Women avoiding self investment, study says by Finance News Bulletin
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Published: 03/11/07
feminine consumers in the UK are shying away from self-invested personal pension plans, new information has foundStatistics provided by investment and pension corporation James Hay indicated that 85 per cent of self-invested individual pension plans are drawn by men, with women avoiding the alternativeLadies were found to be much more likely to invest in Wraps - an investment alternative that incorporates a wide variety of options but is not tied to one's pensionDescribing the trend as "remarkable", James food cited government information which show that more working men are contributing to a pension scheme, with 46 per cent and 38 per cent responsibility so respective of gender
Chris Smeaton, propositions and e-commerce manager of James Hay, commented: "These figures are astonishing in spite of well-documented evidence around women taking pensions breaks to have children and sex income differentials, the sex gap is huge"This data echoes recently-released figures from man financial services provider Scottish Widows, which indicated that 73 million UK women are financially needy on their partners, with a third of working females
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Pensions Versus ISAs - Published:08/11/07
When it comes to deciding how you'll diagram for your departure it really is a case of swings and roundabouts Weighing up the relative qualities of each strategy can be difficult, which means most of us finish up settling for a customary pension scheme But perhaps you haven't yet considered another investment vehicle -- an individual savings explanation (ISA) -- which could work well for you as a retirement fundSo which of the two strategies is the most effective in providing for your dusk years Here are some factors for you to consider:The tax treatment of pensions and ISAs is poles apart With a pension you'll receive tax release on your contributions at your highest speed of tax What's more, if you don't earn enough to disburse any tax you'll still benefit from essential rate tax reliefYour pension will grow in a tax-advantaged environment and you'll be entitled for a tax-free money sum of 25% on retirementYour employer may be eager to make contributions to the scheme on your behalf You might also be expected to contribute to qualify for a top-up from your employer This should encourage a more restricted savings habit, perhaps investing even more than you otherwise wouldYou can invest almost limitless amounts into your pension Under present rules you're permitted to invest up to 100% of your earnings up to a limit of £225,000 (£235,000 in the new tax year)Your pension isn't accessible until you decide to take your retirement reimbursement This means you won't be tempted to spend your finance on something far more frivolousOn the downside, income taken from your pension at departure is taxable at your highest speed of tax If you're a higher rate tax person paying your income will suffer a 40% deduction Ouch But if you paid higher rate duty during your working life but become a basic rate duty payer once you give up work, the taxman won't take such a large biteThe basic rate tax bracket is plummeting from 22% to 20% in the novel tax year This means to receive a ‘grossed up' contribution of £100 with essential rate tax relief, you'll need to invest £80 In the present tax day you only need to invest £78 to get the equivalent amountMost of us will be obliged to purchase an annuity with our pension funds but with persistently near to the ground annuity tax on offer these provide comparatively poor value for moneyThere's little opportunity to protect your pension in the event of your death Unless you buy an annuity with a assurance period which determines in go forward how long your annuity will be paid for in spite of of whether you survive that long or noton the other hand you could buy a capital protected annuity where on death the income already in use is subtracted from the purchase cost you initially paid for your annuity with the remaining amount refunded But unluckily these products aren't widely available and generally provide less spirited rates than standard annuitiesThere's no tax-relief on ISA aid but your fund will grow tax-efficiently and crucially there's no tax to pay on funds reserved from an ISA as it will be exempt from Capital Gains Tax (CGT) You can believe of this as the reverse of the duty treatment of pensions All things being equal, this amounts to the same thingWith an ISA you can totally avoid the need to purchase an income via an annuity and you can simply sketch on your fund as you wish, tax-freeYou can access your money if required, perhaps in an emergency But remember once you have used your full payment in the tax year, if you make withdrawals the finance can't be replenished until you have a new allowance obtainable to you in the following tax yearYour fund can be passed onto your dependants in the occasion of your bereavement, although it will lose its ISA statusThere are much heavier restrictions on how much you can invest This duty year you can save up to £7,000 into a fund which invests in stocks and shares This boundary is due to rise marginally to £7,200 in the novel tax year While that would almost certainly be sufficient for many of us, senior earners may find this limit is just too lowYou can access your fund whenever you like While this might give you greater flexibility, it also means your money isn't locked absent and you'll need to resist the temptation to fritterThere's no guarantee that ISAs will be obtainable forever and legislation could alter However, it's likely if they were ever abolished, a new tax-efficient plan would appear in their placeIf you're basic rate duty payer with a pretty good chance of becoming a senior rate tax payer at some occasion in the future, then it's an excellent idea to save into an ISA first You can build up a bump sum in the ISA wrapper while your earnings are still subject to income tax at the essential rateBut once you're earnings increase sufficiently to take you into the higher speed tax bracket the perfect opportunity emerges to move your investments into a pension You won't suffer any capital gains tax (CGT) by final your ISA, but by moving the sum into a pension you'll instantly meet the criteria for 40% tax relief on the whole amount And this is going to be a huge boost to your pension fundSo that concludes the main factors you need to believe about Remember whichever route you go down, decide an investment fund which is consistent with your attitude to risk and keep an eye out for the charges too To a sure extent that final choice will depend on your personal circumstances but perhaps it shouldn't even be an 'either/or' queryI think the best option is to invest as much as you can comfortably afford into pensions and ISAs to get the most excellent of both worlds while taking benefit of all the generous duty breaksCan't find what you need in Retirement And Pensions Try one of our other personal finance areas© patent 1998-2007, The Motley Fool Limited All human rights reserved This material is for personal employ onlyPlace of Reg: England & Wales Company Reg No: 3736872 VAT Reg No: 735 7818 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Read More: Pensions Versus Isas >>House prices shrug off the credit crunch - Published:27/09/07
House prices are rising at the fastest speed in three months as the market shrugs off the global praise crunch and higher interest ratesSTILL advertising: While the three-month figure defied the credit chomp, annual house price growth is continuing to slowA older bank boss has told the Daily Mail's Lucy Farndon that home prices will fall 50% Don't miss: Lucy Farndon's columnMortgage lender Nationwide said the price of a home rose by 07% between imposing and September to an average of £184,723Nationwide leader economist Fionnuala Earley said: 'House prices recorded a sensibly strong gain, seemingly shrugging off the unsettled events of the past month'But despite the physically powerful monthly figure - up from the 06% recorded last month - annual enlargement in house prices continued its downward tendency, falling to 9% from 96% in imposing, its lowest for nearly a year'Overall, home prices defied the gloomy predictions of some recent headlines, but their underlying enlargement is still on a decelerating trend,' supposed EarleyThe turmoil in the credit markets has made borrowing between banks more luxurious and resulted in lenders increasing mortgage costs despite the Bank of England leaving base tax unchanged at 575%One estate agent has twisted whistleblower to reveal the dirty behavior used by agents to screw you out of money Read>>The average standard changeable mortgage rate rose to a nine-year far above the ground of 769% last month while lenders also raised their tracker mortgage rates, sparking doubts of a slowdown in the housing marketEarley said that although houseprice growth was healthy this month, it could soon create to wane 'The financial turmoil that began in early August extended into September, dampening hopes that the uncertainty sparked by the crisis-would gust over rapidly,' she said 'Higher wholesale funding costs are now clearly most important to a reassessment of the pricing of credit in the mortgage market'As expected, this has not had an immediate crash on house prices, but the longer-term effect will undoubtedly be to take some of the froth out of the marketplace'The warning came just a day after Barratt Developments, Britain's biggest housebuilder, said the praise crunch and crisis at Northern Rock has hit demand for new homes and could consequence in price fallsChief decision-making Mark Clare said mortgage lenders have been 'much more careful' since the Bank of England bailed out Northern astound and admitted sales fell as much as 10% last weekOther reports have suggested the British possessions market is preliminary to slow, with Rightmove and the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors both warning the bang of the past few existence is coming to a haltThe market has come under pressure from five speed rises in a year by the Bank of England as well as the summer praise crunch, which has made contemptible mortgages harder to come by, particularly for borrowers deficient to extend themselves to the limitHowever, the turmoil has made further speed rises less likely, restoring some self-assurance to the market Matthew Cairns, senior economist at Moody's, said he expected price enlargement of between 5% and 8% in 2008I completely have the same opinion with you Why dont we start moaning about populace investing in pensions It's up to the indivdual how they invest their money, and at the moment, in spite of of the media, property is still safer than a pensionPlease could somone explain how people as affirmed by Andy of Luton, that buy to letters take delivery of tax relief on their mortgage interest paymentsPlease remember Those are August figures not September's You have had it good in UK for the last 10 years but now the difficult years are coming, reposesions, inflation, house prices and hit falling It`s only a substance of time I`m compleatly sold out in UK and livelihood a quiet life in Warsaw where it is still cheap and women are pretty I will not be buying anything in UK untill belongings will settle down and that's a long method amethodAll people are talking about is how they hope belongings will return to normal That's what got us into this mess in the first place I hope interest rates hit the roof so that home prices crash, that way first occasion buyers will actually be able to get a foot on the ladder, savers will be satisfied for putting their cash away for the future and people spending money on credit cards that they have no way of repaying will be penalised No more far-reaching bad debt under the rug Isn't that the way it should beDoom and darkness in all the comments I don't see it first hand Next door neighbour sold his home in 2 days this week for a huge premium on the price I salaried for my houseThe market can be fuelled by communal equity schemes at the start That's what they are designed to doThere may be a small correction but average house prices at £200k is a misleading shape Firstly tilted by London and secondly the Association of British Bankers give the average novel mortgage figure to be £153k with an average pay of £22kSo 2 people working on an average salary can afford to buy a starter house together Remember £153k is the standard mortgage figure not the starter figureToo many doom and gloom merchants who are leaving to be very disappointed when House prices stabilise NOT collide and BTL continues to provide a sound long term asset to addition shaky pensionsThe government is just too much of a beneficiary of high property prices to allow them to fall down With record levels of stamp responsibility, capital gains tax and inheritance tax assets gains tax, the only prudent thing for the government to do is to inquire the British taxpayer to bail out those institutes which lend irresponsibly so they can get back to their normal commerce of dodgy lending practices with their full supportdishonesty, broken promises and outrageous expectations: to be realistic Northern astound should have gone bust as it flew too shut to the sun It did not have enough cash, and was capitalised with a debt ton made from people who made disgraceful claims on earnings and were at danger of just giving the keys back and walking absent It was costing Northern Rock more to borrow the money that it was to lend it to increasingly risky borrowers The government should have let it go bust, with shareholders and depositors feeling the pain, and a message to the rest of the banks, borrowers and lenders of their irresponsible cavalier waysThere is a social impact: unemployed NRK personnel, loss of charity money, Newcastle Utd football clum with stigma on paper over their shirtsmortgagees well they might be paying more for their borrowings home prices will have dropped, but the financial system made the better for the long term Goods and services will become more affordable and people plan carefullyIan Essex, I'm not sure what Stock marketplace collapses you're talking about, the FTSE is UP since the whole NR Debacle in progress, to which the rest of the world paid little attention anywayAs long as people are buying homes to exist in everything should be OK The big problem is that homes in the UK have become another asset group of students which have been purchased as investments At there levels BTL makes no sense whatsoever with any luck some of these people will do the maths (or read a newspaper ) or go bankrupt so that more first step homes can be released to people who are desperate to pay money for a home that they can actually own and live in After all that is what homes are for Whilst on the subject it is about time the Government stopped giving tax release on mortgage interest payments to BTL(ers)that are in receipt of hire income If the bank speed is cut (by the government puppets at the BOE) it will just create matters worse and the ache will just be postponed (maybe until after a break general election) What a cynic I am Thank god things are getting back to normal Does this denote I can still go and get my annual tax gratis £20,000 from the BS, and still add it to my mortgageSelect a loan word 12 months (1 year) 24 months (2 existence 36 months (3 existence 48 months (4 existence 60 months (5 years) 72 months (6 years) 84 months (7 existence 96 months (8 existence 108 months (9 existence 120 months (10 years)Please select a kind of insurance Life insurance Home and contents automobile Breakdown services Health - medical Health.
Read More: House Prices Shrug Off The Credit Crunch >>Britons get mortgage risk warning - Published:30/11/06
Britons could be at risk of behind their homes because too few have adequate savings or cover, an official report has warnedThe research reveals one in three borrowers has only a four month savings "pillow" to cover their loanThe study for the Office of the Deputy Prime cleric also found four in 10 borrowers had no mortgage sum coverIt suggests the government should consider introducing a compulsory "investments bond" for each home loanAnd it recommends the administration should look at the qualities of introducing incentives to encourage people to make mortgage overpayments or take up insuranceThe report, by the Centre for Housing Policy at the institution of higher education of York, is now being careful by government departments, including the Department of Trade & Industry and the TreasuryThe Department for labour and Pensions, the Council of Mortgage Lenders and organization of British Insurers were also involved in commissioning the researchIts aim was to recognize how well Britons were prepared for risks that could threaten their aptitude to make mortgage repaymentsIt calls for the current system to be overhauled, otherwise repossessions could go up in the future"The current arrangement is poorly attuned to the nature of homeownership in the 21st century," it saysOne area of concern recognized by the researchers is the state-sponsored safety-net, called ISMIhold up for homeowners who are unable to keep up repayments has been available, in some form, since 1948The research found the system was far from a panacea, with some people developing amount overdue because the money received under the scheme did not wrap all their repaymentsIn the early 1990s, around 20% of those in receipt of state mortgage help urbanized mortgage arrears, but by 1999, the figure was around one half, the account saidResearchers looked at commercial safety-nets, such as Mortgage Payment Protection Insurance (MPPI) and significant Illness Insurance (CI) as well as employer-related cover and supportIn total, 60% of home-buyers have some shape of insurance to provide help if they could not pay off their mortgageHowever, researchers found a "substantial alternative" of borrowers did not understand their policy's terms and conditionsOnly 16% of all borrowers had cover for both being without a job and health problems with a further 7% having just being without a job cover"The shortcomings of the present system, and the potential damage that could consequence to the housing market and economy given a main downturn, suggest that it [compulsion] has to remain open for conversation," the report concludesWatchdog replies FOS replies 1 CA replies Pre-1988 sales 1 FOS replies 2 Shortfalls Taxation Pre-1988 sales 2area East AngliaEast MidlandsGreater LondonNorthNorthern IrelandNorth WestScotlandSouth EastSouth WestWalesWest MidlandsYorks & HumberHave Your Say | periodical | In Pictures | Week at a fleeting look | Country Profiles |.
Read More: Britons Get Mortgage Risk Warning >>