Pensions Poll

[ne0prene]

Pedantic Answer

Sorry to be pedantic but if the 'New New Lie Socialist Terrorist' Party were in for the 12 year in a row with each election being 4 years apart then they would have been in from 1977

Anyway, I would agree that there are tax benefits from small regular contributions but as someone also said, only after having used all ISA's etc possible.

[expat]

Ok, no more cosy Civil Service pension and my Financial chappy is telling me I need to be investing a scary amount of cash every month into a pension scheme. So, how much are you putting into a pension every month?

Of course it's scary. Look at this first approximation if you doubt the magnitude of the task:

Want to work 40 years
Want to live 10 years off what you've saved in your working life.

OK, how much do you think you need to save?

[Rebecca Loos]

Will there be any middle class left in Britain in 2025 if the Labour Party has been running the country all that time?

Or will they have:
- left the country
- been "re-educated" into stopping work, having lots of chav kids, and claiming benefits and tax credits or whatever it will be called then

[DimPrawn]

It's the year 2025 and the New New Lie Socialist Terrorist party are back in power for the 12 time in a row.

There's a pensions crisis. The government are broke with huge debts and the "hard working families" and "highly skilled immigrants" want their pensions.

The chancellor has two choices.

1. Face a revolt and admit there's no pension fund. He's spent it years ago.

2. Impose leglislation on the greedy disgusting middle classes forcing them to hand over 90% of the pension pot. It's only "fair".

I think you get the picture...

[Gibbon]

IMHO, be careful about banging loads away into a pension as this becomes ringfenced and can't be easily got back again. Although you get a tax break on the way in, you pay charges, GB's tax raid on the pot and tax when you come to draw it. Eventually you have to buy an annuity with it, this is when a bookie in a suit will put the odds in his favour that you will die before the money runs out. And they get to keep the money left in the pot after so long so your family can't get it. Only public pensions are worth it again IMO.

Get your money into tax free savings etc as advised previously and keep control of your money.

[BlasterBates]

The thing you have to bear in mind is that if you don't have a company pension how much you need for a pension, the sums are quite scary.

To get a pension of 30000 per annum at 60 you need about 600,000 quid, now that is. That's a pension of say a Doctor, and he would also own is own house.I n twenty years you'll need more than that for the same real earnings. You should be aiming for total assets of 1 million to have a "middleclass" standard of living with a decent house and pension, and you wouldn't be really wealthy.

Of course these assets don't need to be pension schemes, but the tax benefits of paying into a pension can make it worthwhile to pay a few hundred quid in.

[Xena]

Ok, no more cosy Civil Service pension and my Financial chappy is telling me I need to be investing a scary amount of cash every month into a pension scheme. So, how much are you putting into a pension every month?

He's only after the commission. The question with a pension is do you trust this or any future government not to get into a spot of bother, get greedy and nationalise your pension fund / change the rules so you can't get at it / retrospectively abolish its tax relief? Or even are you going to peg it before you collect? A modest pension has a place in every balanced portfolio but don't go crazy. In the first instance make sure you have stuffed to the max tax free funds where you can actually get at the dough first (e.g. ISAs, friendly society funds and the like). Even then, seriously consider other, more liquid assets first.

[MrsGoof]

I cant vote as there is not an option for me £500pm

[DaveB]

Ok, no more cosy Civil Service pension and my Financial chappy is telling me I need to be investing a scary amount of cash every month into a pension scheme. So, how much are you putting into a pension every month?