Retirement Annuity/Pension Advice

S

S1ght

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Hi all :)

I'll admit I haven't dug very thoroughly through this topic here before posting this question but here is my current situation.

I've been working for the last 7 years and like most people moved between companies. Each company obviously wants you to sign up for their amazing pension things and now I've got some money sitting here and there. I've recently (6 months ago) transferred overseas to Germany and I've been avoiding trying to figure out what to do with these accounts back home.

As it currently stands I've currently got:
* Retirement Annuity from my 1st job (about R140 000) - Was contributing to this for about 2 years
* A pension fund from my South African branch of my company (I'm actually not sure how much is in this 1 :/) - Was contributing to this for about 3.5 years

Some more information:
* I'm 29 years old with no wife/kids yet and still no long term plan of where I'll eventually settle
* I currently have a bond of around R480 000 that I'm paying off for an apartment in Johannesburg. I rent this out though
* I have no pension in Germany as you pay tax towards their social system. Apparently I can claim this back if I leave Germany within a certain number of years. I still need to look into this

I'm not contributing to either of these accounts anymore and I don't have a lot of financial knowledge E.g. My first thought was transferring the RA amount to the pension fund but after some brief research, that's not a thing apparently haha. My next thought was then maybe paying out the RA to bring the bond amount down faster but I don't know enough about tax or RAs to know if that's a good idea.

My question is then what do people normally do when your accounts start getting scattered like this? Or maybe any general advice here would be much appreciated :)
 
There's quite a few options. You could transfer the funds into one new fund as long as it's also a pension fund, you could "financially emigrate" and take the funds out the country (although some will be taxed). Your best option would probably be to speak to a financial advisor or an accountant to work out what exactly is best in your situation, especially with you being in Germany. I think before you even do this though, you should work out exactly what you all have and where it is.
 
1. Determine how much you have in each fund/ account.
2. Pay off as much of the bond as possible
3. Use the income from the rental, to pay off remainder of the bond (push as much money as you can into the bond)
 
You can transfer it all into a single retirement annuity. I cannot say which one - 100s on the market.
Bur they must supply growth figures yearly. If it is decent (5% or more) leave it here it is.
My pension fund return was negative for 2018. A sign of the times we live in.
Do not stop contributing from your side as it is absolute necessary for your survival in your old age.
You can contribute up to 27% tax free in South Africa.
 
Related question. Is it better to choose one retirement annuity and put all your retirement savings into it or to choose several different ones and spread your savings between them?
 
C4Cat said:
Related question. Is it better to choose one retirement annuity and put all your retirement savings into it or to choose several different ones and spread your savings between them?
Click to expand...
If you have a few at retirement you can convert them to living annuities as needed or if you want to invest in passive and also muck about with actively managed funds. I just have one with Sygnia via their Roboadvisor.
 
C4Cat said:
Related question. Is it better to choose one retirement annuity and put all your retirement savings into it or to choose several different ones and spread your savings between them?
Click to expand...

Well, my previous employers pension fund is in an RA. My current employers fund (10X) will go into a 10X RA if I leave them, and I contribute to an RA with Coronation.

So at least 2 RAs and an employer fund when I want to retire.

As backstreetboy pointed out, one can then keep the RAs/PFs* as RAs/PFs as long as you want until you want to utilize them. Maybe just turn one or 2 into a Living/Life Annuity as needed and let the other/s stay and grow as RAs/PFs.

*new regulations forces employer funds to keep you in their fund on if you want (not new contributions though) when you leave the employer
 
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