Blue_Lagoon3000
Im hope im never gonna retire and i hope im never gonna have a pension as they are a load of bollocks, as i stand now im not in a position where i can say for sure i'll never need one though. If all goes to plan i'll have a business empire and my kids will be well groomed in to the business world and they can take over from me while i live on a lake in Italy with fit women, i'd chill in the sun whilst they massage my back with baby oil. The scary thing is that if you earn enough money this can actually be real life... Buy we can all dream ay.
That's exactly the sort of reaction from someone who knows nothing about pensions.
The problem is education. Most people stick their heads in the sand.
Who knows what the state pension is currently?? I'll tell you, a little over £90. Currently drawable from 60 for women and 65 for men. That's being equalised. I'm 31. By the time I retire, I fully expect any semblance of state pension to start between 70 and 75. State pension has been in decline for over 40 years. It's one of the reasons Thatcher encouraged us to buy up our council houses. So the value would have use in retirement.
So how many of us can live in £90 a week? It leaves many pensioners in poverty now. You've seen them, gaunt, smelling of week old pi55, too poor to take a wash. It'll only get worse too.
There are many different types of pension scheme, a heads up for you self employed folks with employees (ltd companies really) , by 2012, you'll have to contribute to their pension. It's being phased in from then. Eventually, 3% will come from employers, 5% from employees. Via Personal Accounts scheme.
Pensions are the most tax efficient way of saving. The government gives you tax relief on your contributions. So if you were to put £100 a month into a pension, the government would put £25 in, if you're a standard rate tax payer. Higher rate tax payers can then claim up the 40% income tax bracket on their self assesment. You could look at it as an instant return on your investment if you like. So for the time the money is invested, you have between 25% and 40% more working for you.
I'll talk about fundamentally basic pension schemes, typically Stakeholder, as they're probably the most common you'll see outside of company schemes. People who are ready for SIPS schemes already have the understanding I'll describe.
The money is invested in funds. These funds should be a diverse portfolio consisting of bonds (loans to blue chip companies and the govt (gilts)), commercial property (shopping centres and rents) and equities (shares, uk and overseas too). The more risk you care to take on long term savings, the greater the proportion of shares in the portfolio, with more overseas and uk, as compared with bonds. The capital will sit in these funds growing in value and attracting dividends too. Savings accounts
CANNOT compete in the long term. In fact, the rate of inflation is currently outpacing the rate of interest you get on your savings in most cases. Your money will lose value. (ie ten years ago a tenner would buy 5 pints, now it buys 3. Result is your tenner is worth less, you need £15)
The Stakeholder is a cracking product. It has vastly reduced charges (No more than 2% annually) and lifestyle switching. This means that 5 years before your retirement date, the money is moved out of the risky fund and placed in to a Pension Protector Fund. This is cash based so your capital cannot lose value. The reason is this. 5 years is seen as the change from medium to long term. If for example you were due to retire autumn 2008 and didn't have lifestyle switching, your fund value would have dropped. Lifestyle switching would have switched the money out and protected you from that particular fall. A 5 year term is seen as not quite enough time for recovery.
Over the long term shares will out perform cash deposits (bank based savings). I can provide data to back this up. Yes the value will go down and up, but the net result is that it outperforms none the less. The long term smooths out the peaks and troughs.
You can stop and start pension payments as you wish, they start from as little as £20 a month (£25 when the govt adds their bit) and can go up to your annual salary.
Self employed people: This is also an opportunity to reduce NIC's too. LTD companies: Payments can impact corporation tax too.
You will be able to draw your pension any time from 55 to 75. At that time you have two choices.
First you could buy an annuity, a product which pays an income, or secondly, probably the better idea, you take 25% TAX FREE and use the remainder to buy the annuity.
The downside is that once the money is in there, you cannot get it out until you retire. That's not a bad thing for undisciplined savers like me. If you die before you draw it, the money is given to a selected beneficiary.
If you have no pension planning, get it done now. Some is better than none. I'll happily answer any questions about pensions, I'm qualified to talk about them. It's something vastly misunderstood which we all need to be thinking about. Don't stick your head in the sand. Don't write something off because you don't understand it.
Apologies for the rant, it's something I believe in.