How safe is your pension? Channel 5. Any thoughts?

L9XSS

just watched this. Hopefully quite an “eye opener” for those that aren’t pension savvy.

westv

I missed it. Was it about scammers cold calling people? Why do some fal for them?

molerat

westv said:

I missed it. Was it about scammers cold calling people? Why do some fal for them?

No, more about the reality of retirement income.

There were a few throw a brick at the telly moments !

The feature couple seemed typical of the want it now generation living to the full extent of their income.  "Planned" retirement - a gite in France with glamping pods, affordable reality with current pension - 2 weeks in a caravan !

The best bit was the opening scene, one of my regular haunts in the 70s, The Rising Sun, Coltishall.

L9XSS

westv said:

I missed it. Was it about scammers cold calling people? Why do some fal for them?

A small part yes, but focussed on the bigger picture of “not saving enough now to fund tomorrow”.

robinwales

This might be useful https://www.channel5.com/show/how-safe-is-your-pension

anonmoose

To be fair the figures didn't make sense because they used the figures like they wanted to buy a second home in france when actually it sounded more like they would sell up in the UK which they had no mortgage on to start a business in France.

So they were not even retiring and intended to continue bringing in an income with this new business in France. They didn't ask anything about projected income in France and just washed over that bit.

It is debatable whether the couple had a realistic plan with these gites but they were not a good example to use. They should have just used a couple with the 60k average pot currently who just planned on retiring fully.

It annoys me that these shows always twist the figures like this however it is good to see these issues on mainstream TV and hopefully a wake up call to many.

crumpet_man

I only watched a couple of minutes.  The title implies something criminal/fraudulent to do with pensions rather than "are you saving enough?"

Grumpy_chap

anonmoose said:

the 60k average pot

I heard that bit about £60k average pot, but what that meant was not well defined in the programme.

Did they mean "average pot at retirement"?

Did they mean "average pot for people of working age"?

Did they mean something else entirely?

Silvertabby

Grumpy_chap said:

anonmoose said:

the 60k average pot

I heard that bit about £60k average pot, but what that meant was not well defined in the programme.

Did they mean "average pot at retirement"?

Did they mean "average pot for people of working age"?

Did they mean something else entirely?

They mean the average pension savings for someone at or approaching retirement.

However, these figures are produced by pension firms who only handle DC/private pensions, and would appear to exclude the benefits held by those of us in DB schemes.

Benny2020

People have multiple pots though?

hugheskevi

Benny2020 said:

People have multiple pots though?

The ONS Wealth and Assets Survey publishes good data on total pension wealth. For example, the median pension wealth of a couple where one is over State Pension age and one under without children is £421,000 (usually with males having a lot more than females at ages around State Pension age).