Pensions - fucked? (1 Viewer)

[Johnnyc]

What's all this I'm hearing about pensions being in danger? Can someone who knows about such things, but with the ability to explain it to simpletons, tell us what's going on..?

Pension funds are relying on the stock markets - the markets are screwed - pensions are screwed?

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

Pensions question

Does anyone here have a personal retirement fund they are particularly happy with?

My Irish employers are kicking me out and I have to move my meagre savings elsewhere.

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

Does anyone here have a private pension?

 

[dudley]

buy bitcoins

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[shower another shower]

or gold and silver.

 

[Squiggle]

You'd probably be better off investing in the lotto than in pensions - about the same level of risk and much better potential for return. I'm looking forward to retirement when my pension (at current rate of inflation) will allow me to buy a nice bar of chocolate once a month.

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

You'd probably be better off investing in the lotto than in pensions - about the same level of risk and much better potential for return. I'm looking forward to retirement when my pension (at current rate of inflation) will allow me to buy a nice bar of chocolate once a month.

I've put everything into an S&P tracker.

If the stock market overall does well, I'll be okay.

If it's fucked, then my pension will be too.


But it's okay, my gaff in Dublin will be worth millions! (based on 12% p.a. property price increases lasting forever and ever)

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

Does anyone know if you can take money from a pension plan to buy a house?

 

[jonah]

I've never had a pension and I'm scared to think about pensions, and my office wants us all (voluntarily) to meet with their pension people and I don't know what to do, what to agree to what to not agree to... do I need a pension?

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

I've never had a pension and I'm scared to think about pensions, and my office wants us all (voluntarily) to meet with their pension people and I don't know what to do, what to agree to what to not agree to... do I need a pension?

I'd have thought that everyone needed one.
The pension people will guide you through it. Whatever fund of plan they put you in, you can always change later.
Getting started while you're still so young is a good move.
Once you feel that pain in the first paycheck deduction, you kind of don't feel it again.
You should do it.

 

[Squiggle]

Unless you don't have to, in which case there are other options that are a bit safer and won't risk you being left with half of nothing come retirement age. With almost every pension scheme moving to defined contribution, and stipulating that there is no guarantee of any pension at the end of it, they're desperate to recruit new payees to make sure that the current batch of nearly retirement age get their defined payments without the company having to stump up the balance.

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

Unless you don't have to, in which case there are other options that are a bit safer and won't risk you being left with half of nothing come retirement age. With almost every pension scheme moving to defined contribution, and stipulating that there is no guarantee of any pension at the end of it, they're desperate to recruit new payees to make sure that the current batch of nearly retirement age get their defined payments without the company having to stump up the balance.

But aren't pension investments put into the stock market and bond market etc?
Your risk is in the market, not with your employer's pot of money?

Or am I way off the mark?

I really wish @nlgbbbblth was still around.

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

Like your employer doesn't have some pot of money out the back that they are working out of.
Your money is in Irish Life or Zurich or whoever.

 

[Squiggle]

But aren't pension investments put into the stock market and bond market etc?
Your risk is in the market, not with your employer's pot of money?

Or am I way off the mark?

I really wish @nlgbbbblth was still around.

The entire fund goes into the market. But it's usually ringfenced, so the company pot is invested as a lump (with other funds maybe) but they'll all go up or down equally and the reports given on any scheme will be in respect of that company only. Almost every single pension fund in the country is currently in deficit after the last crash, some massively so. And the current rate of return is rubbish. Most of them will struggle to meet the short-term calls on the fund, say the next 5-10 years of retirees. When the markets crash again, as they will, they'll take another hit. A deposit account (even with the current crap rates), credit union savings, Post Office Savings Bonds, art collection, gold jewellery or any one of a number of other ways of "investing" your money will at least guarantee you get it back in 40 years with some interest to counter inflation... no pension scheme I've seen in the last while (with the exception of the very few defined benefits ones left) will do that... and most make no guarantees you will get anything.

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

I maybe be confused with the way my retirement scheme works here in the US. I have everything in the S&P 500 through Fidelity and it has doubled in the last 5 years.
Maybe I'll see the crash coming (gulp) and get out into bonds.
One of the benefits of this type of investing is that it is all pre-tax money. So I'm starting with a 30% jump on anything I could do with my take home pay.

I think my Irish fund is still with the company fund of my previous employer. I'd like to get it out and into a REIT or something like that.
But even that company fund has gone up about 50% in the three years since I've left.
None of these are huge sums, but I don't want to be dependent solely on the state pension.

 

[Squiggle]

The US have been doing pensions for longer, and the market is much better regulated (after all, their invested pension is all most people will have). I know a few people who retired just after the last crash who won't see the money they put in to the fund (even Euro for Euro ignoring how much it has devalued over the 35 odd years they were contributing) unless they live to about 150.

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

A deposit account (even with the current crap rates), credit union savings, Post Office Savings Bonds, art collection, gold jewellery or any one of a number of other ways of "investing" your money will at least guarantee you get it back in 40 years with some interest to counter inflation.

I think the one thing we agree on is that it is never too early for @jonah to do something.

 

[jonah]

Thanks @Squiggle and @7 - No tomorrow

I do have a deposit account, and ongoing small loan in the credit union, and I'll look more into investing money in other ways when I actually have the outgoing money available. In the meantime I think I'll meet with the pension guys and see what they have to say/recommend. Luckily they come in every few months so if I meet with them this time I don't really have to make any decisions..

 

[7 - No tomorrow]

In the meantime I think I'll meet with the pension guys and see what they have to say/recommend. Luckily they come in every few months so if I meet with them this time I don't really have to make any decisions..

Fair play.

 

[Squiggle]

I think the one thing we agree on is that it is never too early for @jonah to do something.

Yes, just what... I've been forced in to the pension scheme at my last 3 employers and I'd much prefer to be putting that money to other uses. I think Gold is always a good investment and it's portable. But I also speculated with some art purchases a few years ago, which I'm hoping will sell for a small fortune in my old age