Listener Questions, Episode 14

Welcome to another MM Q&A, taking in budgeting rules of thumb, pension tax relief and offshore worker pension contributions, and lots more besides! Shownotes: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/QA14 01:57 Question 1 Hi Pete, I’ve been a long-time follower of your podcast and hope to be retiring or entering my ‘renaissance’ in the next five years or so. I’d like to know if you think the 50, 30, 20 rule is still a good rule of thumb, or is there a better one? About a year ago, I decided to give a presentation on pensions to the new starters at my workplace. As I prepared, I realised that while I could explain the mechanics and importance of pensions, the bigger challenge would be addressing the feeling many have that they "can’t afford" to contribute due to financial pressures—especially for younger people. Reflecting on my own experiences during university and early work life, I noticed a pattern: no matter how much I earned, I always seemed to end up with zero by the end of the term or month. Earning more didn’t make me happier, and I was going out less compared to when I had very little. A detailed review of my spending revealed I was wasting money on unnecessary things—like buying three CDs instead of two, upgrading to a large coffee when a medium would do, or adding extras to my car that weren’t needed. It was only when I learnt to pay myself first that everything changed overnight. Recently, I’ve been listening to podcasts about retirement that emphasise health, purpose, and happiness. One by Dr. Chatterjee introduced the concept of core happiness versus junk happiness. Core happiness comes from meaningful, lasting fulfilment, while junk happiness provides short-term pleasure through things like sugar, smoking, alcohol, social media, or shopping. Looking back, much of my unnecessary spending was driven by junk happiness. While paying myself first helped control this, understanding the why behind it made a big difference. This led me to realise that my presentation shouldn’t just focus on the mechanics of finance—it also needed to explore the psychology behind spending. Understanding why we buy the things we do is important to becoming more financially secure while staying happy. It was something in one of Nischa’s videos that seemed to tie everything together at a high level: the 50-30-20 rule —50% for fundamentals, 30% for fun, and 20% for the future. So my question is ( I know I’ve gone around the houses so sorry about that) given today’s financial turbulence, do you think this is still a good rule to follow? Kind regards, Steve 09:16 Question 2 Hi Pete and Roger, Thanks for all the content you've put our over years, it really has been so helpful. I am 54 and have a work place pension with Fidelity where my employer matches my contributions to a certain level and I make additional through my monthly pay to the tune of £2.400 p.m. This summer I am due to inherit around £130,000 and will look to add around 20k of it into my pension fund. My question relates specifically to tax relief. I understand that when I make the contribution in the summer I will get 20pc tax relief automatically, but how will this show itself, will my contribution of 20k actually show on my pension balance a 24k? Also as a 40pc high rate tax payer I understand I will need to to complete a tax return to claim the additional 20%. This being the case, would I still be able to do this if I had left my employment later in the same tax year as I may be looking to retire in Autumn 2025. Would it be the case that as I was no longer a higher rate tax payer as at 4 April 2026 I would not be able to claim the extra 20pc on the 20k contribution the previous summer kind regards Gary 16:09 Question 3 Hi Pete & Roger, Firstly, I am absolutely addicted to your podcast. What you’re doing is nothing short of heroic and am waiting to see your names on the New Year Honours List. Sir Pete and Sir Roger has a nice ring to it, don’t you think? I am 34 and work in a career that gives me the opportunity to go on expat assignments (typically 3-year stints). This results in me becoming a non-tax resident in the UK meaning I can no longer contribute to the UK DC workplace pension and no longer able to contribute to my S&S ISA. My company do have an Offshore version of the DC pension but contributions to this are made after hypothetical tax so effectively there is no tax relief and to be honest I have really struggled to understand how I would access this pension come retirement and the UK tax implications so will likely avoid contributing to it this time around. When I go on an expat assignment, although I do get significant uplifts to my income, it interrupts my flow of regular pension and ISA contributions. The income I earn on assignment just mounts up and gets eaten up by inflation until I return to the UK and continue investing again. My question is what advice would you give to people like...