Listener Questions Episode 29 - Retire Soon

In today's Q&A episode, we're answering a bunch of questions from those on the threshold of retirement, getting into the nitty-gritty of age-difference planning, DB scheme reductions and all sorts! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA29 01:04 Question 1 Hi Pete I am really enjoying listening to the podcast, thank you. They make what can sometimes be a complicated subject much easier to understand. I have a question which I have asked my SIPP provider but even they don't appear to know the answer so here goes: If someone has a SIPP valued at say £1.2m and a DB pension valued at say £300k, in order to maximise the favourable annuity provided by the DB pension, is it possible to draw the full LSA (25% tax free cash) from the SIPP? Or is there a requirement to draw the LSA on a pro rata basis from both the SIPP and the DB pension? Thank you, AJ 07:07 Question 2 Hi Pete and Roger, Thanks to The Meaningful Money Handbook, The Meaningful Money Retirement Guide and listening to all of your podcasts, I'm now in the fortunate position to retire in three years at the age of 55. However, I have a couple of questions about building a Cash Flow Ladder: Q1 - Should I be moving my investments into the various rungs of the ladder now, or just wait until I retire? Q2 - Most of my investments are in a pension, but I also have an ISA for a bit of flexibility. Would it make sense to use the same ladder structure in both the pension and the ISA? Thanks for all your good work. Tim 11:17 Question 3 Hi guys Loving the podcast - helped me through the COVID years and it's been a staple ever since so thank you for that. My question is around investing in older age. At what point, if any, is it worth cashing out GIA investments if other sources of income such as state pension and DB pensions are more than enough to live off and I have sufficient other capital (cash isas) for those big things still ahead? I'm not planning to leave any sort of inheritance (unless I pop my clogs early !) so is there some rule of (age) thumb of when to cash out and spend investments? I sort of don't see the point of continuing to invest after a certain age and to spend the money. But I guess it's not easy switching from investing to spending. Thanks, Chris 16:33 Question 4 Hi Pete & Roger, Great show gents, always interesting and informative. I've been an avid listener for a couple of years now and have been encouraged to write in on the off-chance that my question may have relevance to others with a similar dilemma. I fear you may feel it's too niche but here goes: I'm 59yrs old and for all intents and purposes retired, in as much as I quit my career in business 18months ago to take on the full-time parental care role of my 6yr old twins which enables my wife (15yrs my junior) to continue in the career she loves. We are fortunate that my wife is an additional higher rate tax payer (as was I before I quit), we live mortgage free in a ~£1.5m family house - all of which means I have no plans to draw a pension until my wife is also ready to retire, which despite her occasional gripe, is not likely to be until our children leave school (by which time we will be ~ 72 and 57 respectively). I have a small index-linked Public Sector DB pension that kicks in in a few months time when I hit 60 (£7k per year) and expect to get a full State Pension which should provide me with around £20k p.a. at todays values as a base income when I reach state pension age in 7 years time. I also have a Pension pot currently valued at around £1.2m, made up from £1m SIPP and £200k S&S ISA) and my wife's Pension pot is currently valued at around £520k (£400k SIPP & £120K S&S ISA). I no longer contribute to my SIPP but my wife invests around £30k Gross in to her SIPP annually and we plan on continuing to fill both ISA allowances each year until she retires. We are both 100% invested in equities using low-cost Global trackers to maximise their growth potential. Here's my question, I was burnt a few years back (before I started listening to podcast like yours to educate myself on how to manage my finances) when I was persuaded to join SJP and combine all my old workplace pensions into a single pot managed with them. I even persuaded my wife to join and I opened Junior SIPPs for my twins when they were born (not their advice, my own) which we continue to pay the full amount into monthly to hopefully secure their future retirement. Long and the short of it, the more I learned about investing, the more I regretted my decision to tie myself into SJP and the more I begrudged paying their relatively high fees (for what turned out to be a lower return than much lower cost tracker options could / would have produced over that same time period). I eventually sucked up the exit fees and bailed out a few years back, taking my wife and children's accounts with me and whilst I haven't looked back, it has made me reluctant to spend money on financial ...