Forgive my ignorance, but am I the only person whom has not been informed of this? http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/...1/Pensions-auto-enrolment-What-need-know.html Given the size of my employer I am set to start paying a 0.8% pension in 3 weeks time if I do not opt-out. Fantastic, would net me around £15 a month if I didn't earn any more and retired at 55. Just what I need. I barely watch the news or read newspapers as they are generally so damned negative all the time, and I am completely fed up with 'celebrity' gossip. Am I seriously the only person whom was not aware of this?
Your employer should be notifying you about this (else you wouldn't be able to opt out). Usually there will be a pamphlet stapled to your payslip. I didn't know about it, but then again I'm already enrolled in the NHS pension scheme.
Elaborate...? To be honest I haven't even considered it, and I'm 27. But I do own several properties which I rent out which net me a reasonable income (100% re-invested into overpayments on the mortgages). And once I have paid off their mortgages will be buying more, so in a way I already have a retirement fund.
It's never too early to start saving for your retirement ( the sooner you start, the more you'll have; as opposed to pissing it up the wall every weekend ). That said, stupid pensions like this one are pretty much pointless and I'll be opting out- better off having a separate savings account into which you transfer a small set amount of your wages every month, and never touch it.
I agree. Save or invest in your mortgage until your 40/50s and then move you savings into your pension or the money you used to pay on your mortgage every month Imagine how much people have lost in their pensions since the recession, youd be taking your chances that it wouldnt happen again in the next 40/50 years The markets are so up and down atm I wouldnt dream of it atm With the employer share in the case you provided it does look like a good idea but at your age you have better things to be doing with your money
Look at what has happened to many home owners due to the recession.... You would be stupid not to share your savings between a few different investments.
As mentioned in the article, there is some benefit to saving for a pension: it's tax free. Some employers have schemes where they pay all of your contribution (you sacrifice the corresponding amount in salary) which avoids NI as well. On basic rate, that's about 30% more in total. Well worth it, and much better than blowing it all on iPhones and graphics cards like some of people I know.
"There are only two things worth investing in: friends and real estate" --Gilbert Sheldon (creator of the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers) The NHS (still) offers a decent pension scheme (for now) so I started paying in as soon as I started working. Of course I am also investing in moving up the property ladder. House prices hyperinflate and crash, but over the long term they go up. And whatever happens, if you own the roof over your head outright, you're basically safe.
Atleast they have somewhere to live, pension goes belly up and you've got nothing. im not saying invest in the property market, just prioritise owning a home, not with a view to selling it or making a profit. people give out about negative equity but if you can afford the mortgage and are happy with your house NE doesnt mean anything, inflation will eventually take you out of NE Always have a nest egg but there's no point saving money on deposit at a lower rate than you are paying on your mortgage Once you have your mortgage paid off youll have plenty of money to invest in a pension
The chances of you losing all of your retirement provision on a bad day on the stock markets is just not possible. Unless you have invested everything in really high risk shares. Most pension schemes have default investment funds to choose from and are usually middle of the road funds which have a braod spectrum of investment areas such as Cash, Fixed Income, Property, Blue chip shares, etc. The tax uplift on all of your contributions offers a far more beneficial retirement fund over a regular savings plan. Your savings or investment plan would have to increase by around 30% per annum to even come close. The only downside if you can call it one is when at retirement you can take around 25% in cash tax free but the remaning about requires you to provide an income for life. of course with a savings plan you could get your hands on 100% of the amount saved but some would argue that to be a potential bad thing. By starting to contribute early in life to any retirement provision could help you retire earlier. My dad did 33 years with the fire brigade and retired at 53. I've seen 68 year olds working now because they still cant retire. OK, the fire brigades pension is a final salary pension like your nhs pension Nexxo which is based more on the number of years your served and your salary at the end when you retire. you are then given a percentage of your salary as a pension for life. It doesn't matter how your pension performs through those years because your contribution or benefit is never linked to any performance. You would be very lucky to get into one of those schemes nowadays. Most pensions now will always be based on how much you put in, for how long and how it performs year on year. So the earlier you start, the more you potentially could have This has been brought to you by the letters D, H and Y and by the number 6.
I know a little about it, but then I work for the department of work & pensions. Basically, it's been done because of the huge number of people who aren't saving or investing anything for the future. That's reasonable in a recession if you don't have the disposable income to do it, but even when times are 'good' people don't do it, they'd rather spend the money now. Pension income increases with the length of the investment, basically (it's a little more complicated): I wouldn't recommend starting one in your 40's or 50's and expecting the income to be enough to live off. I've only been paying in to mine for 4-odd years, and I'm kicking myself for that. Fortunately it's a pretty decent scheme, otherwise I would be stuffed in retirement. I even cashed one in in my early 20's 'cos I couldn't see the point. Idiot. I have no idea about the actual fund this scheme pays into though, whether it's a government scheme like NI for state pension, or if it's private. Not a clue.
