Pensions

[brucespanner]

Absolutely.

 

My mate still lives at home and I go out on the piss with him sometimes and sleep in their front room. You can tell his step dad thinks we're a pair of soft dickheads who should 'grow up'.

 

He was in the Navy during the cold war, talk about a job for life, pensioned up to the hilt, then left and joined Shell, also pensioned up to the hilt there. Bought a house in Helsby which went up in value five fold, sold for a profit, nice little gaf in West Kirby paid for. He simply can't understand why we're not doing what he did and thinks, Tory style, it's probably because we're lazy.

 

There's massive estates by ours of pure suburbia, and I can't fathom how anyone has afforded these houses. Most of them must be pushing 250k at the absolute minimum. To buy a house like that you'd need a 25k deposit and for the pair of you to be earning 30k each at least. Who the fuck is in that boat when they're in their 20s?

 

You'd be surprised how many shite haircut sporting, acronym spouting fuckwits earn far more than their station dictates by being able to spout garbage to gullible fucks.

 

Not saying it's right, far from it, but there are jobs out there where all you need is the gift of the gab and a haircut to get by and earn a small fortune.

 

As with most things in life though it's only temporary.

 

One lad I know worked for IBM and his remit was security checks of some sort, fuck knows what I was never interested enough to ask, but he worked from home, worked in the loosest possible sense, and made 45k plus bonus and car for essentially pressing enter a couple of times a day and sending a couple of e-mails. When the company realised he was superfluous they ditched him, he filed for bankruptcy earlier this year at 25 and lives on his mums couch.

 

Edit: Should have added that his highest qualification is GCSE.

[lifetime fan]

 

There's massive estates by ours of pure suburbia, and I can't fathom how anyone has afforded these houses. Most of them must be pushing 250k at the absolute minimum. To buy a house like that you'd need a 25k deposit and for the pair of you to be earning 30k each at least. Who the fuck is in that boat when they're in their 20s?

 

Fucking hell mate, quarter of a million and you'll be struggling to get an ex council house in our village.

[Section_31]

The 'baby boomers' had it better than anyone in history. It's all down hill from here, believe.

[TheBitch]

Love the way the GF eventually turns everyone into an enraged left wing guerilla in the making. The Bitch was only arsed about Ibiza a year ago, now look at him? A right little Spitfire!

 

Hahahahahaha. True this. Still got one eye on Ibiza mind, may as well kill myself early rather than hang on in there for some form of 'retirement'.

[RedRazor]

The sad fact is that defined benefit schemes have been doomed for over twenty years. Tinkering by Lawson, Lamont and Brown all completely failed to protect the people who invested in these schemes, under stated Minimum Funding Requirements, removal of tax dividend credits coupled with the dot.com market collapse and the more recent events wiped billions in value from the funds. The behaviour of countless organisations treatment of perceived "fund surpluses" and the taking of endless contribution holidays nailed the coffin shut.

 

Where were all the supposedly "intelligent people" when this was happening? Why didn't successive governments put a stop to it? Why were all their actions laced with incompetence? To point the finger at one party is a little one-eyed - incompetence knows no party boundaries.

 

Some numbers - in 1992 5.5 million people had final salary schemes - 2012 circa 2.5 million (a lot of whom will be pensioners).

[Pony Princess]

It is depressing. I'm hoping the fiver I stick under my mattress every pay day will multiply and serve me well in 30 years time.

[Strontium]

I'd shove a few bottle caps under there too, just in case.

[Kevin D]

Love the way the GF eventually turns everyone into an enraged left wing guerilla in the making. The Bitch was only arsed about Ibiza a year ago, now look at him? A right little Spitfire!

 

Radicalization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Stu Monty]

Worked in pensions.

 

Don't have a pension.

 

Don't trust it'll still be there in the very different world that will exist in 30 years.

[Clem H Fandango]

Joined the companies standard life scheme.

 

Can any pension experts tell me if combine old pensions from elsewhere is a good idea, some of the plans i wish to combine are only 2 years old, would there be any financial loss if i move them?

[Harry Squatter]

My mate works for the NHS and came out of their scheme as he said they took far too much money off him every month. He's earning a decent wage and his house is almost paid for. His Mrs is also earning a very good wage and they have no kids. 

 

He said he wants his money now and not when he's a dribbling wreck in a care home. Plus the government will just keep the money he's paid into it anyway. The "survivors" pension that is paid to your spouse is also about 10 percent of your final pension so even if he dies and his Mrs outlives him the government still keeps the majority of it.

[Clem H Fandango]

27 minutes ago, Harry Squatter said:

My mate works for the NHS and came out of their scheme as he said they took far too much money off him every month. He's earning a decent wage and his house is almost paid for. His Mrs is also earning a very good wage and they have no kids. 

 

He said he wants his money now and not when he's a dribbling wreck in a care home. Plus the government will just keep the money he's paid into it anyway. The "survivors" pension that is paid to your spouse is also about 10 percent of your final pension so even if he dies and his Mrs outlives him the government still keeps the majority of it.

 

Isn't the NHS scheme similar to County Councils? i worked for a county council and im not allowed to move it.

[Mook]

2 hours ago, Clem H Fandango said:

Joined the companies standard life scheme.

 

Can any pension experts tell me if combine old pensions from elsewhere is a good idea, some of the plans i wish to combine are only 2 years old, would there be any financial loss if i move them?

 

Combining them is exactly what you want to do.

 

Unfortunately some of them aren't compatible so you may need to get some advice. A lot of banks will help you sort it out, I'm not sure what sort of fees (if any) they charge.

[Pidge]

3 hours ago, Clem H Fandango said:

Joined the companies standard life scheme.

 

Can any pension experts tell me if combine old pensions from elsewhere is a good idea, some of the plans i wish to combine are only 2 years old, would there be any financial loss if i move them?

 

There should be no fees for transfers anymore, but you might want a quick look at the funds. You'd be cashing the units you hold so if they are low it might not be the best time (most will be linked to the FTSE index so you can probably guess based on the overall market trend if you can't get the specific info). Also if you are in any With Profit funds you might be losing out on bonuses you'd get in the long term. 

 

If any of them are defined benefits (unlikely, these are final salary or average earnings schemes), it's probably best where it is. I think you have to get advice on that kind of transfer anyway.

[Clem H Fandango]

24 minutes ago, Pidge said:

 

There should be no fees for transfers anymore, but you might want a quick look at the funds. You'd be cashing the units you hold so if they are low it might not be the best time (most will be linked to the FTSE index so you can probably guess based on the overall market trend if you can't get the specific info). Also if you are in any With Profit funds you might be losing out on bonuses you'd get in the long term. 

 

If any of them are defined benefits (unlikely, these are final salary or average earnings schemes), it's probably best where it is. I think you have to get advice on that kind of transfer anyway.

 

Cheers for the good advice.

[Lario]

8 hours ago, Clem H Fandango said:

Joined the companies standard life scheme.

 

Can any pension experts tell me if combine old pensions from elsewhere is a good idea, some of the plans i wish to combine are only 2 years old, would there be any financial loss if i move them?

Here in Ireland, you can access 25% of a non-contributory pension, tax-free, once you hit 50.

 

So if you've £50k in the old pension(s), you can take out £12,500 tax free and the remainder sits there earning until retirement.