Pensions and the working man:

[Saddleworth2]

I am not ignorant of NHS entitlements and have been schooled by some of the best.The actual pensioners themselves who studied at the school of hard knocks.The scripts and eye tests yes but not dental check ups unless you live in the Rhonda.
Pension credits also are means tested as is other benefits like housing etc and getting a pitiful private pension can affect entitlement gateways to other benefits.

I could report you to our moderation team for calling me a tortoise as this caused me alarm harassment and distress but I wont as you are clearly an excitable individual who always wades in wellies first.

My contributions Dennis lad was to be based on 3% of my qualifying earnings
And as a bonus the company would contribute an additional 2%

After doing some calculi I discovered that for the tax year 2018/19 the criteria set was between £500 and £3800
So around 5% joint contribution of £3300 anualy into the happy pot for circa 7 years.
I am aware there are perks involved like tax relief but the bigger picture always has to be assessed.
Pensions were designed as a tool to build up a pot over many decades not years.
This designed pension contribution scheme would allow us a lump sum and then presumably the rest to purchase an annuity.
Without investment around £1200 paid in..not sure on the annuity you could buy with that.
Going off recent trends and a general reduction in 2016 it would seem that only 5% of the available pot is acheivable.
So with expert fund management a potential a pot of 2k offering £100 per annum.
Doesn't sound plausible to me as a grade B GCSE mathematician.But I may be calculating wrong.

In some circumstances you are better off not being better off. My poor Mum, sadly strikes with dementia has all her care paid for out of her monthly pension which seems totally reasonable. If she had savings or any size equity in property, they would have taken that as well as her pension. I am currently planning how I can spend everything I have managed to salvage from my so called career so I don't need to give it back to HM Gov in whatever disguise they present themselves.

 

[Two Gun Bob]

In some circumstances you are better off not being better off. My poor Mum, sadly strikes with dementia has all her care paid for out of her monthly pension which seems totally reasonable. If she had savings or any size equity in property, they would have taken that as well as her pension. I am currently planning how I can spend everything I have managed to salvage from my so called career so I don't need to give it back to HM Gov in whatever disguise they present themselves.

Good post mate and with a little forward planning you can return the anti back in your favour. It's only what the big boys do but on a much grander scale and sometimes somewhat dubiously.Frugality these days is no longer rewarded or geared toward the working classes and they will take the proverbial fillings out of your teeth if you let them.Spend a few bob whilst your able to and enjoy the moment because we rapidly slow down in our senior years and priorities take on a whole new meaning.A cup of tea and a slice of cake tastes just the same whether you have 200k in the bank or 2k

I know we all define wealth differently but the vast majority of us lead a reasonable and comfortable life with fresh running water three meals a day and a colour tv.We must all start to look behind us at the 90% of the worlds populace that have less than us rather than concentrating on the 10% that have more.People are living like dogs throughout the world and I have seen it with my own eyes.Families of eight living under a corrugated iron lean too in Mumbai for one.Sending little johnny to the watering hole at the risk of him turning into crocodile food.Children as young as 5 and 6 selling on the street for 12 hour days in blistering heat.We don't know we are born and so the only thing left to do is worry about how we will all maintain ourselves in retirement when in essence we will all be just fine.
The big boys want you too worry so they can use your money to make more money for themselves.That Fisher investments bloke has been trying to have me over for 250k for the last year.He wants me to lend it to him he says so he can make me much more comfy when I get older : /

Remember again that we all slow down into our pension age and priorities become ridiculously different.
Slow down everyone and breath and relax and see the beauty of everything that surrounds us yet costs so little.
Time is the most precious commodity we all have so spend it well.

If I was to have paid into a pension scheme for decades that would have produced a good return then fair does but I didn't and happily spent it on other stuff.

My original hypothesis was to reject a restricted time frame 7 year pension plan that would more than likely have been totally negated by the government reducing my entitlements accordingly.So given in one hand and then effectively taken back with the other.

 

[bluemcr]

Good post mate and with a little forward planning you can return the anti back in your favour. It's only what the big boys do but on a much grander scale and sometimes somewhat dubiously.Frugality these days is no longer rewarded or geared toward the working classes and they will take the proverbial fillings out of your teeth if you let them.Spend a few bob whilst your able to and enjoy the moment because we rapidly slow down in our senior years and priorities take on a whole new meaning.A cup of tea and a slice of cake tastes just the same whether you have 200k in the bank or 2k

I know we all define wealth differently but the vast majority of us lead a reasonable and comfortable life with fresh running water three meals a day and a colour tv.We must all start to look behind us at the 90% of the worlds populace that have less than us rather than concentrating on the 10% that have more.People are living like dogs throughout the world and I have seen it with my own eyes.Families of eight living under a corrugated iron lean too in Mumbai for one.Sending little johnny to the watering hole at the risk of him turning into crocodile food.Children as young as 5 and 6 selling on the street for 12 hour days in blistering heat.We don't know we are born and so the only thing left to do is worry about how we will all maintain ourselves in retirement when in essence we will all be just fine.
The big boys want you too worry so they can use your money to make more money for themselves.That Fisher investments bloke has been trying to have me over for 250k for the last year.He wants me to lend it to him he says so he can make me much more comfy when I get older : /

Remember again that we all slow down into our pension age and priorities become ridiculously different.
Slow down everyone and breath and relax and see the beauty of everything that surrounds us yet costs so little.
Time is the most precious commodity we all have so spend it well.

If I was to have paid into a pension scheme for decades that would have produced a good return then fair does but I didn't and happily spent it on other stuff.

My original hypothesis was to reject a restricted time frame 7 year pension plan that would more than likely have been totally negated by the government reducing my entitlements accordingly.So given in one hand and then effectively taken back with the other.

I was only talking about this today myself. Great post

 

[denislawsbackheel]

There’s an awful lot of people on here who have clearly never seen the inside of cheap council run care homes.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

There’s an awful lot of people on here who have clearly never seen the inside of cheap council run care homes.

Hopefully the laws on assisted suicide will change in the future. There is no way I am going in a nursing home. Every one I have been in stinks of piss regardless of the quality of it.

 

[bluethrunthru]

Anyone turning down a workplace pension, inadequate as they are at planning for the future due to the low amount put away, and consequently refusing a free contribution from the employer is an utter idiot with the foresight of a tortoise.

Ignorance of NHS entitlements is also staggering. Anyone over 60 gets free prescriptions, eye tests, etc. They are not means tested.

Totally agree - it has to be added that the writing is more or less on the wall in that for anyone under say 40 the future is bleak if you opt out of taking steps to save for your future.... you will be expected to have taken up the offer or invited to live in a tent and visit your local foodbank when times must.

 

[bluethrunthru]

No such thing as a free ride.Everything is calculated and costed and most times not in our favour.
All depends who's dealing the hand.You need to live to 87 to draw level with the pot and for most working class dudes that ain't going to happen

My mum died at 63 some 15 years ago. Dad is into his 80's having had colon cancer and survived. In laws are both in their 80's despite father in law having had skin cancer - thats 3 to 1 on that as things go on you're likely to out live that break even age mate - the future if you don't save ain't rosy

 

[Two Gun Bob]

There’s an awful lot of people on here who have clearly never seen the inside of cheap council run care homes.

What has a cheap council care home got to do with saving into a pension fund to buy an annuity. That's not why you take out a pension fund ?
Your so called cheap council care homes come in @ circa £750 a week according to current Which research figures for the North West region and more if if dementia kicks in because the increased levels of care have to be factored in.For Private care homes adjust accordingly and whilst everyone is drawing an analogy of levels of care and the smell of piss let me tell you that posh piss smells exactly the same as working class piss and because you can't look after yourself anymore Dennis as your maudlin and ill you will have to just get used to it.

The difference is when they wheel me out and and you out into that day room for some banter and pleasant diatribe .. perish the thought .. I will be laughing my bollocks off because my contribution will be nil and yours will all come out of your nut stores.And your family will definitely be putting you in the council one pal so as to save your stash from withering away too quickly and you wont know because you will be away with the fairy's and your food quality don't matter either as yours will probably be liquidized.

A pension is to fund a better retirement built up over many decades and as previously stated that's fair enough.But I have only 7 years of contributions to make so it's not worth a light.Five per cent annual contribution of £3300.I am not complaining that I have not paid into the system for decades as the money was spent on my errant youth and raising a family.
All I advocated was that it's not worth paying in for such a short period because they will just steal our pension credits and rob our housing benefit dental and other freebies because the private pension will take us over their very craftily set limits.

Spend a few shillings now whilst your health is good and put a smile on your faces.It's only paper and not worth a toss until you swap it for something nice.Or you could just give it to that fisher investments bloke so you can maybe lord it up in a posher care home.
Speaking of that Fisher investment chap be careful Moon men because he has just got wind of this thread and started to advertise on here.I shit you not !

Save for a rainy day they tell us .. well let me tell you it's always fooking raining if your working class. Don't let them have you over for a fat lad and come on up and spend your last dimes.

 

[Two Gun Bob]

My mum died at 63 some 15 years ago. Dad is into his 80's having had colon cancer and survived. In laws are both in their 80's despite father in law having had skin cancer - thats 3 to 1 on that as things go on you're likely to out live that break even age mate - the future if you don't save ain't rosy

Yes it will be mate.Your priorities will change trust me.You will slow down and things that rock your world now wont necessarily then.

 

[Two Gun Bob]

Totally agree - it has to be added that the writing is more or less on the wall in that for anyone under say 40 the future is bleak if you opt out of taking steps to save for your future.... you will be expected to have taken up the offer or invited to live in a tent and visit your local foodbank when times must.

A pension is a good call if your paying into it for the long long term.Tax relief and contributions from your employer all make is plausible plus the uncertainty of what the future may hold in another twenty to thirty years.
We are spending now and enjoying the moment because that's our call.Good luck Moon folk whatever your financial decisions .
If I could offer a word of advice there's an old saying and never a truer word spoken "You make your bed you lie in it"