People Retiring in the Private Sector - Tell us your story....

deemy2004

Anybody retired recently or about to retire in the private sector... Tell us your story as regards your pension, has it lived up to the promises / forecasts made ... Are you happy ? What would you have done differently if anything ?

Exactly what transpired, any tips or advice you would give to others ?

Pal

<Pal's finger hovers over the "move to discussion board" key...>

dunstonh

anyone taking their pension out 10 years ago or earlier would have had higher projections than those issued today. Mainly as returns have fallen along with inflation and the regulator has told firms to use lower, more realistic projections. Over the last year or two and still ongoing, is a move to include a further reduction in the projections to take into account inflation.

That doesn't make it a failure of pensions. It's a change in economic conditions. In real terms, the performance isn't much different. It is also a sign of more realistic information being provided.

Also, people that take out a level pension see a nice big figure at the end on their initial illustration and then keep paying that figure, never topping up to take inflation into account. That is again, not a failure of pensions but the individual for not keeping their retirement planning on track.

At the end of the day, you get out when you pay in. If you pay in £100pm for 25 years, what makes you think you should get more than £100pm back for 25 years?

I know of people that started paying £50pm 15 years ago and are still paying that now. Of course they are not going to get back what was on those initial projections. 15 years ago, that 4-5 tanks of petrol. Today thats little more than 1 tank.

Is the problem the pension wrapper or more likely the individual who sees little reason to save?