general enquiry about Pensions and Life Savings (and stuff)

[boltonboris]

If I could only eat out at once place for the rest of my life, I'd pick Wetherspoons. Tuesday Steak Night, Wednesday Chicken Club, Thursday Curry Club, Friday Fish and Chips, Sunday Roast, then regular menu on Saturday and Monday. Plus they all come with a pint. What more could you want?!

Gourmet hot dog!

[Prufrock]

Don't get me wrong, I hate everything they stand for, but I still go. Can't afford not to!

[Beefheart]

If I could only eat out at once place for the rest of my life, I'd pick Wetherspoons. Tuesday Steak Night, Wednesday Chicken Club, Thursday Curry Club, Friday Fish and Chips, Sunday Roast, then regular menu on Saturday and Monday. Plus they all come with a pint. What more could you want?!

Gourmet hot dog!

Not tried it! Love the gourmet burger though.

[Athers]

£23k without having to pay any accommodation costs sounds plenty enough to me! Bills will be a few grand and set money aside for maintenance and that..

I have a private one through work where work pay in too... the only consideration is whether to increase my contribution! The fun bit is I get to choose what funds I want it in (high risk now, going to lower risk the older I'll get).

For those of us under 30 I think it's best to approach it without even factoring in the state pension, as who knows what it'll be in 2055!

[mummywhycantieatcrayons]

Do you have to stop working in 8 years though?

No.
But to be honest we were planning (although in reality I should be using the word 'hoping' there rather than planning) on retiring when we'd paid off the mortgage in five years time - aged 63. The thought now of slogging onwards makes me feel quite sick at heart...

Could you move to fewer days a week/something you find more enjoyable as part of the calculations?

Will you yourself be planning on working beyond sixty five Mummy? Most folk I know can't wait to get there and call it a day.

I hope that some time over the next thirty years I can make a living out of something associated with the visual arts and that I will enjoy what I do so much that I wouldn't want to stop.

However, even if I stay a wage slave forever, I expect that the norm for my generation will be to go beyond 65, yes.

[boltonboris]

Don't get me wrong, I hate everything they stand for, but I still go. Can't afford not to!

What exactly do they "stand for", other than offering an affordable and usually decent quality service in lots of prime locations (which creates jobs) in exchange for profit that they pay the government tax on?

[boltonboris]

Or is it one of those "They ousted a landlord 3km away who was charging £4 a pint, but was independent and local, so therefore deserves to have more custom, despite having a shit business"

[Prufrock]

Those landlords don't have 'shit businesses', they just don't have the capital behind them that means they can buy beer on the cheap a few days before its expiration date and then distribute it over a huge number of premises throughout the country. They're tied to robbing bastard breweries (another, different set of wankers) who charge them over £120 a 9 gallon barrel plus rent plus an up-front fee for the business. They might be charging £4 a pint but they can't afford to charge any less.

Everything is a chain, everywhere looks the same. It has upsides, but it's also depressing in other ways. Wetherspoons aren't 'pubs'. They don't have a darts team; they don't have regulars; they don't have a community. People don't talk to strangers. People follow their wallets, it's just depressing that soulless places based on economies of scale always win, even in the sticks. There are no good pubs left in Chorley town centre a few years after Spoons opened. They're dropping like flies in Leyland. It's not just Spoons, but they are a factor.

Our 'community' IMO has been based on three major things. Church, pubs, and football matches. They're all f*cked!

[Bijou Bob]

Aaaaand back on topic.........

I've always been a bit anal about pensions, even in my 20's. For that reason, I've largely stayed in the public sector. I hear lots about our 'Gold plated pension pots' (the average is apparently only £6 kpa)but when I compare my benefits with my friends it certainly looks that way. Annuity rates are shockingly bad at the moment. £100k gets you around £6kpa and a substantial risk you'll never get the money back.

Our final salary scheme is one of the last around and there's lots of talk amongst my colleagues about jumping early while the pension scheme is still there. I'm really not sure at the moment what to do, but the moment they start 'consulting' on changes to the scheme, I'm finishing. I just need another 2 years in to get to 50 and a reasonable pension, so fingers crossed.

[boltonboris]

So you've told me what you don't like about it (my experience is very different, but hey ho). But you've not told me what it is they "stand for"

[Prufrock]

I don't mean 'stand for' in the sense that they have a mission statement actively seeking to kill non-chain pubs, I just mean they are a shorthand for everything being a chain outlet.

It has its benefits, mainly price, but you lose out on character and, IMO, quality.

[boltonboris]

So if you're a chain outlet, that outstrips the opposition on performance, you're considered the bad guy? I'm just trying to get my head around the attitude that people have to successful businesses..

The beer in my nearest spoons is better than any other in the area (including the posh ones that fleece you for double the price of a bottle of beer) and it has a decent clientele

[Lost Leopard Spot]

First off, Clappers and Bijou: ta for the information, it all helps me build a picture.

Secondly, Tango: yep, I was guessing that house maintenance would feature large as an expense, and one that grows grows larger as a percentage as you get older.

Thirdly, Pru/Boris. I personally have nothing against Weatherspoons, but I don't use em because the beer is quite often on the edge of oxidised. I like my pints to be fresh
I also recognise and agree with Pru about what they aren't, community centred. Now, Boris, if I do run my own pub I'll discount all longstanding TW contributors down to below spoons prices. All you'll have to do is travel five hundred miles to get a pint... bargain eh.

[Montreal Wanderer]

Over here the provincial government gives us $12k a year and the Feds about half that. So that might be some $35,000 per couple in government pensions. There is also something called a guaranteed income supplement for those who fall below a certain level of income. The provincial pension plan does depend on you having worked. Then there is what you have put into private plans and registered government plans over the years. It would be hard to live decently here just on government pensions and handouts.

My own plan was to work until age 68 at which point I figured I could retire on the same income as I made when working. Our private plan is defined contribution while most are defined benefit. So at retirement I get a large lump sum (I contributed 5% of salary for over forty years and the employer matched this and more than matched it in later years). This money can be used to purchased an annuity or be put into a life income fund. Things didn't quite work out the way I planned. First of all 2008 took a large chunk out of my money (some 25% which took 2-3 years to get back). Then new management took over and didn't really want me around (extraordinary eh?). They began making offers to buy me out and I finally accepted one in November 2010, when I was only 66.33 years old. The sum was sufficiently generous for me to live off for these three years thus far, and I still have the money I had saved over the years. I now calculate I should not touch my pension monies for another two years until I'm 71 (when I have to) if I want to have the same salary as when working. 2011 also messed me up a bit though not as bad as 2008. I have made these choices and scrimped a bit as I have four children that I would like to leave significant sums to.

[Lost Leopard Spot]

There's no way on god's earth, in this country, that your pension would equal your earnings pre-retirement. I don't even think that ex-BBC director generals get anything approaching even half of earnings.

[Harry Genshaw]

I tend to bury my head in the sand a bit with this though I do know I shouldn't, particularly since it feels like I'm galloping towards 50 now.

Savings are about a grand. Mortgage will be paid off in 7 or 8 years all being well. At the moment I have a final pension thingamy jig which amounts to about £5k a year with a one off lump sum of £13k. By the time I retire (in 22 years at current Govt estimate) I expect it will be much less. The Mrs has about 3 pension schemes all amounting to feck all

Thing is, I've met & heard of too many folk who were saving madly for retirement only for em to kark it. So I intend to keep on spending now while I can enjoy it. Unless the Govt of 2035 decides on compulsory euthanasia for the elderly they'll still be paying some sort of manageable state pension out. Wont they?

It'll be reet

[Lost Leopard Spot]

I tend to bury my head in the sand a bit with this though I do know I shouldn't, particularly since it feels like I'm galloping towards 50 now.

Savings are about a grand. Mortgage will be paid off in 7 or 8 years all being well. At the moment I have a final pension thingamy jig which amounts to about £5k a year with a one off lump sum of £13k. By the time I retire (in 22 years at current Govt estimate) I expect it will be much less. The Mrs has about 3 pension schemes all amounting to feck all

Thing is, I've met & heard of too many folk who were saving madly for retirement only for em to kark it. So I intend to keep on spending now while I can enjoy it. Unless the Govt of 2035 decides on compulsory euthanasia for the elderly they'll still be paying some sort of manageable state pension out. Wont they?

It'll be reet

^ This, Harry old chap, sums up almost exactly my attitude up until about five years or so ago. Trouble is I've arrived at the realisation too late that it won't be alreet. The feckers (government) will probably force me and my missus to draw lots to see whose organs get harvested first before we're likely to see a 'decent' state pension. for the lucky survivor...

[Montreal Wanderer]

There's no way on god's earth, in this country, that your pension would equal your earnings pre-retirement. I don't even think that ex-BBC director generals get anything approaching even half of earnings.

Well, that is not normal here either. With a standard defined benefit plans the norm is that you get 70% of the average of your best five earning years. The government also reckons your financial needs post retirement are about 70% of what they were when you worked (I'm not sure how they worked that out but...). This is fine for those who have worked all the time - even if your company does not have a pension plan you can put large amounts into a tax-free Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) which gets taxed of course as you take money out. This is the equivalent of a company pension plan if you are disciplined enough to contribute the max each year. With Life Income Funds finds such as the one I have you have to take money out the year following when you turn 71. You must then take not less than 7.1% or more than 10% each year. The minimum amount goes up small amounts each year. However, so long as the money earns more than 7.1% the principal will remain untouched. Remember also that to reach my goal I have to live for five years with no income beyond the (rather generous) buyout of my tenure.

[Beefheart]

Are they stillnoffering defined benefit schemes there? I doubt youd find any open to new members here.

[Gooner Girl]

I tend to bury my head in the sand a bit with this though I do know I shouldn't, particularly since it feels like I'm galloping towards 50 now.

Savings are about a grand. Mortgage will be paid off in 7 or 8 years all being well. At the moment I have a final pension thingamy jig which amounts to about £5k a year with a one off lump sum of £13k. By the time I retire (in 22 years at current Govt estimate) I expect it will be much less. The Mrs has about 3 pension schemes all amounting to feck all

Thing is, I've met & heard of too many folk who were saving madly for retirement only for em to kark it. So I intend to keep on spending now while I can enjoy it. Unless the Govt of 2035 decides on compulsory euthanasia for the elderly they'll still be paying some sort of manageable state pension out. Wont they?

It'll be reet

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