UK State Pensions 6
Not this again You may remember our fun series about UK state pensions, mainly focusing on voluntary contributions from abroad. If you are deemed eligible to do this it is currently one of the best investments I know of* UK State Pensions UK State Pensions 2 UK State Pensions 3: The Saga Continues UK State […]
UK State Pensions 5
Finally the end is in sight My online forecast from a couple of days ago We’ve written about the UK state pension before (apologies, non-British people! This should be the last of these posts), but the sheer incompetence and disorganization at HMRC means this series has grown to five posts. It should have been one […]
UK State Pensions 4
Maybe the end? A long time ago I started looking at the UK state pension. I then had a series of frustrating exchanges with the pension office in the UK. The UK civil service really makes you appreciate the Japanese one 😉 Finally I received a letter yesterday. Almost a year after starting the process, […]
UK State Pensions 3: The Saga Continues
Will it never end? I first started looking at the UK state pension last year after Gareth tried to tell me about it several times. After dealing with HMRC I posted an update. A couple of days ago I received the following letter. As seems to be par for the course, there was both good […]
UK State Pensions 2
Pension Harder I wrote about how UK expats can pay into the state pension scheme while abroad here. I applied to pay class 2 contributions (the cheaper ones) and now, three months later, I have received an answer from the Pension Service. It’s not a very helpful answer, but it does clear a couple of […]
UK State Pensions
A surprisingly good deal? This post is for UK nationals only, I’m afraid 🙂 Recently I’ve been reading about the UK social security system, particularly the New State Pension. This is thanks to Gareth S., who I owe an apology to: he tried to tell me about this several times, and I didn’t listen because […]
Kokumin Nenkin: Japan State Pension
All residents of Japan must pay into the national pension kokumin nenkin (国民年金) unless they are paying into kōsei nenkin (厚生年金) or are a dependent covered by their spouse’s pension (when the spouse is paying into kōsei nenkin). This is currently lightly enforced, but the system appears to be changing with the introduction of the […]
Voluntary UK Pension Contributions -New Rules
A prime example of political risk Aaaaand… that weekly number is not going to get any bigger. Just when you thought we were done with this topic (at least I thought we were done!) the UK government has to pull something like this and force me to write yet another post about voluntary contributions from […]
Japan Pension Update 2018
Very exciting Well, it’s that time of year again. My 年金定期便 (pension statement) just arrived, so here are the latest numbers. You can read about the background to the nenkin system in last year’s post, so I’m not going to repeat everything here again. We’ll just be talking about changes and updates from last year. […]
When to Start Taking a Pension
Depends, but generally as late as possible. Many state pension systems allow you to postpone starting to take your pension (some allow you to take it early). In exchange, they will increase the amount you can receive (or decrease it if you opt for early pension). Generally speaking, postponing the pension to maximise your payouts […]