Why do posters here have disproportionately higher than average pension funds...

cfw1994

Albermarle said:

Sailtheworld said:

If the vast majority of people don't beat the markets and dead people are better investors than the living why do people keep tinkering? Probably because the broker who makes £9.95 with every trade has an interest in convincing the punters they all have an edge.

I understand that is how many City type people get rich . Not by investing them selves  but by persuading others to churn their holdings ( or get involved in useless mergers )

Puts me in mind of this classic Dilbert 

enthusiasticsaver

I would imagine that on a money saving forum the majority of us that post on the pensions board are probably more aware of the importance of having a good one than the general public.  Needless to say though I do not have a million pounds in my pension pot but combined with my husband we have good pension provision.  

Time4T_Accounts

Audaxer said:

Steve_PL_too said:

I saved hard from age 30, and am now comfortably retired - but I have to manage my income now in a way that my wife doesn’t.  You make your choices, and you take the consequences.

Steve_PL_too, that's good that you are now comfortably retired, but do you mean that you and your wife manage your own pension incomes and spending separately from each other?

Yes ... and No.  Joint accounts (in the plural) for common expenditure. Sole accounts for own.  Both ‘badly burnt’ from previous marriages a long, long time ago. Put simply, it works for us.

Time4T_Accounts

Steve_PL_too said:

Audaxer said:

Steve_PL_too said:

I saved hard from age 30, and am now comfortably retired - but I have to manage my income now in a way that my wife doesn’t.  You make your choices, and you take the consequences.

Steve_PL_too, that's good that you are now comfortably retired, but do you mean that you and your wife manage your own pension incomes and spending separately from each other?

Yes ... and No.  Joint accounts (in the plural) for common expenditure. Sole accounts for own.  Both ‘badly burnt’ from previous marriages a long, long time ago. Put simply, it works for us.

Steve_PL_too said:

Audaxer said:

Steve_PL_too said:

I saved hard from age 30, and am now comfortably retired - but I have to manage my income now in a way that my wife doesn’t.  You make your choices, and you take the consequences.

Steve_PL_too, that's good that you are now comfortably retired, but do you mean that you and your wife manage your own pension incomes and spending separately from each other?

Yes ... and No.  Joint accounts (in the plural) for common expenditure. Sole accounts for own.  Both ‘badly burnt’ from previous marriages a long, long time ago. Put simply, it works for us.

A better way of putting it would be to say that she gets her DB pension every month - a very adequate amount - whereas I have to manage my DC drawdown pension. I have to make decisions that affect my financial security; she doesn’t have to.  She is rewarded for taking a lot of crap in her job; my retirement is less secure - per se. But, put together, we’re fortunate. And that is a state for which I am very grateful.

Gin_and_Milk

OP - Like you, I see some jaw dropping amounts on here, which I know I'll never achieve.  My plan is to finish at 60 with a minimum of £18k, which is realistic for me.  Some will see this and wonder how I'll manage to live, but I'll be able to pay my bills and have some disposable income left, plus I also pay into an AVC as well as VLS80 (acc), so I should have some decent savings.  My brother is a bit of snob and tends to live for today.  Whilst we pay into the same scheme, I very much doubt he will be retiring at 60 (to be fair he has children and I don't), and I can hear the snide comments now.
People on these forums aren't all minted, but we are thinking more long term and tend to be interested, therefore aware of our finances.  I know for a fact that some of my peers haven't even considered retirement yet.
Doris540 - I've seen your comments on other threads too, and up until now I've ignored them.  I work for local government, and whilst the pension scheme is very good, I wouldn't have a job for very long if I only spent two hours a day tossing it off.  Despite working from home I'm busier now than before, as we have had to set up a covid response service which I am doing on top of my 9-5 job.  Once things have settled with that I'll be waiting to hear about the subsequent job cuts.  You sound very bitter about public sector workers and our pensions, but we're not the parasites you seem to think we are.

Thrugelmir

Gin_and_Milk said:

OP - Like you, I see some jaw dropping amounts on here, which I know I'll never achieve.  My plan is to finish at 60 with a minimum of £18k, which is realistic for me. 

£18k pa at sixty is far above the National average. 

doris540

I never said you were parasites its the system it just annoys alot of us in the private sector that our pensions are worth five times less on average .Everything ive contributed to my company pension in last 12 months has been lost due to the markets Public sector ones totally untouched. The public sector say their salaries are lower and the pension is a form of compensation. So if thats the case our wages should be five times more than the public sector wages...................never in a month of sundays . Parasites no , milk the system yes. One example large government dept many staff were claiming first class travel on the train for meetings in London it got to a point that it was cheaper for them to have their own coaches which they do now all kitted out tables the lot and go by road. Friend of mine husband in the FCO all their kids went to private school from day one till they went to uni all their fees paid by the taxpayer and all the travel etc. Can the average man in the street afford to pay Private school fees ...............exactly.. 

Gin_and_Milk

Thrugelmir said:

Gin_and_Milk said:

OP - Like you, I see some jaw dropping amounts on here, which I know I'll never achieve.  My plan is to finish at 60 with a minimum of £18k, which is realistic for me. 

£18k pa at sixty is far above the National average. 

Thanks Thruglemir, I didn't actually know that.
Whilst I don't want to spend my retirement constantly watching the pennies, I'm not a big spender anyway.  Whatever car I have when I retire, it won't be replaced until it's absolutely necessary.  I hate clothes shopping, but I'm more than happy having a rummage around charity shops (something my brother wouldn't dream of)! I'd like to be able to travel as much as possible, and not having to factor in work means I'll be able to consider last minute deals, which is something I can't do at the moment even when you take covid out of the equation!
I also recognise that I'm very fortunate to have a DB pension, so whilst I also intend to have a decent lump sum behind me, I won't have to worry about it being a source of income.

Thrugelmir

doris540 said:

.Everything ive contributed to my company pension in last 12 months has been lost due to the markets 

Then you need a financial advisor. 

BritishInvestor

pensionpawn said:

Deleted_User said:

My allocation is 70% equity and 30% fixed income and I am a passive investor but that’s irrelevant.  There are many paths to success. 

We tend to spend  way too much time on picking funds. In fact, diversified low cost portfolios do well and its the investor behaviour that hurts returns. We always have great arguments justifying us messing with our portfolios but invariably its a human emotion responding to various biases we have, such as “recency”. Studies have shown that investors who literally forget about investments do the best. (And I am sorry I don’t remember the references but if you read books analyzing actual returns secured by investors you will have come across it).  For this reason professionals, including active funds,  use a fixed set of rules or computers to remove human emotion from the decision making process.

“ Reviewing performance“ is ok (I am guilty of curiousity) as long as you have the will power to not make any changes to your IPS (including asset allocation and choice of investment vehicles). That should be reserved for rare, exceptional events, such as major changes in expected lifetime earnings from your job or if much cheaper investment vehicles become available. 

You may be interested in a book that I recently finished reading called "The man who solved the Market", about an American mathematician Jim Simons and the 'quant' revolution (1970s onward). It's an interesting reflection on how the introduction of computers and big data can remove the emotive aspect of investment strategy, and interestingly how major world events, like the present, caused those who created 'the machine' to doubt it's recommendations as 'it just didn't feel right'. Head, or heart, or computer processing....

It's an excellent book, and after reading it makes you chuckle when people talk about outsmarting the market by using instinct and gut feel, which probably ceased to be effective circa 1985
There are lots of firms that do this now, although few that are anywhere near as successful as Rentech