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

Albermarle

Grumpy_chap said:

The OP refers to posters having larger than average pension funds. 

I have always found it difficult to establish what an average pension fund is, in either absolute terms or relative to annual income.  Presumably, any average also need to be age related, so someone earnings £30k age 30 will have a smaller pot than someone earning the same age 60.

Is this type of information available anywhere?

There are various figures bandied about from newspaper headlines to Office of national statistics and others.  As always with statistics it depends on how it is measured. If you ignore DB pensions and then divide the total DC pot figure by the working population of all ages you get a sensationally low figure , something like £25K. If you change this to the value of DC pots when they are taken you get a higher figure . I think something like £70K . If you take DB pensions into account with some kind of conversion factor , I think you get a figure in the region of £150K . No doubt you could pretty much come up with any figure you like within reason . What is clear of course is all these figures mask a huge gulf between the haves and the have nothings .

MallyGirl

Bravepants said:

Of my peers at work, some are more into owning big cars and big houses, some have gone through a divorce and some have no idea how their pension even works, some don't think about how much higher rate tax they are wasting and can't be bothered to think about it. I like to think that I have taken the middle ground of all of these, and I am likely to retire earlier than them. :-) Horses for courses.

Some of my colleagues are really unaware, some have been there long enough that they are still on FS, some just have too many outgoings in relation to salary to make any changes. We have sal sac scheme and I have one colleague who refuses to do overtime as it would incur HR tax plus NI so it is 'not worth it'. I did try to intro the concept of just sal sac'ing it in to his pension as he is in his late 50s. Just not interested. Many of them also hold on to their shares from sharesave schemes after maturity - too many eggs in that basket for me.

[Deleted User]

People who lose lots of money don’t tend to brag in chatrooms. Not sure why.

Part of me also wonders if the fish caught in anglers’ chatrooms was actually the size they tend to report. 

Albermarle

Deleted_User said:

People who lose lots of money don’t tend to brag in chatrooms. Not sure why.

Part of me also wonders if the fish caught in anglers’ chatrooms was actually the size they tend to report. 

It is usually the one that got away that is of debatable size.

OldMusicGuy

antdon said:

Oh! And surely if your pot is so large you should be speaking to an IFA?

You are very mistaken in that assumption. I'd suggest you do a bit more reading to understand why many of us (regardless of pot size) don't use IFAs.

It was doing a lot of reading on this forum (and other places as well) that helped me understand how to approach investing and planning for retirement. Many of the people on here seem to be starting to plan earlier than your average punter, so they are most likely making better provision than people who pay little/no attention to pensions.

I know quite a few people my age who trot out the usual "I don't trust the stock market, I will buy a house/houses to provide a retirement income." I was thinking along those lines until I started reading/researching about pensions and changed strategy.

Prism

There is also same vagueness about 'I' vs 'we'. Some people are clearly talking about just themselves. Others a referring to a joint pot as a couple. Some say 'I have a pot' when they might well mean 'We have a pot'. It can make quite a difference.

ratechaser

Deleted_User said:

People who lose lots of money don’t tend to brag in chatrooms. Not sure why.

Part of me also wonders if the fish caught in anglers’ chatrooms was actually the size they tend to report. 

Oh I've certainly lost money in the past as well. Quite eye watering sums TBH. All that money over 10 years into an employee share scheme for a certain well known and very very busted bank. And that's just for starters. If I thought that would be of interest to anyone I'd be happy to share, but the focus of most of these threads seems to be 'what should I do' rather than 'what shouldn't I do'... 

Besides, I doubt anyone else going to repeat my mistake of investing in Lehman stock based on a big employee discount again. Hahahahahahahaha!

At least I can laugh about it now...

Thrugelmir

antdon said:

Ok.  I am just 60 and have just had my 1st pension start paying (superannuation).....

Perhaps take a look to see the amount that would be required to purchase such a guaranteed pension on the open market. May put matters in perspective a little. 

jampot7us

Really interesting thread here guys..Thanks...would be interested to peoples views on companies offering share options rather than larger pension % to peoples salary...Dont wanna pull the thread away from op though...

Bravepants

jampot7us said:

Really interesting thread here guys..Thanks...would be interested to peoples views on companies offering share options rather than larger pension % to peoples salary...Dont wanna pull the thread away from op though...

I would think, nay hope, that the company's pension would consist of a fund, or fund of funds, perhaps of OEITs, that invest in thousands of shares and bonds across the globe. That would be thousands of times less risky than investing in a single company's share, even if it is the one for which you work.