Your Pension.

I have no idea about pensions, same with mortgages, it's just beyond my feeble alcohol ridden brain to understand. This shizzle should be taught in school then I might have had an idea when I was younger to see getting a mortgage early or starting a pension early is sensible. Too much partying in my youth.

However pension I pay 5% and my company pay 7% but it will mean nothing by the time I am 70 and still not a homeowner.
 
I pay 8%, company pays 16% and I put a percentage away into savings.
I've got about 3 different pensions from employers over the years but I don't think two of them are worth very much.
 
Burnsy2023 said:
Am I the only one that whilst pretty financially savvy, find the language used in pensions unnecessarily complex and confusing?
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Ha no, not at all! I have no idea what any of it means... I was thinking that as I just recently got my 2013 statement through, but I have no idea what this means...




Is that as of now? Or if I keep going like I am? Or... I don't get it? :confused:
 
Burnsy2023 said:
And the reasons are?
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That pensions are the most complex area of personal finance by a country mile. Prior to A-Day there were something like 32 rule books governing pensions. The exams financial planners and advisers are required to sit to undertake pension work are amongst the most difficult and any work done on pensions, particularly transfers and the like, often carries extremely high regulatory risk.

And that's just for UK based pensions work. Once you start looking at overseas work you need to apply for the relevant licenses to allow you to practice, never mind overcoming differences in pension legislation, the nuances of multilateral agreements, tax treaties etc.

When you really get into it, pensions are a mind-hump. Simplifying the language around them would only serve to increase the confusion surrounding them. It's like asking why the statute book isn't written in 'plain English.'
 
Liquid_Entity said:
I have no idea about pensions, same with mortgages, it's just beyond my feeble alcohol ridden brain to understand. This shizzle should be taught in school then I might have had an idea when I was younger to see getting a mortgage early or starting a pension early is sensible. Too much partying in my youth.
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Not a jibe at you directly. But at some point in life people need to learn to fend for yourself. Not everything is handed to you on a silver platter.

I knew nothing about pensions, so I decided to read up and learn what it's all about. Same with mortgages and well pretty much everything I decide to go learn.
 
HM Forces Pension, so i will receive it when i leave the forces in 6 years time, it is non contributory but i wish it was as i would have loaded it up years ago, i.e 16 years ago.

Looking at getting a buy to let as well, time im 60 it will be paid for so top my pension up.
 
Theophany said:
It's definitely worth consideration! Plus, whilst the rules will undoubtedly change, as long as the UK remains part of the EU the likelihood of them shutting down these kinds of schemes completely is slim to none. Whaddya know, there are some benefits to being part of the United Socialist States of Franco-Saxony. ;)
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;) :D
 
randomshenans said:
Ha no, not at all! I have no idea what any of it means... I was thinking that as I just recently got my 2013 statement through, but I have no idea what this means...




Is that as of now? Or if I keep going like I am? Or... I don't get it? :confused:
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Your statement is based on you carrying on paying at the same. There will be other factors that could change your final statement like job grade change and therefore could up your final annual income. But in general, they have listed what you will get if you retire at those ages.

That is much easier to read than mine.

NOTE: We can see your annual salary at top of the image
 
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Adsta said:
Not a jibe at you directly. But at some point in life people need to learn to fend for yourself. Not everything is handed to you on a silver platter.

I knew nothing about pensions, so I decided to read up and learn what it's all about. Same with mortgages and well pretty much everything I decide to go learn.
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No I understand your point and I agree to a certain degree about self learning (as an adult) and I guess a fair bit of education should (if they knew) come from parents but I would still say that financial education and planning wouldn't go a miss in school education far better than some other stuff they get taught about these days.
 
Burnsy2023 said:
Am I the only one that whilst pretty financially savvy, find the language used in pensions unnecessarily complex and confusing?
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I work in pensions and have done for almost a decade so I consider myself fairly clued up.

But the main reason for it being overly complex and confusing is that most of it is deliberately vague.

Legislation is constantly changing how we calculate pensions yet people get mad when the pension they end up isn't exactly how it was set out when they joined 40 years earlier. So they make it vague.

It cost thousands to amend the Trust deeds, and legislation changes at least once a year. As a result the deeds are incomprehensible gibberish being absolutely as vague as possible with everything as a reference to something else in order to reduce the amount of amendments that have to be made.
 
Randomshenans - I'd love to live in Alsace - my mother's family comes from Les Vosges which isn't far away. Being paid in Swiss Francs isn't too bad either ;)
 
randomshenans said:
Shocking! That's plop. I want more than that :P No one could bloody live on that pityful amount. I'm going to have to up my contributions then!
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You should be planning to ensure you are debt free when you retire and the only outgoing's should be on the essentials - gas / electricity / food / car - fuel, insurance, tax

Obviously, you want to enjoy your retirement so I would look at private investments given savings pay less than 1% after tax at the moment.
 
I've been paying in since I started working full time at age 23, current company contributes 20% (I'm adding an extra 3% voluntarily).
 
Started mine 2 years ago(that'll make me 25) the scheme i was on then was I pay 3% the company Pays 3% so 6% for 2 years until the start of this year when my contract was transferred so I got a better Pension offer with me paying 3.5% company Paying 5% so I switched and had the old pension transferred into the new hopefully I'll have a big enough pot by the time I come to collect it (although looking at the retirement age steadily rising I reckon that'll be when I'm 80 odd and I seriously doubt I'll make it that far {I was surprised to make it past 20 let alone to the age I am now :p[angus where ever you are I hope you're proud!]})
 
Want another little lump sum to come in, so I can chuck it straight in to a flat in the UK. Rent it out and cover itself would be the plan. Short term mortgages are my friend. (still have 7yrs to pay off this current one :'( )
 
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