Do you hold net positive or negative assets?

Herzlos

I'm just net positive (house worth £5k more than mortage, so any profit would be eaten by fees), plus pension, but then I've been paying into pension and mortgage for nearly a decade at this point, I'd hope to be in positive equity.

I'll be in a better position in 10 or 20 years, and I'm currently in a better position than 10 years ago. Helpful, eh?

Carl31

So, if you're in a net negative asset position, what does this actually mean? Does it mean you will die of a horrific diesease, whereas those in a net positive position will basically be immortal?

I fail to see the relevance of this fact really,apart from a bit of willy waving, sure anyone's net position is temporary anyway?

lisyloo

Putting it on a forum is perhaps willy waving.

Having a pension pot so you can have a comfortable retirement for 35 years rather than being poor and watching every penny is significant.

Yes ultimately it's temporary but it's a long time to spend in discomfort.

carefullycautious

PasturesNew wrote: »

I have no pension. On a single wage it's difficult enough to afford housing/a mortgage and maintain it.... pensions are off the radar.

Is that because you have never held down a full time job or that the full time job did not pay you enough to survive and pay into a pension?


And if you only work part time is that through choice or circumstance?

PasturesNew

carefullycautious wrote: »

Is that because you have never held down a full time job or that the full time job did not pay you enough to survive and pay into a pension?

Full time jobs never paid enough - and, have been very unsettled. Every year, pretty much without fail, I've started a new job (any job/first job as I need the money), only for that company to fold, downsize, be bought out - and I've had to continually "start again". Even one month without work takes 4-6 months of being in work again to get back to square one... whereupon it all happens again.

At one point I thought I'd cracked it - good job, good pay, they'd been in business 100 years, and I was lined up for promotion to a top job.... but then they were taken over and our site was closed down.

Rinse and repeat....every time.

Also, wages have not increased. e.g. the job I was doing in 1997 paid me £17k. Today that same company are advertising that same job at £17k.

carefullycautious

That's a long time to have such bad luck. You must be adept at frugal living due to these setbacks.


Not sure of your age so trying to guess where you are in your employment cycle.

kabayiri

carefullycautious wrote: »

That's a long time to have such bad luck. You must be adept at frugal living due to these setbacks.


Not sure of your age so trying to guess where you are in your employment cycle.

I know where PN comes from.

It's fair to say the IT world has seen significant change in the last couple of decades, not least in what work is done and where it is done.

I have done roles in the past which are now invariably done in India. The vast majority have been outsourced.

You have to adapt to survive. People working in IT are used to adapting.

However, other traditionally secure middle class roles are now seeing similar patterns. Some of the bigger legal firms have moved significant blocks of work offshore, presumably to save on labour cost.

In the final analysis this could be a good thing. There is rarely a "job for life" nowadays. The flexibility of the UK workforce has seen employment levels much better than Europe.

carefullycautious

I have been cushioned somewhat having always worked within local authority and NHS.

lisyloo

Just to confirm what kabayiri is saying. My dept is now 85% offshored to India. I haven't had a pay rise for 5 years or a promotion for 13 years.
Luckily for me I'm on a decent salary already so whilst I'm not happy about it I'm at least getting a decent middle income wage.

missyrichards

Positive, but most is in a pension so you can't touch this, to quote MC Hammer. The rest is equity so we would have to downsize at some point.