Another public sector golden pension

xylophone

I watched as many others left to sometimes double their salary working in London.

They might also have obtained access to generous private sector DB schemes.....

Acquinas

It's no good waking up from deep slumber in your mid-50s and then taking a look around and only then realising that you may have made one or two wrong choices. We all make them. The key is to learn from them an adjust your behaviour. I've worked in both sectors, though mainly public. I have mates who are my age who are self-employed or work for big corporates. They tend to have more salary than me, bigger houses, flashier cars and no thought at all about their pensions or sometimes no pension arrangements at all. Who is to say which one us has made the best choice? We are all adults and we have to take responsibility for our choices.

chucknorris

Andy_L wrote: »

Surprisingly the Universities are classed as part of the private sector

I know they are, but the pension is just the same as a public sector pension (and this thread is about public sector pensions).

Muscle750

Sick of hearing why didnt i get a job in the public sector all we are asking for is a level playing field it will however never happen in my lifetime. With much higher contributions from the employer which basically is the tax payer inc myself enabling over inflated public pensions and please dont start bleating on about how you were all paid a pittance and this makes up for it. If you took say 1000 from both the Public sector and 1000 from the Private sector there will be a far higher percentage in the public sector that have took the money and run by the time they are 60 and are enjoying life than there are of us manual workers.

jerrysimon

I actually started manual work in the public sector working in a RN Dockyard on warships and minesweepers. In those days none of the dry docks were covered either !

There were a lot of caulkers and welders there too


Jerry

JoeCrystal

Muscle750 wrote: »

Sick of hearing why didnt i get a job in the public sector all we are asking for is a level playing field it will however never happen in my lifetime.

There will be a level playing field, mostly due to closing of all DB pension schemes. That will happen eventually, with public sector paying similar average as private sector, thanks to auto enrolment . Once the employer will have to pay 15% or 20% then it will be a beginning of the end for them. Having said that, I think the median public sector pension is £5,600 in 2012. So not very high sadly.

Anyway, as you mentioned, you DO have deferred DB from a decade ago so be happy and LUCKY that you got some certainty in your retirement. You may comment on how unfair the public sector pension are. There are some like me who grits his teeth on how unfair that people like you got deferred DB pension while paying peanuts for them. You might even get high CETV value for it as well! If your employer do pay in DC higher than 2.5% then why, you are already doing better than average employer contrition rate in private sector! I will have to make do with 2% instead.

In short, it is only up to you to figure out how to retire as best as you can. I am sure that this forum will be happy to help you with suggestions on how to improve your DC pension pot. I certainly found this forum to be a major help in improving my pension prospect as I had ZERO pension pot when I was 24, about six years ago. It just doesn't matter how well others are doing, it is your retirement that is most important to you and the onus is on you. You already got a good start with Deferred DB pension scheme, build more on it with more contribution or savings. At the end of the day, do you really want to face the possibility of not having high enough income for your retirement?

Manxman_in_exile

Muscle750 wrote: »

Sick of hearing why didnt i get a job in the public sector all we are asking for is a level playing field...

You may be sick of it, but why didn't you get a job in the public sector when you could have? I decided to take a job in the public sector nearly 30 years ago because the likelihood of a lower salary than I could get in the private sector was outweighed by the greater certainty of better pension provision in later life.


I have no idea why any sensible person would not make the same decision I did. But you must have chosen not to. Public sector workers are not responsible for decisions you made earlier in your working life. Did your mates who have now retired on "gold plated" public sector schemes never have the kindness to suggest to you to get out and do something different?


But I suspect that back in the 80s or 90s you decided to get a better paid job in the private sector and didn't think about a pension 30 or 40 years ahead. And if it wasn't a better paid job in the private sector, why didn't you get a job in something like the NHS as a transport driver, or mechanic? As I've posted earlier, all these jobs were available in the NHS 30 years ago, and they had gold plated pensions!

Manxman_in_exile

Muscle750 - the car history of my wife and I over the last 35 years is: second hand Renault 5; new Vauxhall Astra Mk2; new Nissan Almera; second hand Toyota Avensis; second hand Ford Mondeo.


You've just had your Audi A6(!) bumped while unattended (sorry don't know how to link to this other thread on the forum).


If you are so worried about your future pension entitlement (negative), why are you owning such an expensive car (whether second hand or new and so expensive to maintain)? We could afford to buy a much more expensive car but choose not to as we see it as a waste of money. We choose not to do so, but you do. No problem. But you also chose not to get a gold plated pension.

Manxman_in_exile

Unfortunately, as many other posters have said here and other pension threads, most young people do not consider the future value of their membership of pension schemes. I've seen this in the NHS where many new staff opted out of the pension scheme to get a higher take home salary but bitterly regretted it 20 or 30 years later when they realised what the consequences were.


Many years ago my father in law (now deceased but a senior HR manager in an industry not renowned for good union relations) told his daughter and me: "First thing - join the pension scheme; second thing - join a union". On the whole, wise advice I think.


EDIT: And this was at a time when the then Thatcher govt were encouraging public sector staff to opt out of their public sector pensions and buy private personal rip-off pensions instead. Now we have compulsory workplace pensions to save the public purse in a different way. What a great example of short term benefit and long term loss!

Manxman_in_exile

Manxman_in_exile wrote: »

Muscle750 - the car history of my wife and I over the last 35 years is: second hand Renault 5; new Vauxhall Astra Mk2; new Nissan Almera; second hand Toyota Avensis; second hand Ford Mondeo.


You've just had your Audi A6(!) bumped while unattended (sorry don't know how to link to this other thread on the forum).


If you are so worried about your future pension entitlement (negative), why are you owning such an expensive car (whether second hand or new and so expensive to maintain)? We could afford to buy a much more expensive car but choose not to as we see it as a waste of money. We choose not to do so, but you do. No problem. But you also chose not to get a gold plated pension.

Apologies for quoting my own post, but why, Muscle750, was it necessary to include in your motoring post that your car is an Audi A6? It adds nothing to the substance of the post but suggests (perhaps weakly) that you are proud of the car you own now. Perhaps it would have been better to be less proud of your current vehicle and more proud of earlier career/pension choices.


Just my view but it's a bit like people irrelevantly saying "my Porsche...Ferrari...Bentley...Roller...Lamborghini...whatever" has just been hit in the car park at Lidl. What difference does the marque of car make when your pension is dead in the water?