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

MallyGirl

Pile_o_stone said:

I'd take these DC £1m pots with a pinch of salt as people would either have to be on very high salaries (+£100k) and you have to wonder why they would be on a moneysaving website

Why shouldn't someone on a higher salary be on a moneysaving website? Not wasting money is relevant whatever your income.

Pile_o_stone

Albermarle said:

vulcanrtb said:

Albermarle said:

A couple on £30k each contributing 10% for 35 years should do it. I know plenty of couples both in the 50-100k region though it probably took a few years to get to that point. On salaries like that you are possibly looking at a pot £3m+

I know a couple where they are both somewhere in the £65K region . He has just retired at 66 , she is younger ( senior teacher)

Apart from her teachers pension, they have max £500K in DC pensions, savings etc and a two bedroomed semi in a so so area .

All down to very poor expenditure control and lack of interest in financial matters . Both income and expenditure are as important when it comes to saving

And this is an example of a not well off couple in retirement?

No, they are significantly better off than average and have no pressing money worries. However it is an example of how amassing wealth is not just about the income size but expenditure. Their assets are low relative to their dual income , especially their property size/value.

SO they have enjoyed spending some of the money they earned and yet still have a comfortable retirement? Sounds like the ideal scenario. I for one would not want to spend my youth watching the pennies and missing out on life so that I can spend my dotage sitting in my counting house, counting all my money and wondering which one of my nieces or nephews would get to spend it all when I die (in this scenario I don't have my own kids because having children is a poor investment).

The slightly worse alternative scenario is that I scrimp and save in youth and then die the day before I retire and I don;t even get the pleasure of sitting in the counting house, throwing my gold coins up in the air and shouting (with a giggle in my voice) "I'm Rich! Rich, I tells ya!"

Albermarle

SO they have enjoyed spending some of the money they earned and yet still have a comfortable retirement?

Yes they enjoyed spending some of it but most of it disappeared down some black hole and nobody knows where it went really .

They do scratch their heads sometimes and wonder why all their friends have bigger houses .

[Deleted User]

jamjar92 said:

Deleted_User said:

Don’t know about the UK but in the US public sector pensions are a time bomb. They are being run on the assumption of 7-8% annual returns. A sustained bear market will bankrupt most of them. And the money involved will dwarf the cost of 2008 and coronavirus combined.

The Civil service pensions and LGPS pensions are two entities with different rules and contributions rates, each area of the UK, they run their own LGPS for the surrounding councils with their own baord of trustees.

Private Sector do contribute to LGPS where jobs have moved to the private sector from public sector including Housing Association. The LPGS since 2008 as not the same scheme (benefits) I signed up for at 18, gold plated no, those days have gone.  I am happy the pension I eventually take increases each year by CPI.

Something to be aware of... Even civil service pensions carry some risk. 

In March Canadian regulators panicked and changed the rules for all federally controlled pensions.  

ElephantBoy57

doris540 said:

The public sector wont see massive job losses over the forthcoming months either. Many in the private sector will see their jobs go and in turn their pensions  grind to a halt along with a bleak outlook.

If that is your view, how many public sector jobs have you applied for? Surely if the grass is so green on the other side of the fence, all the best people will be chomping at the bit to be employed by them?

Alexland

pensionpawn said:
Some people salary sacrifice huge amounts towards the end of their working careers as the kids have left home etc.

I saw plenty of people doing that at my work and decided it would be far better to get that done before having kids so the investments have more time to grow. We are still doing it but now that I am approaching middle age its nice to know that further pension contributions are optional as what we have should already grow to meet our modest needs and enable us to retire early.

Audaxer

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?

doris540

What people are so thick to realise is The Public sector moan about been on lower salaries and their enhanced pensions are as some see compensation, But whilst they are working they are receiving from their employers The State greatly enhanced pension contributions. which us in The Private sector are helping to pay whilst we only get 5% paid by our employer or less. So the public sector are in effect far better off they just dont see the money till they retire. Agreed people could put more into their pensions in the private sector but very few if any companies will match an AVC by the employee. Plus of course we all in the private sector have seen significant losses to our pension pots due to the virus and the movements in the stock market which The Public Sector are totally hidden from. These losses have clawed back abit but with my company pension and my own one with the Pru has seen £7k loss combined. With Public sector pensions totally protected and with the government today saying it will take years for the economy to recover the public sector pensions will still need to be paid however with mass unemployment and people not paying taxes etc where will the money come from to cover the pensions in the public sector.

kinger101

doris540 said:

What people are so thick to realise is The Public sector moan about been on lower salaries and their enhanced pensions are as some see compensation, But whilst they are working they are receiving from their employers The State greatly enhanced pension contributions. which us in The Private sector are helping to pay whilst we only get 5% paid by our employer or less. So the public sector are in effect far better off they just dont see the money till they retire. Agreed people could put more into their pensions in the private sector but very few if any companies will match an AVC by the employee. Plus of course we all in the private sector have seen significant losses to our pension pots due to the virus and the movements in the stock market which The Public Sector are totally hidden from. These losses have clawed back abit but with my company pension and my own one with the Pru has seen £7k loss combined. With Public sector pensions totally protected and with the government today saying it will take years for the economy to recover the public sector pensions will still need to be paid however with mass unemployment and people not paying taxes etc where will the money come from to cover the pensions in the public sector.

You could always apply for a job in the public sector.  

Thrugelmir

doris540 said:

What people are so thick to realise is The Public sector moan about been on lower salaries and their enhanced pensions are as some see compensation, But whilst they are working they are receiving from their employers The State greatly enhanced pension contributions. which us in The Private sector are helping to pay whilst we only get 5% paid by our employer or less. 

The 2% rise in employees national contributions plus increase in employee DB contributions have gone some way to addressing the perceived imbalance. At a time of 1% payrises. Actually means the employee took home less...........