When to retire......

kabayiri

N1AK wrote: »

All good points; in fact this is really the issue when it comes to retirement planning: there is no obvious correct answer it is all manage risk and reward.

Save too much and you may not get to enjoy it and waste opportunities; save too little and you could end up living on very little with poor, if any, care.

The fact that government spending plans are such a joke and change so much certainly doesn't help either. Why save a big pension pot if the government may well come along and take a chunk off you anyway. If things get desperate will they make the state pension income-assessed in which case why bother saving for one privately unless it'll be much better etc.

You raise a good point. It's a question of trust. I wouldn't trust any future government starved of cash. Means testing to prevent a pensions apartheid would prove very tempting to a future populist government.

PaulF81

marathonic wrote: »

Whilst a smaller population may have an impact, it's not a viable solution - how on earth are you going to enforce it?

We need more exports and more tourism, plain and simple. The current, weak, pound should assist with this.

With more money coming into the country, it will be circulated around everything from restaurant workers to taxi drivers to pubs and hotels - all with the government taking their cut.

When the governments cut is big enough, roads will be resurfaced, fibre-optic broadband areas will be expanded, hospitals will be built, etc. leading to more jobs.

It's a simple solution but one that will take a LONG time to implement.

Already offered a solution. Smaller NHS budget. Freeze the state pension as they have with public sector wages fr 5+ years (the current pension is well in excess of what it was ever envisaged to be) and only offer palliative care for those over the average life expectancy.

You stop it at the other end by ending all Child benefit payments past the first child and stop benefits supporting children the state can no longer afford.

Tough choices, the other is bankrupcy.