Pensions

McKneff

Hi again Pobby.

I took my private pension just lately, paid into it for 20 years and get the princely sum of £173.33 per month. (less tax) and my contracted out pension £21.oo a month (less tax) I got my lump sum and do you know i am just blowing it, i bought a car, a pre reg corsa with 18 miles on the clock, we have shared most of the rest with our two grown up children.
Its a great feeling. Later on they can have the house (and the car and the insurance policies) but do you know, it was a wonderful feeling seeing their faces when we gave them a cheque each as a surprise. Priceless,
i wouldnt have experienced that if it was after i'd popped my clogs.
We manage to live pretty well each month, Weve worked hard for it for the last 45 years and to be honest i'm proud of that.

A computer buff eh. I am impressed. i didnt know anything about computers till i was in my 40s and i love learning a new thing about them each day, (even at my age) i need to keep the old grey matter active. lol

Take care.
Annie

lostinrates

wageslave wrote: »

I think I read somewhere (and feel free to correct me if I have got it wrong) that unless you earn 30k a year or more it is pointless paying into a private pension.

Thats shocking if true.

i do remember seeing the difference saving towards pension would make at 21 versus 30 and later and going pale and a little queasy.

Pobby

Congratulations Graham. I certainly do agree it is very hard for you young `uns and very hard for the young `uns in my family.

Yes Annie, 30 year old mind in a sixty year old body or so I tell myself. I am disabled and had to drop out of teacher training some 40 years ago. However, life can be a bit of a fight but thank the Lord it`s never stopped me working. I have graduate and Phd friends and thought during the downturn it would be nice to end up with a qualification that was higher than A level, lol. Not that I think that A levels are up to much these days.

We have such a mish mash of pensions. Trying to get them sorted now. Silly little one I paid as a very young guy. Another that will be going for 30 years when I draw it, 2, one for my wife and one for me that we stuck a fair old bit in but for a short time, business went badly down hill and I think there is also 2 old company pensions for my wife that we hope to see about £120 a month from. My wife has been also doing a regular pension for nearly 20 years. Both got a bit of serps.

Funny really. For ages I thought, yea lovely, jubbly retirement and now the idea freaks me out. Can`t see me sitting around doing nothing. So really fancy trying my hand at a new self employed career. I know nothing about laptops and just had an e-mail from a friend who is going to give me a screwed up one. Great, I take it apart and see how it works. All part of my course.

PasturesNew

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Got a child on the way so that will put things back further.

I always thought you were single .... or did you read all the benefits threads and decide to bank yourself some tax credits etc??

wageslave

lostinrates wrote: »

Thats shocking if true.

i do remember seeing the difference saving towards pension would make at 21 versus 30 and later and going pale and a little queasy.

I have a final salary pension so theoretically I should be ok. Theoretically:cool:

I have given up worrying about things I cant affect.

PasturesNew

For pensions, I don't have one. This is for many reasons, such as never working for anybody that provided one, starting once then being lad off so not managing to keep it up so they shut it down and then because of that never bothering again in case it happened again (which it would have done).

Now there are these new fangled stakeholder things, which I've thought about, but I have no pension.

Using a calculator, it seems if I pay in (say) £100/month every month, without fail (with or without a job) from now until I retire, then I'd get back £100/month every month until I die. Now, maybe I am missing something but I didn't see that as such a great deal.

I'd qualify for the basic single pension + minimum income guarantee - and, as I've always understood it, for every £1 pension I'd get, I'd lose £1 from the MIG. So, unless I could save enough to pay out more than the MIG I'd effectively be living in poverty and scrimping and saving for the next X years for no end benefit - and as by the standards of others I've never "had a life", right now doesn't seem a good time to live on less bread and dripping than I have scraped by on to date.

Single pension: £95/week
MIG top up: £35/week

So, if I save £150/month every month from now until I retire (if possible), then I wouldn't need the MIG top up as I'd get that much from my own pension.

Now, £150 is a LOT of money - and I'd have to find it EVERY month. It's one big gamble isn't it.

But, getting MIG would open up a whole raft of other goodies than my own pension wouldn't I bet (e.g. stuff that you get cheap rates for if you're on one of XYZ benefits).

So, unless somebody can point out where the flaw is in my thinking, I can't really see that I could gain anything from starting one now.

Debt_Free_Chick

treliac wrote: »

Coping on a basic pension alone - it's an appalling thought, even with the additional pension credit and council tax benefit.

Perhaps that's why the rules change in 2012 .... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7414108.stm

Wonder how much difference it will make?

The cynics amongst us believe it's just a back-door way of taking people out of Pension Credit ... So PC will "wither on the vine" without this Government actually phasing it out

wageslave

The state pension doesn't seem to favour home owners. If you are a tenant they will pay your rent. If you have struggled umpteen years to buy your house they just earmark it to pay for your care home. If you are fortunate enough to last that long.

And to cap it all they now want me to work seven extra years.

Now I am completely depressed............

BTW Congrats on the little 'un Graham

Pobby

PasturesNew wrote: »

For pensions, I don't have one. This is for many reasons, such as never working for anybody that provided one, starting once then being lad off so not managing to keep it up so they shut it down and then because of that never bothering again in case it happened again (which it would have done).

Now there are these new fangled stakeholder things, which I've thought about, but I have no pension.

Using a calculator, it seems if I pay in (say) £100/month every month, without fail (with or without a job) from now until I retire, then I'd get back £100/month every month until I die. Now, maybe I am missing something but I didn't see that as such a great deal.

I'd qualify for the basic single pension + minimum income guarantee - and, as I've always understood it, for every £1 pension I'd get, I'd lose £1 from the MIG. So, unless I could save enough to pay out more than the MIG I'd effectively be living in poverty and scrimping and saving for the next X years for no end benefit - and as by the standards of others I've never "had a life", right now doesn't seem a good time to live on less bread and dripping than I have scraped by on to date.

Single pension: £95/week
MIG top up: £35/week

So, if I save £150/month every month from now until I retire (if possible), then I wouldn't need the MIG top up as I'd get that much from my own pension.

Now, £150 is a LOT of money - and I'd have to find it EVERY month. It's one big gamble isn't it.

But, getting MIG would open up a whole raft of other goodies than my own pension wouldn't I bet (e.g. stuff that you get cheap rates for if you're on one of XYZ benefits).

So, unless somebody can point out where the flaw is in my thinking, I can't really see that I could gain anything from starting one now.

I think you are about right on that PN. In our case serps would eat up any MIG we might get so having some other pensions is positive.

Pobby

wageslave wrote: »

The state pension doesn't seem to favour home owners. If you are a tenant they will pay your rent. If you have struggled umpteen years to buy your house they just earmark it to pay for your care home. If you are fortunate enough to last that long.

And to cap it all they now want me to work seven extra years.

Now I am completely depressed............

BTW Congrats on the little 'un Graham

Agree with that. So struggling on a state pension you are well screwed if the boiler goes on the blink or something like that. Sell your place and rent. Lets say you realise £150k. Ya stuffed again as you will be the one paying full rent and ct.