Things to learn from this terrible situation.

happybagger

...and those that say "if it saves one life it will be worth it" still drive cars 

happybagger

On topic, I've wondered why save into a pension.
I ran a dummy quote on a £100k pension pot earlier, it came out as £227 per month from age 65 next year. 
So I'd need to live to 101 to even get it back,

(Yes I know there are other factors)

Thrugelmir

happybagger said:

On topic, I've wondered why save into a pension.
I ran a dummy quote on a £100k pension pot earlier, it came out as £227 per month from age 65 next year. 
So I'd need to live to 101 to even get it back,

(Yes I know there are other factors)

What type of annuity though?  I'd suggest that's an over simplification.  

Bravepants

You should be able to drawdown close to £3.5k from £100k. It doesn't matter whether it's a pension or not (apart from any extra tax reducing benefit such as 25% tax-free), it could be an ISA, but the rule of thumb drawdown rate is the same. If you want your pot of money to last 30 or so years of retirement then invest the money is something that contains at least 60% equities and drawdown at a sufficiently controlled amount per year.

You are obviously free to go your own way, including spending all of your money and living off the state pension, the maximum of which you can currently get (if you have sufficient NI contributions) is £9.1k per year. This does not assume that you defer your state pension a year from state pension age and get a 10% uplift. But then again you may not have the luxury of doing that if you have retired earlier than your state pension age and spent all your cash using an inappropriate investment scheme/fund or drawn down too rapidly.

Anyway, no-one HAS to have a pension, it's not written in law (apart from your workplace), so don't bother if you don't want to buy an additional one, or add to your work pension to increase maching contributions from your employer. 

arnoldy

What I have learned is;
1. I was wasting £10-15 a month getting my hair cut when it can easily be done at home
2. What a beautiful country we have, and there is so is some much to explore and walk at home,  and I will not travel abroad so much 
3. I was wasting £4.60 a pint at the pub out of force of habit
4. What a blight traffic is in the UK when you have had a chance to live with a reduced level
5. The importance of my allotment

boaby18

Thrugelmir said:

soulsaver said:

Where IS that vaccine?

That's part of the problem. There's a generation who have never faced adversity in their lives.  Not war. not recession, not a pandemic. Somebody else has swept up and made life extremely comfortable.

What a load of drivel.

grumiofoundation

happybagger said:

On topic, I've wondered why save into a pension.
I ran a dummy quote on a £100k pension pot earlier, it came out as £227 per month from age 65 next year. 
So I'd need to live to 101 to even get it back,

(Yes I know there are other factors)

But that 100k probably cost you ~50k if in employment (not including investment growth which could have been the same if not contributed and invested in Stocks and Shares ISA). 

So that means, even buying an annuity which as said are not great value at the moment, you only have to live to ~83 to break even. 

DavidAC

Build up a bit of a buffer but no more. Spend and enjoy it while you can and while it is still worth something. People without savings are envious and governments sacrifice savers to bail out those that spend recklessly.

Malthusian

Thrugelmir said:

2009 was a financial recession. Didn't impact the broader economy.

I have a metric ton of back pay to collect from the job I didn't lose in 2009 then. How short memories are when it comes to pain.

Even if you keep your job, recessions are still miserable - the constant fear that you'll be next, the never-ending doom and gloom in the newspapers, the reduced income for those who aren't salaried, empathy with your friends who weren't as lucky.

I'm not arguing that the recession in 2020 isn't considerably worse than 2009. But we haven't actually done a war, or another Holodomor. 200,000+ people dead is a hell of a lot, the worst experienced in the UK for three generations, but humanity has done worse.

Dandytf

I'm definitely learning that stock markets are proving to be much more resilient than I could have expected, at least from stocks that I hold Interest in.