Podcast149: The Impact of Fees On My Pension ARF

Welcome to Ireland's award-winning Personal Finance Blog & Podcast. This week we explore a topic which is being asked more and more, what fees are payable, and what is the impact of these fees on a pension, with particular focus on Approved Retirement Fund (ARF). We will not just determine the impact monetarily but also the impact on how long that ARF might actually last you, which is kind of a big deal! This won't be a long episode, but I sure hope it helps shed some light on a dark corner! If you haven't already caught last weeks' episode, which helps explain how to maximise the duration of your ARF, you can grab that here.

Now it goes without saying that you get nothing for nothing, and that we will pay fees in both the accumulation phase of pension/retirement planning, and in the spending-phase. Much like an egg-timer, where you turn it over, there is no halting it, there is a finite amount of grains in the top and there is a finite amount of time before they all pass through. We are precious of every grain, we only have so many to use. I guess in this case what we are trying to do is to be aware of any grains that might be escaping out the sides without us even knowing about it. We're looking to plug any leaks!

The focus of this piece is very much on the impact of the fees on our ability to draw income from an Approved Retirement Fund over the course of our 'Life 2'!

Paddy.