I always told myself that when I had been working as a professional musician for 5 years I would sort myself out and look into the whole pension business. I’m earning enough money that I can afford to put money away for something, but should it be towards a pension, paying off my student loan, paying off my mortgage or towards a pot of money to add to a deposit for the next step on the property ladder (not a 2nd home, just the bigger house once I sell my current teeny flat!)
It’s something that is rarely rarely spoken about amongst us self-employed musos, but I really think it’s something I should know about and consider investing in. I know I’d have to get a private pension but I also know that the government started some sort of scheme last year and don’t know if it applies to me. If I was to consider getting a pension where should I look? Is the government scheme a good one? I do keep up to date with my national insurance payments, but to be honest that’s just when i get a letter in saying I need to pay an amount to it.
Another thing though that I’m wondering, is that I have a student loan that is currently being paid off at a very low rate out of my tax payments via my 2hours a week proper paid teaching job.
Should I perhaps for now pay off my student loan before thinking about a pension? My sister in law has been steadily paying of hers over the past couple of years, though she has warned me it’s not as easy as it seems. She tried to get a statement of how much she owed from the Student Loans Company and they say they can only give you the yearly one they send out next year. She ended up creating her own spreadsheet and watching her pay slips to work out how much she was paying, so she could make additional payments and not overpay (which I know is very easy to do with them!).
