Oh Buftterfingers, I will dream tonight of them lowering the access age of a LISA to 50. That would be an epic turn up for the books.
I see the LISA 60 access age and 25% bonus to post tax pay as a signal to where pensions might be going. My read on the noise before the most recent budget was that SIPPs were in imminent danger of being replaced with ISA-type pensions, that was pulled because it was unpopular before the EU referendum; I'm expecting it to be back on the table next time around.
Topping up NI years is a winner, with the tiny assumption that the entire system doesn't fall apart and that you don't think you have a shorter life expectancy, I think you have until 2019 to top up years at the current rate and 2025(?) to fill in the gaps at the possibly higher rate. My plan (not to be confused with procrastination) is to leave it to the last minute before any decision point, on the basis that if I paid to top up years now, and then announced in 2024 that the SP was going to be (partly) means tested, I'd be pretty pissed. The other thing is that by buying future years' NI contributions, you will be buying eligibility for certain benefits. While I have no intention of claiming them, I know for certain that I won't need cover for a disability allowance ten years ago (should something horrendous happen), but I could need it in the future [I might have this wrong as I don't know fully how it works and don't plan to find out]. Also, as years progress I'll have more information about how long I can expect to live (medical advances, disease progression, gene sequencing (?) )
By 2030 I think we'll have a better idea of whether the state pension is being cannibalised. I support the folks that want to never do a day of paid work again in FIRE (or don't want to fall foul of the IRP), but I suspect that I'll end up doing something in exchange for money in FIRE, so I'm happy to plan on that basis. I'd be more upset if I ended up paying more than 30 years contributions than if I ended up a year short or doing some reasonably fun work to get another year.
Perhaps we can hire each other for consulting work at a generous hourly rate?
I'm stuffing my SIPP to the brim now, partially hoping that if they bring in some unpleasant new rules they'll give me the option of freezing the SIPP under the old rules (including age access), but mostly to take advantage of that lovely tax deferred money. I can but hope.