The Truth About The State Pension

marklv

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/pensions/article.html?in_article_id=426261&in_page_id=6

One very important reason why you need to save up for your pension as soon as possible.

EdInvestor

Of course average earnings tend to lower in many European countries, and they do not have the well developed private/company pension system that we have.

Nor can European Governments afford to continue making this level of provision.

marklv

EdInvestor wrote: »

Of course average earnings tend to lower in many European countries, and they do not have the well developed private/company pension system that we have.

Nor can European Governments afford to continue making this level of provision.

Nonsense - what evidence do you have that earnings are lower on the continent? Maybe in Greece and Portugal, but I doubt anywhere else. And where the salaries are lower, the cost of living is also lower.

And what is this 'well developed company pension system'? In the old final salary pension system this was worth something but now it's just a glorified savings scheme based on stockmarket gambling. The only pensions worth anything these days are in the public sector.

bendix

The debate is meaningless, and can be summed up in a simple truism. Anyone who is not making private provision for their retirement is an idiot.

bryanb

bendix wrote: »

The debate is meaningless, and can be summed up in a simple truism. Anyone who is not making private provision for their retirement is an idiot.

Or maybe anyone making private provision is an idiot. The future remains a mystery to most of us.

Paul_Herring

bryanb wrote: »

Or maybe anyone making private provision is an idiot. The future remains a mystery to most of us.

I'm going on the assumption that in 30+ years when it comes to my (state) retirement age (assuming it doesn't go up yet again in the interim) there won't actually be a state pension worth speaking of.

At least I'll be happy to be proved wrong.

marklv

The state pension could easily be put right if there was the political will, but there isn't. Of course it would necessitate national insurance contributions going up to 15% (at least) on each side, but no government will ever do this because they are afraid of the newspaper headlines.

bryanb

marklv wrote: »

The state pension could easily be put right if there was the political will, but there isn't. Of course it would necessitate national insurance contributions going up to 15% (at least) on each side, but no government will ever do this because they are afraid of the newspaper headlines.

Good to see someone else is open minded, I don't actually believe there is the will to do this at the moment. But things do change, maybe voters will even take the bull by the horns and insist that MPs represent their views. Wishful thinking at the moment though.

bendix

bryanb wrote: »

Or maybe anyone making private provision is an idiot. The future remains a mystery to most of us.

That's all very nice and philosophical, but back in the real world we can control only what we can control. I am not going to rely on external forces to help me out; I prefer to look after myself. As such, private provision is the only option I'm interested in. If I provide for myself, I am in complete control of it (so far as is possible). If I rely on others, I have to . . well . . rely on others.

No thanks. I'm not interested.

Paul_Herring

bendix wrote: »

That's all very nice and philosophical, but back in the real world we can control only what we can control. I am not going to rely on external forces to help me out; I prefer to look after myself. As such, private provision is the only option I'm interested in. If I provide for myself, I am in complete control of it (so far as is possible). If I rely on others, I have to . . well . . rely on others.

No thanks. I'm not interested.

You could always work in the public sector - I hear their pensions are somewhat better than the private sector - look at the MPs for instance.

marklv

Let's not that start that old chestnut about public sector pensions.