In other news - pension changes?

Sporky

I'd rather be rich and ill than poor and ill.

underdog

If you can afford it property is a much better idea and it's the angle I'm going for to give me some cash in my old age.

thomasross20

underdog said:

If you can afford it property is a much better idea and it's the angle I'm going for to give me some cash in my old age.

Seriously no offence but I'm not into BTL or anything like that. 

quarky

underdog said:

If you can afford it property is a much better idea and it's the angle I'm going for to give me some cash in my old age.

I am not actually sure about that. Despite the carnage of the past couple of weeks, I am still up more than 10% this year. In December it was over 18%. That is also tax free. Long term you should be able to get returns of 10% or higher with shares and if you can do that tax free, I don't see how property can really compare to that.

I also have moral issues with BTL which with make me think twice about it...

thermionic

mellowsun said:

I lost 20 grand this week from my pension pot thanks to the stock market crashing.

No you didn't. Money only exists when you use it to buy something. It's all a con.

You're never too young to start doing stuff like this. My pensions are all over the place. I worked for one company for 5 years and ended up with money in 3 different schemes, mainly due to the incompetence and greed of men in suits who like gambling. My job (and pension) are much stabler now, but I still can't see me able to stop working until I'm 67.

My parents' generation, the post-War Baby Boomers, got lucky.

underdog

thomasross20;949752" said:

underdog said:

If you can afford it property is a much better idea and it's the angle I'm going for to give me some cash in my old age.





Seriously no offence but I'm not into BTL or anything like that. 

That's fine, but it's a way to make decent, consistent money and have a lump sum at the end if you decide to sell up.

chillidoggy

Phil_aka_Pip said:

@chillydoggy unless you're convinced you're not healthy enough to achieve a long retirement

True, but I didn't find that out until it was too late.

Sambostar

The problem I have with pensions, apart from not being able to afford to put any more aside is the tangibility of them.  I mean, if I laid £20k into 1333 barrels of oil at $20 a barrel, I wouldn't of sold when it went up to $30 dollars a barrel and cleared £10k minus costs and tax.  I'd be like, where's my oil?  I paid for £20k's worth of oil, where's my god damn oil?

quarky

Well that is why you should mix I guess. Assuming you own your own house, keep some in shares, some in bonds, and some in cash accounts, adjusting the mix depending on how close you are to retirement, and how you feel about "intangible" shares. And that is one of the best thing about share, besides good returns, they are much more liquid than property and it is much easier to balance the risk geographically.

viz

Sambostar said:

The problem I have with pensions, apart from not being able to afford to put any more aside is the tangibility of them.  I mean, if I laid £20k into 1333 barrels of oil at $20 a barrel, I wouldn't of sold when it went up to $30 dollars a barrel and cleared £10k minus costs and tax.  I'd be like, where's my oil?  I paid for £20k's worth of oil, where's my god damn oil?

Actually you would have somehow bought 26660's worth of oil. Not sure how you did that with only 20k, but it was a very good bargain!

57Deluxe

I contracted outa SERPS in 88 into a private pen and never got to add any further payments.
BUT it will now be worth releasing as a cash lump under new changes and will buy me about £15k's worth of guitar gear!

thomasross20

Nice!!

not_the_dj

57Deluxe said:

I contracted outa SERPS i

I did that when I first got a company pension (late 90s) and I've completely forgotten what it meant.

ESBlonde

State Earnings Related Pension.

In the bad old days your state pension would be more if you had earned more and therefore paid more in. The option to have these 'extra' contributions hived off to your personal pension was called contracting out. Smart move as future pensions will be flat rate for everyone. Not so smart if they decide to nick back the benefit of SERPS and reduce your flat rate payment.

quarky

I think the lesson for anyone in employment is, don't rely on a state pension in any shape or form.

If you get to retirement and it is there, great, bonus. Otherwise though, make sure you can live without it.

mellowsun

Snap said:

Theres some further dropping to be done yet IMO. MIght be a good time to buy some gold, though I haven't looked at the price.

I did the gold thing about 10 years back. Bought gold when it was 300 quid per ounce (pound was around 2:1 to the dollar then) from 2006 to 2009 and sold it at 1200 quid per ounce, although the pound was quite weak at that point. Paid off a good chunk of the mortgage!

Agree there could be some upside, sterling-wise, in gold right now. Currently around 800 quid per ounce.  

quarky

I paid for my guitar with profit from gold. Still hold a little, but never had much at any point.

Sambostar

quarky said:

I think the lesson for anyone in employment is, don't rely on a state pension in any shape or form.

If you get to retirement and it is there, great, bonus. Otherwise though, make sure you can live without it.

I think this is it.  It does occur to me that the underpaid and under appreciated in society who can't afford a pension should have something though and this earnings related thing pulls at my leftist sides a bit too.  I mean, people who have made their life getting rid of high earners shyte for bottom dollar, because they are such cheapskates and such is competition, they won't pay anymore, or have served high earners all their lives need a cut of the end kitty.  It's not far to say, well they earned less, therefore they deserve nothing, it's all part and parcel of society, so a reasonable cut should be given to them.

Or perhaps we should have a more Americanised system, where the self employed really do charge.  But then, the high earners would probably just employ Mexican labour and then once the job is done and their pensions are under threat, go all out illegal immigration crackdown on them.

quarky

I agree. Those who can look after themselves should get a much smaller state pension, just like child benefit. They should still get something if they paid in, but means testing seems pretty fair with pensions. Not a vote winner though.

thomasross20

Woops, I wowed your post by mistake, sambostar. Sorry about that