contractdriver:
One life, live it!..
I’ve just left a job with a final salary pension after 14 years service because I hated it. Gone to another place with a basic workplace pension. I value my quality of life now, not to be miserable for the next 15 years just to draw a decent pension when I’m old and grey assuming I survive to draw it. [emoji53]
Santa:
I would also suggest that most skip lorry drivers seem to drive like Stirling Moss. Most council drivers barely break a sweat. Skip drivers have never heard of job-and-finish. Think carefully before you jump.
Did few days with the skip firm seemed fairly laid back there not targeted on the number of drops/exchanges/collections and they work set hours, job and finish at the council is good but sitting about the house every 2nd week till 2pm is a right pain in the ar$e
del949:
The number 3 bus could have your name on it. Give me a higher rate now and dont worry about me retiring. I have absolutely no desires towards living long enough to draw a pension
Surprising how many of my ex-colleagues thought that way, and now they are retired on basic state pension and a bit of social they all seem to say “if only…”
I have a half pension from the Army plus I dont spend every penny I make. I just keep it where the tax man cant see it and rightly so since its been taxed already
I have been driving lorries since I was 21 (now 27) if I live the trucker lifestyle and the government keep upping the pension age I don’t think I need to worry.
Ginge, at your age, you would be a mug not to put a few quid away every month. By the time you come to retire, it will be hefty sum. Why just exist and get by on the state pension? Save some money, and have a life after a lifetime of work. Unless, you truly embrace the truckers lifestyle, and you kick the bucket when you are sixty five like so many others. Not much of an aim in life though!
Live life for today, my dad worked all his life was just into his second year of retirement and was taken away from us with cancer, completely changed my outlook. I worked in the prison service for 22yrs left the job and I’m now trucking, but let me tell you the minute I can get my hands on my prison pension I will be taking it and enjoying the money with my wife and kids I refuse to worry about money in old age plenty of people in this country don’t lift a finger and get looked after so why shouldn’t I?
Contact the Maxwell family. They have a proven record with pensions.
Happiness matters more than money, don’t waste your life in a job that makes you unhappy just for the wages or pension.
However, it is wise to consider your finances while you’re young and not leave retirement planning too late. There will come a time when you can’t earn any more money so you should be prepared, and don’t plan on relaying on the State system. By the time you’re old enough there will be so many other old people living longer, and not enough working people, that there won’t be enough money to go round. The demographic time bomb they call it.
You get tax relief on money you pay into a pension, but most of it will be taxed when you take it. Company pensions come broadly in two flavours:
A ‘defined benefit’ scheme calculates your pension according to a prescribed formula, usually related to your salary and length of service. It was once common that only your salary near the end of your career was used, but nowadays more schemes use your average salary throughout your career which is fairer but produces a lower pension. You will pay a share towards the cost of the pension, but your employer will pump as much money into the scheme as is necessary to pay for the amount of pension they have promised you. Therefore your employer carries all the investment risks, and the risk that you might live to be 100. There aren’t many defined benefit schemes left as they are very expensive because the benefits are so good. Most of them are in the public sector, and the private sector has closed them down in favour of the cheaper ‘defined contribution’ scheme where all the risks are carried by the members, not the employers.
A ‘defined contribution’ scheme is a pot of money that you and your employer pay into together. The investment value rises (and falls), and you have decisions at the end what to do with the pot. You can usually take 25% of it tax-free, and it was once the case that you would normally have had to use the rest to buy a pension (called an annuity) with an insurance company. However, since April 2015 you are allowed to take as much of it as you like in cash. However, whatever you take above the 25% tax-free allowance gets taxed as income through the PAYE system when you take it, so you can very quickly end up paying 40% tax or more.
Remember that in a company scheme your employer is paying into your pension as well as you. If you don’t join the scheme then you lose out on the employer’s contribution, as well as the tax relief on your own contributions. You can go it alone with a personal pension or Self-Investment Personal Pension (SIPP) as mentioned above if you like, but don’t expect your employer to pay into it as well. And if you’re choosing your own investments you will need to be sure you know what you’re doing (or get lucky) if you want to beat the returns of funds managed by professional investment managers. Yes, they charge fees, but if they are good at what they do then isn’t that worth the price?
Please watch out for scammers though. The pensions industry has been targeted in recent years by organised crime gangs who are offering ‘free pension reviews’, texting and cold calling people trying to persuade them to transfer their pension or take out some special deal. DON’T TRUST THEM! Make sure you deal with an adviser who is properly regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the UK. The scammers often use advisers based in other EU countries who can legally work in the UK, but don’t understand our rules or follow them. Don’t agree to transfer your pension to an overseas pension scheme (called a QROPS or Qualifying Recognised Overseas Pension Scheme) unless you have a definite plan to leave the UK and live abroad when you retire. Scammers use QROPS products to get your money out of the country so it is more difficult for you to track it down and may well try to steal it.
There is no such thing as a ‘free pension review’, and if you find one on a website or someone calls you to offer one, walk away. Pensions are complicated, and good financial advice is not free. NEVER sign a form that an ‘adviser’ sends round to your home by courier.
So who said it was no good coming on a forum like this for pension advice? 
Janos:
Ginge, at your age, you would be a mug not to put a few quid away every month. By the time you come to retire, it will be hefty sum. Why just exist and get by on the state pension? Save some money, and have a life after a lifetime of work. Unless, you truly embrace the truckers lifestyle, and you kick the bucket when you are sixty five like so many others. Not much of an aim in life though!
At the moment after I pay my mortgage the rest is spent on my cars and having the crac - literally as I have booked flights for next weekend to Ireland to party with mates.
In years to come I should have paid for my house and have a car collection that can be my pension ha. Admitedly the collection right now is not worth millions - Corrado’s, Mk2 Golf, Mk2 Polo, Seat Ibiza and two garages of parts, so I won’t be opening a motor museum yet.
oldmannie:
I planned for my retirement, now in my 5th year. We have been doing 4 months in Spain (2 x 2 month trips)
and 1 month in USA each year and have not found it necessary to dip into the savings, all covered by pensions.
HOWEVER I meet umpteen people who did nothing for their retirement, many did not work at all or fiddled their way onto disability, and they are all as well off because of the help they get. I am entitled to nothing help wise and apparently never will be.
I am in Spain at the moment and just this morning met a man on disability who has driven out from UK in his disability
Nissan Quashquoi, taxed and insured on my tax from my pensions that I paid tax earning. He can drive to Spain but is unfit to do any sort of work in UK.
Makes me wonder was it all worth it.
On the bright side you won’t have to look at people like him for too long. One of the good things about old age is that it doesn;t last too long !!! 