Pensions

treliac

Old_Slaphead wrote: »

Don't you think old people like nice cars, holidays, decent wine, being able to turn the fire up when it's cold, not worrying too much when the boiler breaks down etc etc. If not, you really ought to get out more.

Despite it's relative generosity, I don't think the state provides for all of those.

Depends what you mean by old, Old Slaphead. When I say enjoy holidays and the like, I mean before you're out of your 70's because, hopefully, you are still fit and young enough to do so.

For very many people the balance tips once the 80's are reached and increasing frailty and poor health frequently mitigate against being able to enjoy those activities. However, for the elderly not able to afford important things such as heating etc, there are the necessary benefits and services in place.

And thanks for the suggestion but I do get out plenty and I can assure you I know what I am talking about.

fc123

kabayiri wrote: »

My mother used to run rest homes in the 80s/early 90s.

You used to see these cheques arrive from the pension companies, for pitiful amounts really. The people in the home really believed they were saving towards a significant nest egg.

The problem they need to address is trust. You have to believe that if you contribute X every month that it will provide a predicted return.

For many reasons, I have zero trust in any type of pension fund/company/ investmenet firm or whatever they are called. I wouldn't ever give any of them a single penny.

I will have to work out our own way of saving/investing for retirement.

kabayiri

fc123 wrote: »

For many reasons, I have zero trust in any type of pension fund/company/ investmenet firm or whatever they are called. I wouldn't ever give any of them a single penny.

I will have to work out our own way of saving/investing for retirement.

You are not the only one.

I was one of those people who were a victim of the wave of private pension mis-selling in the late 80s. I remember meeting the guy who sold me a poor private deal; next time I saw him was on TV as someone being investigated!

It's hard to trust the pension companies who allowed these sort of people to operate. My cousin used to flog pensions; he had zero interest in the products, just a desire to make money.

fc123

kabayiri wrote: »

You are not the only one.

I was one of those people who were a victim of the wave of private pension mis-selling in the late 80s. I remember meeting the guy who sold me a poor private deal; next time I saw him was on TV as someone being investigated!

It's hard to trust the pension companies who allowed these sort of people to operate. My cousin used to flog pensions; he had zero interest in the products, just a desire to make money.

My good friends father was a self employed architect. He is now 80 odd.
He spent his last decade of working life shoving every spare penny into Equitable Life. During the previous decades he was rasing kids, paying off mortage, using up savings to get by during dry periods (like the 70's) etc.

I think he is getting 40% now. He regrets it massively.


Our shop was owned by a pension fund...a PUT. The amount skimmed off the top to pay for swishy offices, fat salaries and the rest was huge...and they didn't have a clue about retail either.

kabayiri

Without divulging too much I supported systems for a Trust business of one the UK's biggest brokers.

You used to see the profit they would make by doing bulk trades, 'churn' as it is known. They would move money between various prime rated stocks. The charges made on each account would all add up, and it was vastly profitable business.

For managed funds like pensions to absorb these costs, and outperform, takes some doing. In a period of muted growth with a stuttering economy it would take even more doing.

I fervently believe that its purely the tax breaks which make pensions even worth a second glance.

PasturesNew

My landlord bought 4 places like this one I rent because he lost everything in some pensions fund crash. He'd worked/saved most of his life, putting money into the pension, expecting to come out of it with about £25k/year, but it was one of those where people lost everything and it's now worthless. So he bought some BTLs in 2006. This one is worth about 30% less than he paid for it.

Snooze

fc123 wrote: »

For many reasons, I have zero trust in any type of pension fund/company/ investmenet firm or whatever they are called. I wouldn't ever give any of them a single penny.

I will have to work out our own way of saving/investing for retirement.

Imho the interest gain does not justify the risks. There are plenty of horror stories about returns turning out to be nothing like they were promised or even worse, the company going tits up and you losing the lot. :eek:

I prefer to keep my cash where I can see it and if that means I 'lose out' on £x in interest then I can live with that. Of course, that £x was never mine to begin with so I'm not actually losing anything anyway.



R

zygurat789

Quote:
Originally Posted by CLAPTON
so a weekly income of 130 is

-a yearly income of 6,760
plus you would get council tax paid ... say 100 per month = 1200 per annum
plus rent at lets say 600 per month i.e. 7,200

so if you were earning you would need 15,100 take home

which equates to about 19,000 per annum

how much do you earn at the moment?

Pobby wrote: »

That is a very interesting point CLAPTON, and one that has made me think.

I make it £16,500 Thats a significant difference.

Harry_Powell

chucknorris wrote: »

You've got the gist of it except that I would not be spending the interest either, I would be letting it role up because I do not 'need' the pension nor the interest from the non pension investment, it would just be an investment and I would not be dipping into it.

What I learned from looking at it was that despite the huge edvantages of a pension pool growing quickly the annuity is a very poor product as an investment, but of course I understand why, it is because it is a product to provide a certainty of income. It is not that bad really as it does catch up after year 27 it does move into 'profit' compared to the non pension.

Then you're not comparing like for like. You state to everyone that pensions are a rubbish investment and provide an alarming suggestion that a pension will be 27 years (or whatever) behind a different investment, forgetting to state that you're not actually taking an income from the other investment!

Please don't take this the wrong way, but of course your untouched investment will do better long-term than a crystallised (taken) pension. It's like saying "If I leave £5 in the bank for 10 years, it'll be a better investment than if I spend it right now!"

I'd also ask what the point is of saving for retirement in an investment, then not actually spending that money. Do you just want to be the richest man in the graveyard?

chucknorris

Harry_Powell wrote: »

Then you're not comparing like for like. You state to everyone that pensions are a rubbish investment with your alarming statement that a pension will be 27 years (or whatever) behind a different investment, forgetting to state that you're not actually taking an income from the other investment!

Look Harry I made it perfectly clear that I was looking at pensions from my personal circumstances as a further investment possibility for me. Of course pensions are necessary for those that want a certainty of income, again I made that clear too.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but of course your untouched investment will do better long-term than a monetised pension. It's like saying "If I leave £5 in the bank for 10 years, it'll be a better investment than if I spend it on a bag of sweets".


I'd also ask what the point is of saving for retirement in an investment, then not actually spending that money. Do you just want to be the richest man in the graveyard?

I don't tend to spend as much as I earn, and I don't think it's feasible that I will spend all the money that I have accumulated, that's all. Why is that a bad thing?

While it's true that I do not have any children to leave my cash to, my outline plan is to seriously increase the amount of money that I give to dog rescue centres. I may even start off my own (although that is unlikley, but I will continue with the volunantry work for them)