Astute, solvent, independent, wise and over 55

[Deleted User]

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Robert_Sterling

You seem to have enough money in your kitty Kittie.

[Deleted User]

There are too many bleating pensioners in society Robert. I was born into a poor home and have never been wealthy and have no inherited money. What we have is by our own forsight and work. We will be comfortable but not rich and we will be able to afford holidays etc

But then again we have never expected handouts from the public purse, like many others of the live-now, on a credit card, mentality

margaretclare

kittie wrote:

There are too many bleating pensioners in society Robert. I was born into a poor home and have never been wealthy and have no inherited money. What we have is by our own foresight and work. We will be comfortable but not rich and we will be able to afford holidays etc

Well, that applies to us too. I've been pleasantly surprised about the level of the income that DH and I have between us. We're still able to save, in case a time comes in the future (when one of us is left on his/her own) when we're not as well off as we are now. I agree about 'bleating pensioners' which is why I tend to avoid the company of my own age-group. I don't go to many of the places that they seem to go to. 'Comfortable', not rich but a darned long way from being poor! Being rich brings its own worries - avoiding IHT, worrying in case your house may be sold to pay for residential care - these are things that a lot of older people are worried about. We have no worries at all!

Margaret Clare

EdInvestor

I agree about 'bleating pensioners' which is why I tend to avoid the company of my own age-group

I suspect things are going to change as babyboomers like kittie start to retire.Most of them are used to a much more 'get up and go' approach.

If you think about the major changes in our society that they pushed through in the 60s and 70s - on censorship, women, race, gays etc,not to mention fashion, music,theatre and film etc,it seems pretty unlikely they will sit around bleating in retirement.

If there's something wrong they are much more likely to get up and do something about it!

Possibly more to your taste Margaret - only 10 years younger than you anyway, that's not much.

margaretclare

EdInvestor wrote:

If you think about the major changes in our society that they pushed through in the 60s and 70s - on censorship, women, race, gays etc,not to mention fashion, music,theatre and film etc,it seems pretty unlikely they will sit around bleating in retirement.

If there's something wrong they are much more likely to get up and do something about it!

Possibly more to your taste Margaret - only 10 years younger than you anyway, that's not much.

Hey, don't get it wrong - I was in the forefront of many of those changes! I was given the opportunity to vote for Equal Pay in the mid-1950s when I was in the Civil Service, that was long before legislation and long before a major campaign. I was also one of the first to undertake nursing training after marriage - I can still hear Matron saying anxiously 'You won't get pregnant, will you, Nurse?' and me assuring her robustly that I wouldn't. That was 1957.

I lobbied for women's separate taxation for some 20 years and actually got to speak to the then Chancellor, Nigel Lawson, on Election Call before a general election in the mid-1980s. Obviously I wasn't the only one who thought that way, because the change was implemented at the next Budget.

I also lobbied for the Sex Discrimination Act and we almost had a test case for the Equal Opportunities Commission when my younger daughter was ordered to go into a needlework class and she refused, insisting that she wanted to do metalwork and technical drawing because 'she was going to be an engineer'! The school backed down just in time....

I went to university as a mature student in my mid-40s. So I think you can see, I've always had a lot of 'get-up-and-go' myself and I've never had much patience with those who sit around whingeing.

I know just a few older people who think like I do - just a very few. Mostly I avoid all the rest of them.

Margaret Clare

EdInvestor

Margaret, I can see why you feel the others of your generation are a touch dull.Clearly you were ahead of your time.

I rather suspect you still are,in many ways. For instance IMHO far too many people are still not taking a proper interest in money, and educating themselves about how to manage it.They think it's boring or vulgar.

This attitude is a major reason why we all still have such problems getting value in financial services, for as long as people pay no attention to what's going on, the cowboy salesmen and the insurance companies and banks will think they can get away with murder.

And the tragedy is, they can.:(

Good for kittie, and yourself, for getting control of your finances and giving others the benefit of your experience.
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margaretclare

Hi Ed

'They think it's boring or vulgar'....well, my late first husband had been to a boarding school that aspired to Eton-like attitudes and he thought that 'a gentleman doesn't talk about money'!!!

This attitude led him, and both of us, into various quicksands. Would you believe it, we had our first home repossessed in 1971 due to a consolidation loan. If it hadn't been for the fact that I had jobs which had housing with them, I don't know where we'd have been. We were eventually able to buy again. Even when we bought this bungalow in 1990 it was in my name alone.

To be fair, in the last century there was not the amount of information and education freely available that there is now. Not only sites like this, but most newspapers have a 'personal finance' column. There really is no excuse any more.

Margaret Clare

[Deleted User]

Margaretclare you are a role model for me and you too Edinvestor. Both so kind to others with your advice

Why oh why are there not more of us out there? Getting a grip of finances is not that difficult or technical. The main requirements are an open mind and a willingness to do the background work.

A comfortable old age does not appear to us on a plate and there is no free lunch. There is an element of self-sacrifice during the younger years but it does not stop the fun.

I would say that if we can do it then so can most people. Margaretclare has done it her way and I have done it my way.

This is my way to financial security after retirement:

Bought house and gone up the property ladder in several steps since marriage 35 years ago. Now gone down one step with the potential to downsize three more times

I have always been OS re feeding the family, growing veg and making clothes. This enabled house moves

Only had a few foreign holidays. Went caravanning and camping in the uk and put money into isas and savings and extra mortgage payments. Mortgage paid off early.

Became very knowledgable about the stock market and traded shares to build up my personal sipp, which was transferred from an FSAVC

Took the bull by the horns a couple of months ago. Sacked the IFA and got third party permission from my DH to handle his pension. Transferred his pension to a sipp. See the sipp/stakeholder thread http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=169137

Thats it in a little nutshell. I deleted the opening post but I have pretty well repeated it here

Finances are only part of the picture. A quick and active mind is another. Use the mind or lose it!! I trained for 4 years in a complementary medicine and I started when I was 50.