Are you also saving for retirement?

Dithering_Dad

Yep, I have a Company/Personal Pension and/or ISA savings

LittleMissAspie wrote: »

Okay but I'm in the Local Goverment Pension Scheme. A lot of people seem to think that is unsustainable and that eventually there will be no taxpayer money to pay the pensions. And the Pension Protection Fund is the goverment too, so if the LGPS part of the government can't afford to pay pensions, how can the PPF part of the government pay them?

You're in one of the safest pensions there is. Basically there is zero chance of you not getting your pension because if the government cannot afford to pay pensions it's because we're now an anarchy instead of a democracy and the person with the biggest militia is now King.

In that scenario, losing your pension will be the least of your problems! :eek:

LittleMissAspie

Yep, I have a Company/Personal Pension and/or ISA savings

Dithering_Dad wrote: »

You're in one of the safest pensions there is.

Well I hope so. The civil-servant-bashing threads worry me with their talk about pension timebombs and things.

Conrad

Dithering_Dad wrote: »

3) My pension dies with me - You can choose to buy an annuity or keep your pension invested and use 'drawdown' (upto age 70, though I'd expect this rule to go long before I retire). If you have an annuity you can choose to pay a 100%/50%/30%/etc pension to your spouse. If you choose drawdown, then your entire fund value is paid to your beneficiary WITHOUT inheritance taxes! Plus you can take a tax free lump sum of 25% out of the pension pot when you retire.

A well known City IFA tried to flog me one, but they stated all pensions die with you, unless you make considerable conscesions, such as paying for life cover (which, you could have anyway without a pension), or sacrificing some of the income.
I'm no expert, but as far as I know they die with you.

I'd rather keep all my money and all my investment income without sacrifice, and then leave it all to my family.

Furthermore, I dont trust the fund managers to procure a decent net return. I've met some fund managers in my time and have to say I think I could do just as well. As an example I had heated debates with a couple back in 2007 as I argued UK/US centric property funds were a disaster waiting to happen, yet they dismissed me as a mad man

Thrugelmir

Yep, I have a Company/Personal Pension and/or ISA savings

The key to me for retirement planning is to constantly review and not be afraid to change tack. What might be a good investment one month might not the next.

Luckily we have a life time repayment tracker mortgage fixed at .35% over base. As interest rates fell I have reduced the mortgage to the amount requested Initially investing the "saving" into a equity income investment trust (4.76% yield) with a pension wrapper thereby gaining tax relief. As BOE rates fell, in December adding a Equity/Corporate Bond Fund (7.81%) yield with an ISA wrapper.

I should add that we have frozen pension funds in other schemes. So current investment is to take advantage of interest differentials and part of a balanced strategy.

Dithering_Dad

Yep, I have a Company/Personal Pension and/or ISA savings

Conrad wrote: »

I'd rather keep all my money and all my investment income without sacrifice, and then leave it all to my family.

Does this mean that when you retire, you will scrimp and save and do without in order to leave the bulk of your retirement money to your descendants?

I refuse to worry about spending money in retirement because I'm afraid of spending my adult children's legacy. I already feel the same way about my own parents; they worked hard all their lives and they deserve to enjoy their money now. They provided for me as a child and made sure I was raised to provide adequately for myself and my own family, that's all I could have asked for them. I'm not interested in having a penny off them when they die - the best thing would be that they enjoyed their money to the last penny on the day they pop their clogs.

You have to ask yourself, are you providing a retirement income for yourself or a nest egg for your middle aged kids?

bubblesmoney

Yep, I have a Company/Personal Pension and/or ISA savings

with the state of the market and more worrying the track record of this govt of raiding pension schemes i wonder how safe our investments in pensions are. since we cant access the pensions till retirement, what happens if the govt raids the pensions schemes again or nationalises pension funds like happened in argentina. with the state of the finances of the govt and quantitative easing being used to print money without any (fresh) assets to back the printing of new money, one shouldnt ignore the possibility of the govt raiding pensions as a source of free money again.

an interesting graph i came across about stock market performance from 1922 in comparison to 1992 onwards.
(oops the image is not coming out right when i paste it, so here is the link http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_mJmwQtPmusk/SPtkFf7fA9I/AAAAAAAACTE/TSF9afIWRx8/s1600-h/US+stock+market+repeats.gif )dont know if this has been posted already, so sorry if this is duplication. if the trends are a true indicator of the near future then investments in shares wont give much returns for a while. but not sure how much value one should put on technical analysis rather than fundamentals. i am a firm believer in fundamentals but this technical graph is scary.

in case a few dont remember how this govt ruined some of the best pension schemes in the world (best atleast prior to when they came in power), it is best to have a quick recap at some of these links.

Focus: The great pensions heist

Gordon Brown was told by his own people that a tax raid on pensions would cost savers tens of billions. He went ahead anyway. David Smithand Robert Winnett report

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1596819.ece

<H1 class=heading>Focus: It's mine... all mine!

Britain’s tax burden is growing faster than that of any other European country, with middle-class taxpayers working nearly half of every year for the state. David Smith on the new high-tax economy

</H1>http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article601173.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1

The would-be PM who cost us £100bn

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2948958/The-would-be-PM-who-cost-us-andpound100bn.html

after reading these links i wouldnt bet on them raiding the pension schemes again or worse nationalising them for free access to other peoples savings to fund their grandiose socialist bullsh1t. all this govt stands for is to punish the hard working and savers and to fund the scroungers plus the govts wasteful spending.

ps: i do invest in a pension (final salary nhs scheme) but didnt buy additional years as wasnt sure whether i would actually get a pension in return for my investments after seeing the amount of shortfall the govt has with regard to non funded pension schemes and how much longer this farce is a viable policy.

Andy_L

Yep, I have a Company/Personal Pension and/or ISA savings

leveller2911 wrote: »

I dont entirely agree with that, If your a manual , male worker who is lucky enough to retire at 65 I dont think you'll find many will still be alive at 90, which is the term of a 25yr mortgage.

I dont think I will be able to afford to retire in all honesty.I think I will have to carry on working for 2-3 days per week..Im 40 and my body,s knackered already ..lol:rotfl:

Life expectancy, for someone who makes it to 65, is an extra 17.2 years (male) or 19.9 (female)
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?ID=168

Karen's_girl

Yep, I have a Company/Personal Pension and/or ISA savings

There are a lot of interesting responses on this thread, and it is very informative. I think the differing responses (believers in pensions/non believers in pensions) is a good sign that people are questioning financial products, maybe more than people of other generations did. It's not a bad thing to not count your chickens; also, those who don't believe in pensions on this thread are willing to stand by their decisions and take responsibility for it when they are of an age when they will need the funds for their retirement.

In the current climate, I don't think anyone can blame people for not trusting financial institutions with their hard earned money, even if there is no proof that the product will lose money/not exist in the future.

baby_boomer

Yep, I have a Company/Personal Pension and/or ISA savings

Generali wrote: »

whoever you work for (Govt or private employer) the employer has to put in 9% of your salary into Super (pension). If you put more in you get tax breaks on that cash.

A respected friend in the Oz insurance industry alerted to me to the superiority of the Oz pension system over the UK's about 5 years ago.

neverdespairgirl

Yep, I have a Company/Personal Pension and/or ISA savings

OH and I both have SIPPs.