then pay tax on all incomes etc) and I would do this on the 5th April (remember it takes at least 3 weeks admin so start process 1st March. Your provider will advise). I would then take out the maximum annual tax free allowance for new tax year starting 6th April (see what I call Bed and Breakfasting in original post). If you think that your total amount of TFLS plus 2 lots of tax free allowances within that 24 hours is enough for pleasure and bills plus a one off treat...brilliant. I would use the annuity as my back stop to pay normal utility bills, maintenance etc for future years. Remember, if you defer the annuity for even a year before you take it, you will get an increase in that payment to you. It boils down to what you really want to do with your life. What are your needs? Will they be covered (bills, more bills, food, insurances, keeping car on the road etc) What are your wants? (Decent food and wine on your table, plus beer, holidays, season ticket and away trips with BCFC, going out for decent meals, buying Ska albums) What are your ambitions and dreams? (To go to Jamaica. Travel around Europe. Buy out Steve Lansdown and become the new City owner)? When you have finalised how you see Mrs SJ and your good self in retirement, then you can plan how to fund it. I think you're in a great position to do some of the above now or at 60. It's a question of cutting your cloth accordingly and maybe going without some of the wants and dreams but to retire far exceeds those you can't do.....in my opinion. Your indie financial advisor will ask all the above questions and then submit it in writing ie to show how you plan for the future. It would be a thorough investigation as well. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised that you can retire ASAP....should you wish.

And finally Esther (for the oldies), if you have any child tax credits etc...this amount will be included as taxable income. Many a person thinks that they can retire early, forgetting that HMRC will ask/demand all of the credits back for that tax year! Some benefits are also classed as Taxable Income. Carer's allowance for instance. Bah humbug. My £66pw would eat into the 0 tax rate of the first £12,570 Cider City mentioned. Not all doom and gloom though.... with 6 weeks to go before your 60th birthday, you can apply for your free travel card on the train and bus here in Norn Iron. We also get free water rates because we have a lot of it. If it doesn't rain after 3 days, drought conditions apply. Therefore, moving here becomes an option as well! Oh yes, house prices are the cheapest in the UK. A standard Totterdown dwelling could buy you a detached house with garage! Mind you despite Easyjet flying to Bristol, they don't fly back Saturday nights anymore. You would need accommodation! Maybe not moving is not an option after all. BTW, It's great to see such positive responses from City fans to your initial post.

Having had to go through this process myself SJ, I'd look at it from a different angle. You need enough money to get you to 65 or 67 (in my case) for the state pension to kick in. Going from £66pw for me as a full time carer to £165 pw would be akin to winning the pools! In our case, looking after a disabled wife meant we needed to tap in to my small pensionpot. I have a few years to go until 67. At 65, you'll be getting £150pw from your annuity plus the extra government pension at 67 bringing it to £300pw approx.....tax free as well (assuming I've understood your thresholds.) If you can retire now and can pay off mortgages, car loans and become debt free, it helps in becoming stress free as well. It's what you want out of life. Retiring early has health benefits and more time to spend with family plus becoming worse at golf...or any other hobby. No doubt your financial advisor can give you the figures for retiring early. There are also annuity calculators available on providers websites giving you a clue what your pension pot is worth. Taking the lump sum of 25% but deferring your annuity is another way of looking at it. Our small pension pot is accessible any time and should you need an urgent withdrawal, the process will take about 3 weeks to get money into your account. A great way to legitimately save tax especially for a large lump sum, and with HMRC's blessing, is to not touch your pension pot until March. I called it Bed and Breakfasting when in the financial business! Remember, it takes a minimum of 3 weeks of admin to process your withdrawal. Take out the maximum allowable, taxband wise, to come out on 5th April. Then take out the maximum allowable for 6th April as it's a new tax year. Voila! You'll gain quite a few thousand pounds from not paying higher tax for every 100k. You're simply playing the system and using the end and start of tax years for your benefit. Nothing shady at all. All by waiting 24 hours. Then there is the choice of which fund you want to invest your money with your the pension pot. It'll range from minimum risk (most providers have one. The Pru call it the Cautious Fund) to ummmm, maximum risk but maximum potential as well as maximum losses (paper or actual)! The government funded website and phone line Pensionwise, can explain more. The beauty of a pension pot is you are in more control. You can treat it as your own investment and can switch providers as well. Shop around for a decent Indie Financial Advisor. I can recommend one in the Bristol area should you need one. There is also BCFC's benefactor/owner who might be able to help...no discount is given though! Keeping the existing annuity provider is a good guaranteed peace of mind option but you might want to transfer that to a drawdown scheme as well! Options eh? It's great you can seriously plan with what you have. For me the no1 question is What Can I Do With My Life If I Retire Now? Look at all the pros and cons. Look at what it will mean to you before retiring just before 5th April 2022. All your financial pension issues will then fall into place.

A heads up for their customer service. Yesterday, I noticed that my brewing dock was becoming more difficult to attach/detach. There seemed to be a hairline fracture on the joint mechanism. See photos. I phoned for advice and was immediately told that if they could have photos, I could then get a response as to what can be done. Within 2 hours they replied that a new brew dock had been ordered and will be posted ASAP. What superb service. I know that as I have the mk1 version, like any new invention there will be issues. Mk2 apparently is in development as a response to pinter owners' feedback. Can't fault The Greater Good.

My top ten... Number 6 (The Prisoner) Randall and Hopkirk (deceased) Sgt Bilko Frasier Jed Bartlet (President USA) Virgil Tracy (pilot-International Rescue) Count Arthur Strong Cat (Red Dwarf) Gene Hunt (Life on Mars etc) Al Bundy (Shoe Salesman. Married With Children)

Because of the thread title.. Ben Ten. Had to endure it when our son was an infant! He loved the series though. Real name Ben Tenysson.

Gerald- Head of Security.

What a difference a few bottled days make! Scroll back to see what the bottled 3 Lions Pale Ale looked like at the weekend. You couldn't see through it but now you can. Yet again, our next door neighbours were the blind taste test judges. This time, they had an additional beer courtesy of Smithwick's (Guinness) Pale Ale. Ignore the fact that one beer had more head than others. That was due to my pouring technique and which beer was poured first! All 3 looked similar. The winner from the head judge was my Pinter! My next brew, which will be tapped on Sunday, is the Scottish Amber Ale. Still brewing is my West Nuevo Californian lager (an IPA in disguise methinks). In the post are the Lockwood Pilsner and the Stars and Stripes APA.

TOP TIPS WHEN PURIFYING AND BREWING Just finished the above for my next brew, the West Nuevo. I have brewed it once before but this time I want to try it on the maximum timeline. We were really impressed with the minimum version. It was like lager meets IPA. Here are 2 tips to use in all future beer making especially as rule no 1 is.... purification is king. TIP 1 When using the purification granules, pour them into a jug and then add warm water. By stirring with a fork, the granules will dissolve far quicker. It will also sterilise the jug which can be used for my second tip. Add the dissolved liquid into your pinter and follow as shown on the instructions. You'll notice when it comes to dispose of the liquid, just how few granules are left. TIP 2 With the purified Jug, add your yeast into it and add enough warm water to stir it into a liquid (thumb's width). Keep stirring with the purified fork from tip 1 so that the yeast doesn't form bits which is often the case in the normal brewing process. Warm water gives the yeast the best chance to activate and do its thing. The instructions say to use cold water up to the measuring line in the pinter. There are others who say room temperature water is better. I went for something in-between ie mostly cold water straight out of the tap plus half a pint of boiled kettle water. Let me know if these tips work plus how your brews are going.

Finally, I have been able to buy locally 2 x1l fliptop bottles. It seems a second fermentation works wonders for clarity and taste. My latest beer (Alexa Play 3 Lions Pale Ale) was brewed and conditioned using the maximum days recommended. It certainly was a smooth, easy drinking and refreshing pale ale. Craft Ales are supposed to be cloudy but when you're not used to it, it's worth dabbling! We'll see in five days time how much clearer it will be just by looking at the bottle.

Just received this video from The Greater Good. Wow! That's what I call customer service.

Here's the Four Saisons having been conditioned in the bottle for a further 5 days followed by a day in the fridge. Wow! The clarity and taste.

When you have purified the Pinter, what can you do with the discarded liquid? How about this! Put the plug into your sink or in our case the little one that has been discoloured by tea etc.. Leave it for 4 hours and it's in pristine condition. Should you need to convince your loved one the Pinter is what you need, just say it's a British invention that cleans kitchens. It also makes beer!

Here is the latest brew. It was 'born' at 2pm today. A limited edition ale Alexa Play 3 Lions Pale Ale. I wish I had ordered their Gareth Red Bale edition as I love Red Ale but for some reason chose a Scottish limited one instead. Greater Good had just launched a new phone app. Well worth trying. Instructions have been enhanced. There is also a diary section that will be specific to the beer you're brewing. A great idea as you can choose standard or enhanced brew times. I'm going for the maximum on this ale.

Wow! The 4 Saisons is really lively. Foam was coming out of the release valve. I had been resting it out of the fridge 8 hours ago as well. What's more I took about 10 mins to slowly release the valve. Anyway, the taste is fantastic. When I bottle it, the ale will become clearer. I am currently comparing it with St Austell Tribute Pale Ale. Colour is similar but the smell gives it away immediately. One is fresh the other is non-existent.

That's me Babby!

And it's not a typo. This from Companies House..

Their Dark Matter Stout is excellent. I'm not really a Guinness fan either. To make the beer and then properly bottle it for a Winter's evening, having listened to a stunning one goal City victory away to Hartlepool in round 3 of the Caribou Cup, sounds perfect!

The beer works out at around £1.50 per pint but if you subscribe on a monthly basis, then it is £1.20 a pint. Over here in Norn Iron, the water is free....no water rates! When you consider that the beer is really fresh to drink/taste and is more than a match when compared with well known bottled brands in Supermarkets, it is well worth the investment. There has been an argument flying around that it is still more expensive than shop bought beers. I think the people peddling this line of thought would rather stay in a 1* hotel rather than a 3* in the same area, based on cost only. They would miss out on what a 3* hotel would offer that the 1* wouldn't have. It is actually fun making it as well. I haven't had one single problem with any of the beers. Today I will be conditioning my Four Saisons Pale Ale. That will be ready next weekend.

Here's my Republic lager after 5 days bottled with the brewer's drop including one day in the fridge. What a difference on clarity. Still tastes fresh as well!

Thomas The Tank engine and his new best friend Loveme. Tender.

Great question Antman. I have a student son who helps me out with the consumption! However, I have always loved my beer but have never been a big drinker. For me, 4 pints in an evening (3 hours) is perfect. I suppose the answer to your question is No! The Pinter makes 10 pints. In the other new thread about how to make Cider, the poster talks about bottling in his IKEA Flip-top bottles. I have a different make and they're 500ml flip-tops. The next bit is based on what I've read on the Pinter Forum and my own experience. The Greater Good claims that the beer will stay fizzy for up to 3 days. I've noticed that my remaining beer the following day has lost a bit of fizz. This is where the flip-tops plus brewer's carbonation drops come in handy. Others just add sugar btw. Having sterilised each bottle (I use Milton Baby Sterilising Fluid but a dishwasher on the hottest setting works really well apparently). I have worked out that each 500ml bottle needs 3ml of Milton. Digital Kitchen scales are fantastic! Add water to the solution, put the tops on, give it a shake and leave 15 minutes. Then simply pour away. Job done. I then get a measuring jug and pour the pinter beer into it to transfer into the bottles. Others have used a syphon or tool bought from eBay. Then leave the beer with carbonation drop in the same warm place you left the Pinter when brewing. I use the kitchen worktop above the Dishwasher. Leave your bottles for 5 days ie a second fermentation and then fridge for 1 day to stop the process. Basically, a week later you'll have another fresh beer supply and it will be clearer too! I have a pass code so if you want to order please see the attached screenshot. We both win! Anyone can PM me and I'll gladly supply the code.