Retirement

[teamsaint]

I was talking to somebody recently who had been put on Statins for a health complaint.

He wasn't too happy with the side effects, and did some research.
He tells me that in the USA, if you refuse to go on statins, health companies have a clause which allows them to withhold further payments.

[Flay]

I was talking to somebody recently who had been put on Statins for a health complaint.

He wasn't too happy with the side effects, and did some research.
He tells me that in the USA, if you refuse to go on statins, health companies have a clause which allows them to withhold further payments.

Statins can provide remarkable protection so it is worth soldiering on, perhaps having a brief break to see if the side-effects are genuinely from the statin, or trying an alternative statin.

Some people won't take them because they have heard that they will suffer side-effects. Personally if they helped to stop me having a stroke or heart attack I would be keen to at least give them a try.

[Simon B]

"Compensation" seems a strange term to me (on this side of the pond).

OT, but: This is standard parlance in US corporations. Very hard to forget when you've been among the assembled throng at a meeting (organised to have an ambience akin to that of an evangelical rally) at which the CEO of one such spoke repeatedly of "downside compensation potential" in her sermon, sorry speech. In case there's any doubt, that was her way of telling us to expect pay cuts! More remarkable was that she maintained a straight face throughout. Good preparation, no doubt, for her subsequent career as a now apparently somewhat failed politician in the USofA...

[ahinton]

I'm more than sceptical about 'taking advice' from others when it comes to one's own money. So-called 'financial advisers' invariably have a hidden selling agenda and are best avoided, imo.

Nothing "hidden" about it. Provided that you have a well qualified, conscientious and honourable adviser whose priority is your interests and not his/hers, where's the problem? Do you think that you can do better than someone who has been trained in financial services, planning &c.? It's a very large subject. Would you do company accounts and conduct cases in court yourself or hire chartered accountants and lawyers/barristers to do it?

Information about pension choices can be obtained from your employer and then studied at leisure.

So what does the self-employed person do? In any case, whilst an employer might indeed be able to provide some basic information and guidance, he will not know the individual circumstances of all employees who might need advice at certain times and is not qualified or authorised to provide regulated pension advice.

I took a lump sum on a reduced person to tide me over until the State Pension arrived and this worked well for me. I feel better off now than when I was working, with mortgages, loans, NI payments all now a thing of the past. Retirement is great ... the thing that really decides the quality of it is health.

There are so many possible choices as to what you do with your pension pot and these are far more wide ranging than ever now that the Chancellor has made life more complex still. By the way, by "State Pension", you mean state retirement benefit; what the state pays out to people of state retirement age (whether or not they are retired) is a state benefit like any other, in the sense that, unlike workplace pensions and personal pensions, there has been no investment into a pension fund over a period of time, there are no pension trustees, &c. You do not in any case have to retire in order to qualify for state retirement benefit or any pensions.

As has been said everyone's situation is different but if you calculate you can manage I say go for it, and, in any case, it is amazing what you can save if the will and self-discipline is really there.

More fool anyone who does this! - especially in the case of people who are not intending to retire at or before state retirement age and even more especially in the cases of those who are both employed and self-employed with pensions attached to both.

[ahinton]

Impossible house prices, university debts of £80,000, low pay jobs with no security, paying for the mistakes of past generations - young people today don't know how unlucky they are.

Oh, I think that at least some of them do - but you are correct about all of these things. Average UK salary £26.5K, average UK house price nearly £200K, far more people in part-time rather than full-time work, quite a few more people self-employed (some because they can't get jobs), some pepole both employed in various part-time jobs as well as self-employed, far more people of state retirement age (for what that's not worth) and above still having to work in employment, self-employment or both, making it even harder for younger people to get work. I happen to know one person who has university debts of more than twice the figure that you cite, having run the gamut of education to the higest degree level, which is nevertheless no guarantee of a good job with a high salary...

[ahinton]

Is there anyone else at all on Tippsy's planet?

I have no idea, but then I don't even know where it is!

[P. G. Tipps]

I have no idea, but then I don't even know where it is!

The second is the logical consequence of the first, ahinton ...

[gradus]

Crikey, university debts of £160k - that'll take some repaying. How on earth could one cope with repayments on top of normal living costs.

[ahinton]

The second is the logical consequence of the first, ahinton ...

Not at all; not knowing which planet you're on is not a consequence, logical or otherwise, of not knowing whether anyone else might also be located thereon; moreover, your post does nothing to respond to the questions that I had put to you.

[ahinton]

Crikey, university debts of £160k - that'll take some repaying. How on earth could one cope with repayments on top of normal living costs.

With very considerable difficulty, I imagine!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Not at all; not knowing which planet you're on is not a consequence, logical or otherwise, of not knowing whether anyone else might also be located thereon;

Indeed - as in:
"Does anyone else live in Budleigh Salterton?"
"Not only do I not know, but I don't even know where that is."

[P. G. Tipps]

Nothing "hidden" about it. Provided that you have a well qualified, conscientious and honourable adviser whose priority is your interests and not his/hers, where's the problem? Do you think that you can do better than someone who has been trained in financial services, planning &c.? It's a very large subject. Would you do company accounts and conduct cases in court yourself or hire chartered accountants and lawyers/barristers to do it?

Wow, a lot of questions there, ahinton, and in the interests of brevity I'll try and make the answers relatively snappy!

a) The problem there is that if any financial adviser ever put my financial interests before his/her own he/she would never survive long enough to advise on finance in the first place?

b) I don't see why not ... personal financial planning is not rocket-science, and when it comes to MY money I'd prefer be the final judge when it comes to where to invest it.

c) I don't run a business and/or aim to appear in court anytime soon, ahinton ...

So what does the self-employed person do? In any case, whilst an employer might indeed be able to provide some basic information and guidance, he will not know the individual circumstances of all employees who might need advice at certain times and is not qualified or authorised to provide regulated pension advice.

a) I've never been self-employed. If I were I'd make the necessary enquiries.

b) My employer(s) would be a pretty rum lot if they weren't aware of my individual circumstances. Choices for those retiring are all open and above board for those to study at leisure. I'm sure Caliban, for example, will listen to every bit of 'expert advice' and then come to his own decision. I know I would, wouldn't you?

There are so many possible choices as to what you do with your pension pot and these are far more wide ranging than ever now that the Chancellor has made life more complex still. By the way, by "State Pension", you mean state retirement benefit; what the state pays out to people of state retirement age (whether or not they are retired) is a state benefit like any other, in the sense that, unlike workplace pensions and personal pensions, there has been no investment into a pension fund over a period of time, there are no pension trustees, &c. You do not in any case have to retire in order to qualify for state retirement benefit or any pensions.

I know ... what makes you think I was somehow blissfully unaware of any of this when I retired, ahinton? Certainly the last person I would listen to for any financial guidance would be the UK Chancellor of Exchequer

More fool anyone who does this! - especially in the case of people who are not intending to retire at or before state retirement age and even more especially in the cases of those who are both employed and self-employed with pensions attached to both.

While those who do so make seem like fools to you, ahinton, everyone's circumstances are different.

In any case, I'd NEVER put my own financial future in the hands of others. I'm a bit too worldy-wise for that now, I'm afraid, even if I do exist on a quite different planet from you and jean!

[P. G. Tipps]

Indeed - as in:
"Does anyone else live in Budleigh Salterton?"
"Not only do I not know, but I don't even know where that is."

But isn't the first bit of pig-ignorance connected to the second? It is highly unlikely that anyone would know anything of anything if anything was completely unknown to them.

So, I maintain that ahinton's self-confessed double-ignorance concerning the physical whereabouts of both myself and hosting planet was entirely predictable ...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

But isn't the first bit of pig-ignorance connected to the second? It is highly unlikely that anyone would know anything of anything if anything was completely unknown to them.

But the speaker is not saying that Buddleigh Salterton was "completely unknown" to them is s/he? It is quite possible that, having heard of Buddleigh Salterton (having seen a production of Blithe Spirit, for example) s/he has registered the existence of such a place, but neglected to inform him/herself of its whereabouts. I know that there is a place in Scotland called Bannockburn, but, to my embarrassment, I have never looked in an Atlas for its location.

So, I maintain that ahinton's self-confessed double-ignorance concerning the physical whereabouts of both myself and hosting planet was entirely predictable ...

If the "so" is meant to suggest a logical sequence from your first paragraph to your second, then your (for want of a better word) "argument" is unfounded.

[ahinton]

Indeed - as in:
"Does anyone else live in Budleigh Salterton?"
"Not only do I not know, but I don't even know where that is."

Quite - although Richard Rodney Bennett knew where it was!