My view on Pensions

Malthusian

Rachel_Pierson wrote: »

What do you do in real life when people disagree with you? Tell them their pants are on fire? Stick your fingers in your ears and go "la la la" until they go away?

If I think they might listen I'll outline the reasons why I think they're wrong.

If it's clear they have no intention of listening then I'm not going to waste my time. Though I may as well collect some cheap thanks with a snarky comment.

People will take out a pension if they want. Some of them will be railroaded into doing so via the illusion of choice that automatically opting people in and forcing them to opt out every three years provides. But some, like me, will decide long term that they're not interested in a pension, and will keep jumping through hoops to opt out, resenting it more and more every time we have to.

The idea behind the three year re-opt-in is that at some point you will grow up and stop slitting your wrists in public. Hasn't happened yet judging by your posts from 2013, but hope springs eternal.

Triumph13

In a perfect world, where well informed citizens always made sensible decisions, auto-enrolment wouldn't needed as everyone would see it was a no-brainer. As it is though, auto-enrolment is probably a very sensible bit of paternalism when you are having to deal with so many spoilt children like the OP.

Malthusian

mgdavid wrote: »

Seems that the OP has history on this subject, here's a comment made on MoneyMarketing back in 2013 (the subject matter was consultancy charging for auto-enrolment but that's largely irrelevant):

Good spot. The article was a month old when Ms Pierson commented on it. Then there was this gem a month later on an article from The Actuary, which she posted on a three-month-old article (at the time):

Anyone with half a brain will opt right back out as quickly as the deliberately slow and bureaucratic processes that pension scheme organisers begrudgingly have to put in place allow them to do so. There's a reason these con men that run pension schemes have to inertia sell their products rather than relying on workers purchasing them voluntarily based on their actual value: pensions are worthless, and no-one in their right mind was buying them given the choice... *snip* you get the idea

OP, is there anything you would like to tell us? Any reason this compulsion to rant about personal pensions has re-surfaced three and a half years after the last time?

Triumph13

Malthusian wrote: »

OP, is there anything you would like to tell us? Any reason this compulsion to rant about personal pensions has re-surfaced three and a half years after the last time?

Presumably because her employer is trying to re-enrol her again 3 years after last time? As she doesn't want to admit to having been a complete idiot last time she opted out she's venting her distress on us.

elantan

Lokolo wrote: »

If it wasn't for this forum (and especially dunstonh and oldernotwiser), I wouldn't be here at 28 knowing full well what my plan for retirement was. I am sure I am not the only one that has benefited from contributors of this forum.

The one thing that does annoy me is Martin gets a lot of credit, whereas it is actually the members and contributors that make this forum what it is, and he never credits these people.

totally agree with this ... only i'm 44 not 28 ... wish i had known about MSE when I was 28, I would've been retiring even earlier

mgdavid

Triumph13 wrote: »

Presumably because her employer is trying to re-enrol her again 3 years after last time? As she doesn't want to admit to having been a complete idiot last time she opted out she's venting her distress on us.

don't think it's this Triumph; OP is an IT coder with her own limited company. Does auto-enrolment cover one-(wo)man-bands?

JoeCrystal

Lokolo wrote: »

If it wasn't for this forum (and especially dunstonh and oldernotwiser), I wouldn't be here at 28 knowing full well what my plan for retirement was. I am sure I am not the only one that has benefited from contributors of this forum.

The one thing that does annoy me is Martin gets a lot of credit, whereas it is actually the members and contributors that make this forum what it is, and he never credits these people.

Me too. :beer: If I have not stumbled across this pension forum and asked about my pension provision few years ago, , I wouldn't bother to do anything about it until I got auto-enrolled later on or not gained enough confidence to see an IFA about it which I did not even realise exist until then.

Instead, my own private pension provision is about twenty time bigger than my work pension putting me on a path on hopefully okay retirement. I am not expecting much from my own provision but every little helps! :cool:

Rachel_Pierson

Malthusian wrote: »

OP, is there anything you would like to tell us? Any reason this compulsion to rant about personal pensions has re-surfaced three and a half years after the last time?

Nothing beyond what I've already told you. Though some extra free advice on how to argue effectively might be useful in your case :



Funny how the people that are the least able to argue effectively on this forum for positions they believe always use words like "rant" to describe the other side of the argument. Why is that? Is it easier than stating why what you believe to be true holds water?

Rachel_Pierson

mgdavid wrote: »

don't think it's this Triumph; OP is an IT coder with her own limited company. Does auto-enrolment cover one-(wo)man-bands?

I'm not, actually. (Was previously some years ago, but not any more.) Perhaps you shouldn't believe everything you read online?

Rachel_Pierson

elantan wrote: »

totally agree with this ... only i'm 44 not 28 ... wish i had known about MSE when I was 28, I would've been retiring even earlier

You would indeed. Because MSE has only existed since you were 30. With a working crystal ball at age 28 you'd have been a millionaire in no time.