What tax percentage is it if you cash it out? I am not sure if my RA is penalised if I cash it out early. Need to go read that fine print.
Cashing it out is a no no, mine was in a preservation fund because when I resigned I had 3 options:
1) Cash out and take the tax knock
2) Keep in the company's pension scheme and get paid out at 60.
3) Transfer to a pension preservation fund until my new company sets up a pension fund for me and then transfer it into there, all tax free.
I chose option 3, but since my new company doesn't have a pension fund...and is in Norway where we pay taxes to cover all that, I just bit the bullet and cashed out. It was around 7,5-9% if I recall correctly.
Quite honestly speaking, I don't bother with pension plans or retirement annuities anymore. I have one with momentum tied with a disability / life cover plan which I got when I was 24 and im just letting it run its course. It's a measely amount anyway but I'm pretty much just doing it for the payout in case I get disabled.
Other than that I have my savings invested in low risk stocks through my broker. That way it can just slowly build at no worse pace than my pension fund would've, except I can add and remove from it as I please without having to wait until im 60 for my own money. Of course if you can't trust yourself with your own finances then this is not a clever move. I'm basically forgetting about my pension payout and investments in SA and using my norwegian salary to save up.