Pensions
Well,
As I approach 65 in October I have been having a look at my pension pot and I feel reasonably content with its performance given the uncertainties especially over the last twelve months.
My private pot is within 3% of the figure last summer despite an larger drop in the ftse.
I do not plan to touch it just yet and both of us will continue to work part time so no accusations of spending the pot on a caravan/ motorhome etc can be levelled at me just yet
it is an age that has come up on me pretty fast All of a sudden but I welcome the positive changes that we have planned which certainly include more caravan breaks...
When I read of the adventures some on this forum it really does beckon well I believe.
anyone else at a similar stage to us?
Steve
Comments
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Well similar age but not stage, we took early retirement 3 years ago because our pension pots were in very good health. Now enjoying the freedom it brings with no financial restraints, only wish I decided on this earlier as I don't miss working at all.
Looking forward to 9 weeks across the water in May, again
I really hope you enjoy your time in partial retirement
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Why would you carry on working if you can afford not too. We retired at 60 and are lucky to be able to live comfortably on a private pension.
Other half worried about not working but now his days are full of activities ......sailing, bowling, badminton, table tennis, tennis. Oh and we holiday home and away.
My father died when he was 62, he had just retired and my parents were looking forward to a long retirement. You just never know do you.
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I retired 4 years ago and Mrs One shortly after I have to admit it took a few months to settle down. I very nearly convinced myself to return to work but really happy I persevered with retirement. Although we still only holiday during school holidays due
to other commitments we manage about 100 nights a year in the van.0 -
I retired at 641/2 feel sorry for those that are under 55 may not retire till they are 75
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Good to hear that retirement suits you all and thanks for the confirmations !
my dad took early retirement and did not seem to embrace it so i am a little cautious.
I guess timing is the key to a long and happy retirement and we are all different although I suspect few will miss work
As Penny is a few years younger than me we plan to work 2/3 days a week for a little while to ease us into retirement snd see how that goes...
Probsbly would downsize the house when we fully retire too.
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I retired 4 years ago and Mrs One shortly after I have to admit it took a few months to settle down. I very nearly convinced myself to return to work but really happy I persevered with retirement. Although we still only holiday during school holidays due
to other commitments we manage about 100 nights a year in the van.Wow 100 nights away!
good for you Oneputt
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I know Molly. Our kids will have to work until they drop.....
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The freedom of not having to go to work was wonderful. The responsibilities of children reduced but elderly parents in difficulty due to illness and or dementia became very time consuming and it was a good job we did retire.
Good Luck in your retirement.
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well i am glad you are all enjoying your retirement i am 4years past retirement age and still trucking on and can not see me retireing yet as i enjoy travelling all over uk guess thats why i bought a caravan 10 years ago to carry on traveling i do try to
get away in the van as much as i can so i wish you happy retirement and plenty of van and mh hols bassett.0 -
I will reach the age of 65 this Sunday but i have been on a very good ( final salary) company pension since i finished work on ill health in 1999.From Sunday i will also recieve my state pension
but my company pension will be taxed accordingly
which is rather annoying but thats how it is.The O/H is still in full employmentpeter.
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I am also on a final salary scheme so don't really know how private pension pots work. I retired when I was 58 through choice and worked part time for a further three years. I rather enjoyed having weekends that were longer than my working week!!!
David
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I am also on a final salary scheme so don't really know how private pension pots work. I retired when I was 58 through choice and worked part time for a further three years. I rather enjoyed having weekends that were longer than my working week!!!
David
I can't wait David. Every weekend a long weekend!
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I will reach the age of 65 this Sunday but i have been on a very good ( final salary) company pension since i finished work on ill health in 1999.From Sunday i will also recieve my state pension
but my company pension will be taxed accordingly which is rather annoying but thats how it is.The O/H is still in full employmentpeter.
Congratulations for Sunday Peter and enjoy getting something back from the tax you have contributed....
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Whatever the government choose to classify us as I certainly do not feel old just yet ( unless the dogs have taken me for a particularly long walk!)
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I will reach the age of 65 this Sunday but i have been on a very good ( final salary) company pension since i finished work on ill health in 1999.From Sunday i will also recieve my state pension
but my company pension will be taxed accordingly which is rather annoying but thats how it is.The O/H is still in full employmentpeter.
Congratulations for Sunday Peter and enjoy getting something back from the tax you have contributed....
Thanks for that
you know what they say "there are only two definate things in life death and taxes
"peter.
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I am also on a final salary scheme so don't really know how private pension pots work. I retired when I was 58 through choice and worked part time for a further three years. I rather enjoyed having weekends that were longer than my working week!!!
David
Its a great shame that almost all the final salary pension schemes have now closed.They were one of the best things about working for a large company that could afford too run one.I remember being told years ago when i was still working that for every pound i was putting into my pension the company were contributing another £14.Also after the Maxwell scandal our company pension scheme was run as an entirely seperate busniess from the company itself.That remains the case today and all the investment is managed by three major banks even though the original company is sadly now consigned too history.
peter.
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I find it quite disgraceful that companies were allowed to simply end final salary pension schemes, with no consultation with employees. It was the equivalent of a massive cut in salary, over-night.
Those companies were perfectly happy to take a break from making their contributions to the pension funds during the good times (one of the main reasons for the huge shortfalls in many funds now) but we're very quick to renaige on their agreements when things
went less good.This is a scandal that they got away with simply because of most people's poor understanding of how pensions work. It was done with little proper explanation and in a very one-sided and under-hand way. It is a scandal far bigger, in my view, than the so-called
PPI mis-selling and other bank related scandals.....0 -
I will reach the age of 65 this Sunday but i have been on a very good ( final salary) company pension since i finished work on ill health in 1999.From Sunday i will also recieve my state pension
but my company pension will be taxed accordingly which is rather annoying but thats how it is.The O/H is still in full employmentpeter.
Congratulations for Sunday Peter and enjoy getting something back from the tax you have contributed....
Thanks for that
you know what they say "there are only two definate things in life death and taxes"peter.
and neither of them great........
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Have to say that I was dead lucky in that I retired on a full pension at age 50, with a lump sum to boot. The sun has shone ever since. My shoulders are no longer bowed down with the weight of responsibility and the smile has returned to my face. Couldn't
agree more IanH, it really is a disgrace that they could get away with it.0 -
I will reach the age of 65 this Sunday but i have been on a very good ( final salary) company pension since i finished work on ill health in 1999.From Sunday i will also recieve my state pension
but my company pension will be taxed accordingly which is rather annoying but thats how it is.The O/H is still in full employmentpeter.
Have a great birthday, Peter, celebrate in style
I took early retirement a few years ago. I actually loved my job, and wondered if I'd get bored without it. The company were relocating, and, due to family commitments, there was no way I could move with them. Never looked back, and, of course a final salary
scheme pension really helped.Agree about the tax set up, not exactly straightforward is it? The state pension is taxable but paid tax free. You then pay the tax on your company pension. Works out the same anyway!
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I find it quite disgraceful that companies were allowed to simply end final salary pension schemes, with no consultation with employees. It was the equivalent of a massive cut in salary, over-night.
Those companies were perfectly happy to take a break from making their contributions to the pension funds during the good times (one of the main reasons for the huge shortfalls in many funds now) but we're very quick to renaige on their agreements when things
went less good.This is a scandal that they got away with simply because of most people's poor understanding of how pensions work. It was done with little proper explanation and in a very one-sided and under-hand way. It is a scandal far bigger, in my view, than the so-called
PPI mis-selling and other bank related scandals.....My sister worked for a company that had these "pension holiday,s" as they were sometimes called and she would go years and not put anything into her pension.In the end the company went bust and what pensions were paid out were very poor.I could never understand
any company doing that.Was there a reason ??.As regards the final salary pensions many were scuppered by Gordon Brown as i understand it. He took many of the tax breaks away from them and it badly affected the way they made money too keep the funds going.Most
final salary pensions are made up of money put in by the company,contributions from the members and money made from investment in stocks,shares and bonds etc,etc.Many of them ran at a loss and it was up too the company too make up any shortfall in the way
of extra contributions on top of what they would put in each year.I will dig out some more info on this concerning numbers.peter.
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I will reach the age of 65 this Sunday but i have been on a very good ( final salary) company pension since i finished work on ill health in 1999.From Sunday i will also recieve my state pension
but my company pension will be taxed accordingly which is rather annoying but thats how it is.The O/H is still in full employment peter.
Have a great birthday, Peter, celebrate in style
I took early retirement a few years ago. I actually loved my job, and wondered if I'd get bored without it. The company were relocating, and, due to family commitments, there was no way I could move with them. Never looked back, and, of course a final salary scheme pension really helped.
Agree about the tax set up, not exactly straightforward is it? The state pension is taxable but paid tax free. You then pay the tax on your company pension. Works out the same anyway!
I also had a job i liked until the last three years when the threat of relocation,demanning and redundancy fell upon us all and it all went sour.In the end i had a breakdown worrying about my pension and was sent home and i never went back.Nine months later i was given a full pension and finished on benefit 3.That was over fiftenn years ago and i,ve never looked back
I count myself very fortunate despite what happened.peter.
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I took early retirement at the age of 55 (with a much reduced final salary pension) but now look back and think it was the best move I ever made. Reaching the dizzy heights of 60 next month and ain't looking back.
Currently we're in the planning stage of driving the mid life crisis Merc SLK down to Venice in May and then on to a friend who lives in Umbria.
Yes, your finances change drastically with a pension but you cut your cloth accordingly - and lets face it, you can't take it with you!
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My OH lost his 'final salary' pension, when his company changed the rules, so he joined the 'private pension' scheme which replaced it, and he put any extra money into the company share scheme. We lost that too when the company eventually went 'belly up'
and the banks took it over! Instead of shares worth about £5.50 each, each share was 'revalued' and we ended up with each share being worth only a fraction of a penny!!! We had a substantial holding, which in total turned our to be worth next to nothing.
However our shares have risen again since then - and we have enough to bring us in the grand sum of 3p worth of dividend last year!He could have taken his pension at sixty, but chose not to, and just over a year later we lost everything including his job! People who were already receiving a pension continued to do so! My advice would be 'take it now' before it disappears in a puff
of smoke!Eventually last year he did get a small pension, and a small lump sum from the Government Pension Protection Fund but nothing like we expected to receive.
It's surprising how your expectations can change, but we are still managing on two state pensions, my very small NHS pension, and his various other small private pension schemes, some of which have paid out
surprisingly well! And more importantly, we're healthy and enjoying life!0 -
I think final salary schemes are too expensive or too generous. I was fortunate to be in a non-contibutary final salary scheme which work on the basis of paying so many 60ths as a pension. So if you had 40 years persionable service you got two 40/60ths of
your final salary. They did take into account the State Pension in their calculations and did not contract out of SERPs. So anyone with a reasonably long service would end up with a total pension (company+state) of about three quarters of their final pay.
However things change and the company I worked for has recently changed from 60ths to 120ths so virtually halving the likely pension of those new to the scheme although they can, of course, make voluntary contributions to maintain the value of the pension.
It does actually make you wonder whether we have had the best days of pensions?David
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We took early retirement in our mid 50s and it was the best career move that we made. It meant living on reduced final salary pensions and interest from savings and investments (remember the days when you got a good rate?), but without a mortgage, debts
etc.. we had a comfortable enough life.I've just turned 65 and get a state pension too, so life is even better (and busier) now. I would certainly recommend retiring as early as possible.
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I took early retirement ( redundancy by any other name!) at 50 with a pension of about half my salary. It did enable me to work part-time for the remainder of my working life and reduce my stress levels. Since my state pension kicked in, things haven't been
too bad. The downside is the poor return on savings. I am surprised at the amount of bleating about mortgage costs given the low rates that people are enjoying notwithstanding housing costs.0
