Pensions

[johnckirk]

Looking through recent news reports, the latest scare-mongering is all about pensions. Not to take it lightly, but if I took all these reports at face value then I'd get brain cancer from my mobile, be car-jacked, have a heart attack from obesity and too much salt, not be able to buy a flat, lose all the money on the flat I couldn't buy, and then

Comments

[rjw1]

puttting soemthign away is better than nohting. We are unfortunetly in the position that we cant exoect the state to look after us ince we retire. Admitredly we have the advantage that we work in the it industry so are paid quite well so should be able to afford at least a modest pension contributuion. im only doing 50 squid a month currently but it will mount up.

also pensions are a reltively tax efficient way to save.

ask me irl at some point

[rjw1]

this is pisssed ranting if you dididnt notice

[elvum]

Surely if you're retiring next Friday, you're not going to get much of a pension anyway? ;-)

[elvum]

Almost all employers will match your pension contributions, up to about 5% of your salary. Plus you don't pay income tax on them. For those reasons, paying money into pension schemes is a far better way of saving than paying back loans early. Do the maths - once you've accounted for compound interest, you end up two or three times better off saving 5% of your salary each month than paying your mortgage off even ten years before you retire and then paying the same amount into a savings account. And a factor of two or three in your retirement income is the difference between eating cardboard and being able to enjoy all the free time you suddenly have, regardless of whether you own a house or not. :-)

FWIW I'm on the BBC's in-house pension scheme, currently contributing about £100 a month.