Was just wondering what everyone has planned.

I am 25 years old and currently have nothing towards a pension. No savings, No work scheme etc...

Anybody else in the same boat? Do you worry about it?

I'm in my early 40s and have some stalled pensions that I paid into between my early twenties and mid-30s. I then had a financial blip and decided that food was more important than investments at that time.

After all, a pension was going to be of little use if I expired from starvation before claiming it... :)

The payments in to my pensions were in excess of £100 a month at the time and are now worth bugger all.

My finances are more settled now but to be frank I'm not convinced that a pension scheme is where I want to trust my money for my future. I intend to work towards supporting myself through my retirement through what I guess would be a mixture of non-pension investments and working part time until I croak. :)

Joe

Unless you have some plan for investment like Joe does then starting a pension now is the best thing you can do.

I'm quite lucky, I'm in a contributory work scheme, 5% from me matched by my employers, 40/60th final salary. Which these days is pretty good.
I also have a plan involving being rich and living off the procedes of my property empire, but we'll see.

Got a pension plan (through business of which I own one-third) but I certainly share Joe's reservations about putting money into this particular pot.

Fortunately, I've also got some property which one hopes one could always 'fall back on'. As an added bonus, the business pays me an annual rent for the premises which my brothers and I own outright.

Only problem being, after tax has been deducted, it doesn't leave a lot of money to play with! Having said all this, I'm 35 and wish I'd begun putting money aside at least ten years ago. But, life being what it is, that's easier said than done.

I am 25 in two weeks time and haven't even started a proper job yet :o

I'm in my early thirties and have a works final salary pension scheme where i pay 5% and the company makes up the difference.

I work for an insurance company so I know the risks involved with investments but final salary schemes have a bit more safety built in that most....

ALongside this, I have property investment plans that will hopefully mean I can afford to retire early and travel the world.

Unfortunately my husband changes jobs more often than his socks and as a result as hardly anything in his pension funds. So that will probably mean we will both have to continue working into our old age to afford to live... never mind travel...

Hmmm.. need to get him to sort that out....not fair. :mad:

Originally posted by Cyclone
Unless you have some plan for investment like Joe does then starting a pension now is the best thing you can do.

I'm quite lucky, I'm in a contributory work scheme, 5% from me matched by my employers, 40/60th final salary. Which these days is pretty good.
I also have a plan involving being rich and living off the procedes of my property empire, but we'll see.

Not so much a plan....

More an attempt to rationalise desperation.... :D

Seriously, my main concerns in recent years have been financial survival and debt reduction. I feel more comfortable now about starting investing seriously in my future, but as for a detailed plan I'm afraid I lack one yet!

But I do realise that it will be quite expensive!

Joe

I have my pension, - from a scheme similar to Cyclone's.

Final salary schemes are hard to find in the private sector these days so a job in the public sector is something to look at if you're aiming for a comfortable retirement. :rolleyes:

I think in the long run it will need something like Barbara Castle's SERPS scheme to ensure people save for retiremnet. Though how those on low incomes and living pretty much a hand-to-mouth existence will cope is something the politicians will have to answer.

Is it unreasonable to expect the governed should be entitled to pensions as good as those who govern them :suspect:

They are becoming rarer in the public sector also. Those already working in the public sector are mostly OK, although policies may be different or new or recent entrants. The retirement age for new teachers is also likely to be changed from 60 to 65 for new entrants.

If you are considering employment at the moment, I wouldn't bet on a comfortable retirement pension from a public sector job

I have a pitiful private pension which I set up about 14 years ago which gets just £50 per month, the same as when I set it up. But I am concentrating on paying for my house and getting rid of other debts quickly. What's the point of having savings which earn x% when you have debts which cost you 2x%.
My immediate plan is to pay for my house, which I should do in about 3-4 years time if all goes to plan. Then I will have 25 years to save up/makes plans for retirement, with much higher disposible income, to spread more widely and safely if I can.

I'm 30 and don't have a pension but i do have savings and no debts. I work for a small company so a normal pension is out of the question. One of these days i'm going to have to invest some of the money i've saved, probably in property when the market cools down.

i started a pension when i was 19, a British Steel one. I froze it when i went to uni and when i quit messing around and stop travelling and get a real job i'll move it and start paying in again.

To be honest though i don't really understand any of it, my dad said it was a good idea and the more money i put in when i'm younger the better!!

Aaron how small is your company? If it employs over 5 people they have to (by law) have some form of pension plan in place be it stakeholder one or a straight occupational scheme.

Have a look a stakeholder pensions:
http://www.thepensionservice.gov.uk/atoz/atozdetailed/stakeholder.asp
and
http://uk.virginmoney.com/pension/

Government state pensions will face a crisis sooner rather than later and essentially you need to look out for yourself. Kicking off a stakeholder would be a good start but in a few years you might want to look into other long term investments including property.
Probably the best advice is to get a fantastic job with an excellent pensions package! Or failing that a job with an excellent pensions package (Police, senior position in Civil Service).

Originally posted by Saifa
Aaron how small is your company? If it employs over 5 people they have to (by law) have some form of pension plan in place be it stakeholder one or a straight occupational scheme.

is that right? My partner works for a small company and she was told to sort her self out privately, which she's done.

I agree with muddycoffee regarding paying of debt rather than saving. But the key advantage I see from a pension (and the only reason I joined the scheme) is that I can't decide to spend it for a holiday if i'm feeling a bit short of cash this summer. Whereas paying off my debts I could easily suspend or even borrow back.
We should have paid for the house relatively quickly anyway. There's always the question of whether you go skint for 5 years and pay of the house entirely, or take longer, actually spend more because of the interest, but enjoy the next 5 years a little bit more than if we were skint. but that's going off topic I think.

Just 2 of us Saifa, at least at the moment anyway.

Originally posted by Cyclone
is that right?

I am positive it is right!

I started paying into a pension when I was 25 through work, when I left that job I transferred that pension to the next job and the employer continued to pay into it. I eventually left and kept paying into that pension afterwards.

My current employer has a pension which I contribute to as well as pay in to my private pension. I'm probably paying about £150 per month, plus whatever the employer adds on (cannot remember the exact % offhand).

I was also advised a few years ago to contract out of SERPS which now goes into my pension fund, but have heard rumblings that this wasn't a good move, so am not sure if I ought to contract out again.

Does anyone know anything of the SERPs debate? How much should someone pay into their pension each month to have a sensible pension?

I agree with the posts about killing off any debt, and getting and paying for a roof over your head. But then concentrate on saving for your future. The biggest mistakes i have made are letting other people manage my savings who at the end of the day have no real interest in your money other than various incentives they may have in introducing you to investment products. Instead why not do you own research on the net into investments - i would tend to stay away from UK and US stock markets (other than to benefit from falling prices) in the short term, but concentrate on emerging economies like India and China...

Originally posted by Classic Rock

Does anyone know anything of the SERPs debate? How much should someone pay into their pension each month to have a sensible pension?

Plenty about SERPS via Google.

For those in final salary scheme occupational pensions who joined the scheme late it's worth checking if you can buy added years.

If you joined the scheme say at 35 and have to retire at 60 you can in theory only qualify for 25/60ths of the possible maximum pension. But some schemes allow you to buy added years, either with a lump sum or as an additional monthly salary contribution, - subject to a limit set by the IR.

Despite being a Lord and everything, I too have cause to worry about the future re. pensions. At the moment my plan is to retire at 55, sell Toffingham Hall and buy a canal boat. I will live on the profits from the sale (of the Hall, you understand). If I am still alive when my money runs out, I will put my head in the oven. The only flaw in this excellent scheme is that, with space at such a premium on a narrow boat, the oven will be very small and I may have to gas myself a bit at a time.

By the way, in case you don't know, there are two types of toilet on a canal boat (three, if you count going over the side). One is called, believe it or not, a PortaPotti (sic). This is like a child's toy lav and is completely useless, dirty and horrid - you have to empty it every half an hour, or something. Ridiculous. I want some dignity in my old age. The other type is a proper lav like one has at home, only smaller, so you have to 'go' a bit at a time. Inside the boat is a huge tank where all your 'doings' go. Now, I don't like the idea of cruising serenely along the inland waterways of Britain only inches away from six month's worth of my own wee and poo, but if the alternative is working until I'm 85, only to be told that although I have paid in millions of pounds over a lifetime, everything's gone wrong and I'm actually going to receive nothing..........so be it.

Snooty dear chap,
you'll probably die of old age before you die of gas if you put your head in the oven. Town gas was changed to natural gas in the 1970s
But never mind, if you jump in the canal, when the time is right, with a bit of luck you may contract weils desease from the rat p*ss.

One could do worse than to ask one's valet, mine's a grizzled old boy in his late 50s, what he doesn't know isn't worth knowing.

chin chin, pass the pimms

MC esq.

Thanks for your kind words of advice and encouragement, MC.
Here's the P**s, I mean Pimm's.....

Lord Snooty, your aspiration to retire on a canal boat is just petit bourgeois romanticism. I suggest as an alternative you retire to a Buddhist monastery in Tibet, to pursue a dotage of serene contemplation of the transience of all things, including worries about pension plans and material wealth.

I have both a Work and Private pension.

Although i'll be dropping the private once Standard Life pay out :heyhey:

Originally posted by LordChaverly
Lord Snooty, your aspiration to retire on a canal boat is just petit bourgeois romanticism. I suggest as an alternative you retire to a Buddhist monastery in Tibet, to pursue a dotage of serene contemplation of the transience of all things, including worries about pension plans and material wealth.

Lord Chaverly - I think you're very wrong to try to discourage LordSnooty from his canal boat retirement plans - it may be romantic, but can one not contemplate just as easily from a canal boat, as from a Tibetan monastery? (I expect it would be a lot warmer as well).

Surely it's all about a person's state of mind, and not their material circumstances?

I'm quite overcome now to be referring to not just one but TWO :o distinguished members of the aristocracy in one posting, so I'm away to recover my equilibrium :)

StarSparkle

I'm quite overcome now to be referring to not just one but TWO :o distinguished members of the aristocracy in one posting, so I'm away to recover my equilibrium :)

StarSparkle

You get one arm, Lord Chaverly, I'll get the other. Smithers! Get this poor lady a chair!

Starsparkle, since we have both lost our seats in the upper chamber of St. James' Palace, we are spending our time on this forum - whatelse can a redundant Lord do?

Originally posted by LordChaverly
Starsparkle, since we have both lost our seats in the upper chamber of St. James' Palace, we are spending our time on this forum - whatelse can a redundant Lord do?

You have my sympathies, LordChaverly - it must be very difficult being a member of the aristocracy in these modern times - what is a lord to do with himself all day?

Still, I think you've made a wise choice, you and LordSnooty - dedicating yourselves to the amusement and enlightenment of the Sheffield Forum. I for one am delighted you have both made this decision. Long may you continue! :thumbsup:

StarSparkle