Retirement

[MrGongGong]

Well put Simon

The whole thing is nonsense really and based on the idea that somehow wealth will increase along with life expectancy and so on and it really doesn't take a genius to work out that it's completely unstable and as credible as the Albanian economy was ... maybe an eternity of Norman Wisdom movies is what we have coming?

I remember about 10 years ago something from the revenue saying how much self-employed folks should be putting into their "savings"

[teamsaint]

I have a lot of sympathy for the views that Simon B expresses.
For far, far too many people, decent pension provision is an expensive luxury, that simply has to come below eye watering housing costs.
And if you have children, would like them to get a degree, and don't want them coming out of their first degree with £50k debt, pension provision probably has to take a hike too.

[Dave2002]

At least our OP can console himself with the thought that he doesn't have any children to bail out. BOMD (Bank of mum and dad) is quite common amongst retirees and their 30-40 year old children these days - "we want/need a new car, new house, the roof needs repair, the boiler blew up ..... " plus also "what do we have to do to get a job which we enjoy and which will also cover all the bills?". Many young people have a really tough time, and not all of it is self inflicted.

There are perhaps some good things about one's offspring, though they continue to be a source of problems for many. Even at the age of 80 my grandmother confessed that she still worried about some of her children - most of whom were 50+ at the time.

[P. G. Tipps]

I share your scepticism; and great caution is needed. But if you play your cards right, just listening to them should be free. It's worth listening to a range, and deciding what sounds best, and who you trust.

And then, even if thereafter by following the advice of one, you enhance their profits (as you will - they're in business too), as long as they also improve your position to your satisfaction (compared with doing nothing), that's ok isn't it?

Indeed if it all works out and everyone lives happily ever after! However, that has not been the experience of many who regretted later that they had not simply left their money where it was, slowly increasing, and on which they could at least depend?

By all means listen to everyone with suggestions on where to place YOUR money but, as you say, it is surely wise to remember that YOU are the ONLY person who actually depends on what happens to that money.

Once the 'financial adviser' gets his/her bonus from a finance company for providing a 'lead' you are history and he/she is off chasing someone else.

Best wishes in your retirement whatever you decide, Caliban!

[Petrushka]

... maybe an eternity of Norman Wisdom movies is what we have coming?

Post of the day!

[Nick Armstrong]

I'm with you on that. In light of this thread, I'm pulling together all of the information from the pensions that I have and will find out what the choices are. As I've said before, I find the whole pension thing a total minefield and it seems to me that fresh confusion arises every second week. Good point about the cost of commuting from ts which will save me around £1400 a year.

[gradus]

Best wishes for a happy healthy retirement Cali. Keep the jokes coming though.

[Nick Armstrong]

Best wishes for a happy healthy retirement Cali. Keep the jokes coming though.

Best wishes in your retirement whatever you decide, Caliban!

those ambitions to read the whole of Tolstoy or Dickens tend not to be realised.
Caliban, enjoy every bit of your well earned retiremen!

I shall be doing my best!

As far as reading is concerned, I have been making preparations. As mentioned above, I've managed to add to a few volumes bought and read in my early 20s in France, from Zola's Rougon-Macquart series. They made a powerful impression on me, especially the last in the series, Le Docteur Pascal, one of the few books I've ever read in a few sittings over just a couple of days, and then started immediately all over again. The collection, from the (to me) appealing late '70s edition, is now complete!





Let's see if I make it through all 20 (Insha'Allah)! I'm already ⅓ of the way through the first!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

As for those a generation younger again - good luck. Why they aren't out rioting on the streets is a mystery...

I suspect it's because pensionable age seems just too far away, with more immediate financial worries to address - particularly student debt and greedy landlords.

I have no doubt that at some stage, the bubble will burst.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

At least our OP can console himself with the thought that he doesn't have any children to bail out.

??? I thought Alpie said he had a son (inheriting his CD collection as I type, IIRC)?

There are perhaps some good things about one's offspring

!!! I'm sure they speak as highly of you, too, Dave

[Petrushka]

??? I thought Alpie said he had a son (inheriting his CD collection as I type, IIRC)?


!!! I'm sure they speak as highly of you, too, Dave

Perhaps Dave had Caliban in mind as the OP following the resurrection of the thread. Must admit I did as well.

[P. G. Tipps]

I suspect it's because pensionable age seems just too far away, with more immediate financial worries to address - particularly student debt and greedy landlords.

I have no doubt that at some stage, the bubble will burst.

If you mean the Financial bubble I thought it had already?

As for 'rioting in the streets' I suspect most younger people these days are not quite as naive as some of their parents and grandparents were, and, in general, are rather more comfortably off than they ever were at that age.

And if they are anything like my Sixties generation were they'd much rather be out clubbing and enjoying themselves at weekends whenever they get the chance to do so.

That now much-maligned Sixties generation had its own financial realities to deal with and sometimes some of them had to be content remaining in a greedy landlord's cold and damp bedsit watching Juke Box Jury & Dixon of Dock Green on a tiny black-and-white TV instead.

[vinteuil]

I am delighted to report that at the end of April, having turned 55 later this month, I shall be retiring

... the only way to retain sanity.

"The main business of a lawyer is to take the romance, the mystery, the irony, the ambiguity out of everything he touches." - the late US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, in a speech at the Juilliard School in 2005

[jean]

That now much-maligned Sixties generation had its own financial realities to deal with and sometimes some of them had to be content remaining in a greedy landlord's cold and damp bedsit...

...from which they were however soon able to move on to a house of their own with the help of a small mortgage (even if I did have to enlist my father to sign as my guarantor, though his modest salary never actually equalled mine).

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

As for 'rioting in the streets' I suspect most younger people these days are not quite as naive as some of their parents and grandparents were, and, in general, are rather more comfortably off than they ever were at that age.

If being naïve is a refusal to accept a society which regards education as something that has to be bought, I plead guilty as charged.

Large numbers owning smartphones does not necessarily indicate they are comfortably off. It merely suggests they are even more heavily in debt, which we never really were.