Are the young losing all faith in pensions?

geelamch

To be honest it's just a general question,the posters are to be applauded in my opinion,but still no real contributions from 30s and 40s who are the coming generation.

gadgetmind

Drat, I just turned 50. Sorry I can't help, but I'm now an old fart!

geelamch

Ah we'll gadget acceptance is half of the battle.

juliep58

he does have a pension, he took early retirement at 52 and then walked into the job he has now been made reduntant from. his original employer was looking a bit dodgy so he took the early retirement when it was still available. just never occured to us that it would preclude us from a benefit that he had paid NI contribitions for for many years and for a position that was outside of his control. wasn't his fault that he was made redundant. but too late now.

Lokolo

atush wrote: »

My son is 22 and got a job after Uni and joined their pension scheme (on my advice lol). He then set up 2 regular savers for excess cash for his near future.

So, not all the young are clueless.

I would like to think at 24 I am still classed as young!

I am trying to encourage my friends to put money away for retirement. Succeeded with 1, struggling with the others though.

GhIFA

I think it's gradually changing - I seem to be coming across more "youngsters" who are taking more interest in beginning to save for retirement - but there will always be those that don't.

What I find more worrying is the numbers in the 40+ age bracket that have never given it a thought - at that stage, although they can begin to see the reasoning, they're playing a game of catch up that some are very unlikely to ever win.

As with most things in life, they'll be examples of both approaches in all age groups.

Lizling

I'm in my early 30s. I contribute to a pension at the moment, but if my contributions weren't matched by my employer I wouldn't bother - or rather I'd invest in something else. I'd have to put an enormous amount into a pension to end up retiring on much more than the state pension. Also, I've got lots of gaps when I didn't pay into a pension because I wasn't eligible for the company pension scheme. I think this is pretty normal.

Rightly or wrongly, I've put not having to pay rent into retirement above saving for a pension.

Perelandra

I'm in my late 30s. Most of the people I work with are in their late 20s and early 30s; they're bright, and financially savvy, and so I do despair sometimes when they appear to have no interest in their pension...

But then I remember that not so long ago I would've been in the same boat myself.

Pensions are simply not popular, I think, as they're not trusted. When I have been chatting to people, the view seems to be that the money is locked away, not accessible until you hit 55 (at the moment), and subject to the whim of the governments on tax treatment. Far better to put extra money into a BTL property, or into (cash) ISAs where you retain control over it.

My own biggest concern is that the need to be aware of retirement planning seems to be increasing now. Final salary pensions are dying out, and the last decade has seen anything like the same growth in share prices seen in the last 2 (ish) of the 20th century; so there's fewer easy rides available now (and yes, I realise that's a very sweeping statement!).

kloana

I'm in my late 20s and am interested in retirement provision, and have been for a few years. Two 'problems' for me:

1 - I went to my bank a few years ago to discuss pensions (yep, tied/multitied adviser...probably redundant now, actually, but I was just looking for some basic ideas here), and he 'recommended' that I pay what was around a third of my then gross pay into a pension. I went to my bank specifically as I was then employed by a (rival) bank, but knew I would not be sticking around there long enough to seriously explore the occupational pension there. I now realise that 'recommendation' doesn't necessarily lead to what I'll actually 'buy', but what the adviser suggested would have literally left me unable to pay my bills in the here and now. Then came the cross-sales/advice, term assurance that I didn't need, etc. OK, there's a certain level of attraction in leaving a young and pretty corpse, but I was at that point in my mid-20s with nothing that needed protecting. No property (then), no children, etc. Back to the pension, I scored 'low' risk on the risk attitude questionnaire, but felt as though I was being led towards medium/high risk against my will. I walked away.

2 - Current occupational pension scheme is difficult to gain information on. I once asked for a basic investment pack (as I'd been given as an employee of the bank I used to work for), to get an overview of what I'd be investing in, and so on. Nobody even answered my query properly (a lot of scratched heads, many of whom may be blindly paying into the scheme uninformed). I was given the contact details of 'our' IFA several hundred miles away - who didn't answer my email to him. I love my job, but the company is wholly disorganised, from top to bottom. And it's a financial services role/company!

My current 'pension'/retirement provisions in general just involve paying a small monthly sum into a cash ISA. Completely separate to general 'life' savings. Then what? God knows

geelamch

Some interesting quotes there,as I said I ain't finance savvy.do you think the negativity from younger posters could be a (get out) to have an excuse to live for today.i personally live in dread of the thought of retirement to be a decline in leisure /holiday/car , I still think more education in finance etc.someone going to colleges,university and displaying the benefits of a little now ,lots for the future.shouldnt this be a teaching /educational role?