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Retirement?


Tango
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This seems to be a topic that keeps cropping up in various threads.....so I thought I'd give it it's own one...... :wink:


My retirement age went up to 66 a few years back.......but it's debatable whether I'll be able to afford to retire........which is a bit disappointing, considering I've always paid into the companies that I've worked for pension schemes.......and have a smallish free standing private pension. I pay the max into my current company's scheme......I put in 4% and they put in 8%........but when I look at my total pension pot it's pitifully small for over 40 years worth of contributions..... :shock:

I also get very angry when I see the State pension being described as a benefit!.......I've never been out of work, and always paid my NI contributions......so, where has that money gone?

Making people work longer is not opening up the job opportunities for the younger generations.......and the abolition of meaningful training and proper apprenticeships will leave severe skill shortages when some of my generation do actually get the retire or shuffle off. I read somewhere that the average age of engineers in this country is over 50..... :shock: A fair few of my colleagues who retired recently are back working on contract to cover the shortages......but at least the company has finally opened its eyes and started an apprenticeship scheme. ........However, last year they were looking at taking on 5 apprentices, only 2 applied, and only one of those actually took it on! And nearly all of the engineers we've taken on over the past couple of years are from Greece, Italy and Poland.....It seems that there's not enough younger people in this country with the qualifications or desire to do this job..... :roll:

Anyway, what's your views on this?

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Do the maths add up? If you put 10% a year of a 50k salary for 40 years you'd have £200k. Which, if you live another 20 years from 66 (to 86) is £10k a year, £840 a month or so. Hopefully you'd have paid your mortgage off by then so that would cover council tax, some food, and the odd bike service... Not great.

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It's all these fooker's that retire early .. It means those that can't afford to have to work longer.

 

How so?

 


I don't know :roll: heard it on the radio , can't remember the reason .

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[mention]Tango[/mention] how it’s ok for someone to work all their lives and not have enough to comfortably retire on is beyond me. The whole things a mess with some people coming out of it very well indeed and some realising they can’t ever afford to retire.

When someone’s used up their time and energy on this planet by providing a needed service or producing a profit for an employer or building a business that creates employment (I could go on but you get the idea) all of whome pay taxes the fact you can do this day in day out for all of your productive useful life to then discover “sorry there’s none left for you” is plain wrong.

I’d really like to see the books I’m sure some are stuffing their pockets and laughing at us while they do it.


Rant over.

Edited by Slowlycatchymonkey
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It's all these fooker's that retire early .. It means those that can't afford to have to work longer.

 

How so?

 


I don't know :roll: heard it on the radio , can't remember the reason .

 

Brexit

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Do the maths add up? If you put 10% a year of a 50k salary for 40 years you'd have £200k. Which, if you live another 20 years from 66 (to 86) is £10k a year, £840 a month or so. Hopefully you'd have paid your mortgage off by then so that would cover council tax, some food, and the odd bike service... Not great.

 

Don't forget you will get your state pension aswell, around £164 per week from 2019 if you have paid enough years NI contributions.

Any income over your personal allowance is also taxable just as if you are still working.

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I took some time a while ago to gather all my little pension pots up and join them together in one pot.

I'm using Nutmeg as the returns looked good and the fees relatively low.

I was seeing a 12% return until recently. Its now dropped to about 8%. Pensions are not a great way to save for retirement despite what we are all told.


Last year i quit contracting to go into full time employment to ride out Brexit. The company in with now pay 7% and I pay 7%. The company pension gives pathetic returns of about 4%. But at least I've minimised my exposure to brexit by working for a company that won't be affected.


Meanwhile thanks to a shortsighted government my buy to let portfolio is getting hammered for tax, so I'm starting to look at renting them out as AirBnB instead. Sorry tenants - blame your government for the lack of affordable rental properties. I pay less tax and make more money by renting them out as furnished holiday lets and's only going to get worse and the tax relief is cut further.

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Despite having worked in the same industry for over 40 years I've never had a company pension. Most of my employers have been non-UK based which means I've not had to pay NI either although I've paid in the minimum amount to qualify for a State pension which I suspect will be fairly worthless by the time HMG decide I can actually get it. My wife and I looked at going down the buy to let route but it would have created tax issues for me so in the end we plumped for building up what is basically a large pot of cash. The plan was to save about half my salary which given we had no mortgage and the kids are well grown was at least worth trying. In reality we've managed about 35% which still gives a reasonable pot but is the reason I have to work until 65 at least and possibly 67. At that point I'd have to renew my qualification so I don't think I'll bother. Hopefully the pot will last, if not I'll be the old Uber taxi driver. :crybaby:

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Im lucky, actually, in that I met Mrs LTF in Tenerife. She moved over here about 12 years ago, but the plan was always for us to go over there when I stop work (currently planned for about three years time). Given that she's about 18 years younger than me she'll continue to work over there, and I'll also rent out the house here for some extra income.


Sadly, when I reach pension age it'll be so paltry a sum that I doubt it'll have much of an impact on our standard of living. God knows what I'd do if we were staying here, as my pension planning has been awful, not helped by being effectively self employed for years and so not part of any kind of corporate scheme.

Edited by learningtofly
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I retire June 2020 (iam 65 in August next year) so I will have to work 10 months past my 65th.

My wife cannot work, so we survive on my wage,

Wife gets her pension next June....4 months after her 65th birthday......so for a short time we will be quite comfy money wise.

I have a small Mineworkers pension and a small private pension from a previous job,

And when I retire we will be about £75 a week better off than we are now, :D

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Meanwhile thanks to a shortsighted government my buy to let portfolio is getting hammered for tax, so I'm starting to look at renting them out as AirBnB instead. Sorry tenants - blame your government for the lack of affordable rental properties. I pay less tax and make more money by renting them out as furnished holiday lets and's only going to get worse and the tax relief is cut further.

 

Genius isn't it. I have a place on a trendy bit of Kent coast. I'd get the same in a week with holiday rental as I would in a month with a tenancy. The only extra expense is a bit more paperwork, a few agents fees and a cleaner so I'd still be way up on the deal.


More and more landlords are moving over to air b&b because of the hammering they take in tax. Then the gubbermint whinge that there are no affordable places for young 'uns...

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@Tango how it’s ok for someone to work all their lives and not have enough to comfortably retire on is beyond me. The whole things a mess with some people coming out of it very well indeed and some realising they can’t ever afford to retire.

When someone’s used up their time and energy on this planet by providing a needed service or producing a profit for an employer or building a business that creates employment (I could go on but you get the idea) all of whome pay taxes the fact you can do this day in day out for all of your productive useful life to then discover “sorry there’s none left for you” is plain wrong.

I’d really like to see the books I’m sure some are stuffing their pockets and laughing at us while they do it.


Rant over.

 



It's the way people live ..example , fella I know he's 72 now Been a chippy/ shutterer (self employed ) all his life and earnt really good money ,

Pub I used to drink in years back he was a regular always in there I'd say every night if the week .

I had to meet some one last week in said pub , walked in and there was the old fella propping up the bar , he's still working cause he's got no pension and got no choice .... spent all his money in the fooking boozer .

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Pensions are not a great way to save for retirement despite what we are all told.

 

 

Well, if you're putting in 4% and your company is putting in 4-8% as plenty do that's a pretty good return - 100-200%, right? (assuming it's not invested badly and lost, which any type of investment possibly can be). Also it's tax free savings (though I didn't know you had to pay to when you draw on it. Still better using my example than being taxed 40% and saving after that).


What's a better alternative?

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I've never been out of work, and always paid my NI contributions......so, where has that money gone?

I'm sure you know this but it paid for people older than you to retire. It's not earmarked for you, it has been spent and it is gone - you can't seriously expect to get much of it back?


Having watched my dad's pension get plundered every time it was moved to another company the whole system seems like a bad joke. I'm currently 9% into my pot, my company is adding another 6% (I'm told this is a great deal, apparently??) and it'll be practically worthless. Not that money will matter in 50 year's time when I'm 80 and about to retire, when the cheap fossil fuels run out and stuff like food can no longer be economically transported large distances the whole world will be very different. We'll laugh about how potatoes used to come from Egypt while digging up some turnips in the garden that aren't quite ready yet but there's nothing else so it'll have to do..


:crybaby:

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I just remembered what the guy a Pistonbroke said to me a 4 or 5 years ago when we were talking about pensions. He was probably mid 50s at the time.


He said his plan was to pull a bank job or some other big caper. Either he'd get away with it = win, or he'd get pinched and spend the rest of his life in gaol being looked after and his every need being taken care of = win.


The business closed down a few years ago and nobody has heard from him since...

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Well my current employer pays in to the works pension pot 1.5%. Fortunately I will not have to rely a pension from here when I retire.

Talking of which I am going in January next year 2 years early mainly 'cause I've had enough of the customers we have to deal with and the organisation where I am currently at.

Over the past 40 years or so pension have been trashed. I started when Mirror boss Maxwell fell off his boat and they found a huge black hole in the pensions from where he had been lax with payments. This caused a review into how pensions were administrated and basically costs went up drastically which caused the dramatic fall in final salary schemes. (Lost mine).

Then as pension pots began to recover and the stock market increased and so pensions again went up, Gordon Brown decided it was a windfall and so pension pots were taxed. Surprisingly when the stock market fell the government of the time carried on taxing pension funds.

So although I can just about afford to retire the fund is no where near what it should have been.

Originally I should have been retiring 7 years ago. :(


Anyway mid week ride outs will soon be a possibility. :D

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Pensions are not a great way to save for retirement despite what we are all told.

 

 

Well, if you're putting in 4% and your company is putting in 4-8% as plenty do that's a pretty good return - 100-200%, right? (assuming it's not invested badly and lost, which any type of investment possibly can be). Also it's tax free savings (though I didn't know you had to pay to when you draw on it. Still better using my example than being taxed 40% and saving after that).


What's a better alternative?

 

Pensions are tax efficient yes and whilst you're still earning money it's well worth paying into a pension to get the "free" money from the government.

However, they really don't offer great rates of return and the amount you need to save to continue living the same lifestyle is totally unrealistic for most people who have to pay everyday costs like mortgages and food.


Despite the old saying "don't put all your eggs in one basket" most people only had one income and one retirement strategy and with the soaring costs of living that's no longer a viable way to retire comfortably.

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or he'd get pinched and spend the rest of his life in gaol being looked after and his every need being taken care of = win.

 

if he thought being locked up away from his family and denied the freedom to enjoy life (riding bikes for one) is a win he must have been deluded

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Despite having worked in the same industry for over 40 years I've never had a company pension. Most of my employers have been non-UK based which means I've not had to pay NI either although I've paid in the minimum amount to qualify for a State pension which I suspect will be fairly worthless by the time HMG decide I can actually get it. My wife and I looked at going down the buy to let route but it would have created tax issues for me so in the end we plumped for building up what is basically a large pot of cash. The plan was to save about half my salary which given we had no mortgage and the kids are well grown was at least worth trying. In reality we've managed about 35% which still gives a reasonable pot but is the reason I have to work until 65 at least and possibly 67. At that point I'd have to renew my qualification so I don't think I'll bother. Hopefully the pot will last, if not I'll be the old Uber taxi driver. :crybaby:

 

Things is just saving your salary is that you will (or should have) paid income tax on it.

Putting into a private pension you get tax relief on it.


My plan is to spread our investments, majority of it is in a private pension,next is building up the equity in our house and downsizing when ready and finally and the most enjoyable is in amassing a bike collection,no tax to pay on them when they are sold.

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I plan to retire in 2029 after 40 years working for the NHS. I'm looking forward to my Gold Plated Pension (TM Daily Mail) so that I can buy an island and have people wait on me for the rest of my life...if I survive.

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I don’t expect pensions to exist in any meaningful way when the time comes for me to retire. The plan is to just keep working on generating sustainable passive income and hope for the best. Who knows universal income might well be a thing by then.

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