Pension stuff, how's it all looking ? HAve you prepared ?

[Dodgy69]

Yep, some folk need lots of money in retirement and like to tell everyone about it.. and some folk don't.

I find this so incredibly sad.

My son-in-law went to secondary boarding school and Uni in the UK and he's not a UK national but understands the culture, we were having lunch with the family over at theirs and he was talking about one of my cars in the UK and he asked me if I worry that one of the neighbours sees it and gets resentful and it becomes awkward. His parents have a place in the UK and in the same conversation they told us that they purposely don't have nice cars there just for that reason, they have a base model 3 white Tesla each, purposely chosen so no one will be resentful towards them, I actually felt ashamed to be British when they told me, that's what people think of us.

We shouldn't get confused between smart folk making the right choices in life and having nice things and folk bragging on public forums about how many millions they have.

There may be folk on here who are struggling with the cost of being alive, and imo reading on a public forum about how much they have just doesn't sit well with me and doesn't help the forum. Imo.

Nothing sad about it.

[Yorick]

Yep, some folk need lots of money in retirement and like to tell everyone about it.. and some folk don't.

I find this so incredibly sad.

My son-in-law went to secondary boarding school and Uni in the UK and he's not a UK national but understands the culture, we were having lunch with the family over at theirs and he was talking about one of my cars in the UK and he asked me if I worry that one of the neighbours sees it and gets resentful and it becomes awkward. His parents have a place in the UK and in the same conversation they told us that they purposely don't have nice cars there just for that reason, they have a base model 3 white Tesla each, purposely chosen so no one will be resentful towards them, I actually felt ashamed to be British when they told me, that's what people think of us.

Over here there's no snobbery and trying to impress the neighbours.
Plenty of folk with money, but very rare you'll see a pretentious car.
Only car like that I see in town is a Ford Mustang.
Plenty of brand new cars, but bought to enjoy not to impress.

[IccyV2]

We shouldn't get confused between smart folk making the right choices in life and having nice things and folk bragging on public forums about how many millions they have.

There may be folk on here who are struggling with the cost of being alive, and imo reading on a public forum about how much they have just doesn't sit well with me and doesn't help the forum. Imo.

Nothing sad about it.

"There may be folk..."?

Is there or isn't there?
Who are these people? Have they asked you to be their spokesman?

[IccyV2]

Over here there's no snobbery and trying to impress the neighbours.
Plenty of folk with money, but very rare you'll see a pretentious car.
Only car like that I see in town is a Ford Mustang.
Plenty of brand new cars, but bought to enjoy not to impress.

I've got mates who have houses in Lanzarote, they have supercars, in fact one has a fleet of supercars, you can also rent them at multiple places, people have money and nice cars, but fortunately Brits are in the minority, you've got about 6000-6500 British over there and a total population of approx 165,000 people.
They haven't managed to turn it into the UK yet, full of people with chips on their shoulders, fortunately.

But here we go again, we swatted the political morons off like dirty little flies and it's been a blessing without their stench, but I wondered how long it would be before I couldn't even have a conversation without some clown spewing his resent out all over a thread and trying to derail it.

[IccyV2]

If we ignore the trolls perhaps they'll go away.

Has anyone got any decent links to annuities that seem to be good? @weeksy what was the one you said would pay £40k over 20yrs or is that a company pension?

I don't mind paying if I feel like I'm getting my money's worth, it's just that the ones I've looked at, even my old Scottish Widows one that has morphed into something else doesn't seem to be doing me any favours even if I start to drop as bigger lumps in as the law will allow.
It all seems to be steering people towards investments, ISAs being reduced, annuities not very attractive, property laws making it very challenging for landlords, there aren't many options left apart from crypto and stocks/shares.

[v8-powered]

Was talking annuities with my wife this morning, who's an IFA, she reckons if you can get 7% you are doing well.

We are both focusing on exit strategies from our respective jobs, got to get off the merry go round.....

[IccyV2]

Was talking annuities with my wife this morning, who's an IFA, she reckons if you can get 7% you are doing well.

We are both focusing on exit strategies from our respective jobs, got to get off the merry go round.....

Is that as simple as it sounds? E.g. I put £500k in and I get £35k (7%) a year for the rest of my life?
If it was literally that black and white I'd probably go for it, that's £3k a month for life.

Every time I've looked I've ended up being put off by the return so I ended up not reading much past that point.
I heard some will only guarantee for a certain time, like ten years, then you're at the mercy of a B0fE rate?

The FAs I've spoken to weren't great, they want you to sign up because of a big commission and are very coy about what happens in the future.

[Yorick]

Yep, some folk need lots of money in retirement and like to tell everyone about it.. and some folk don't.

I find this so incredibly sad.

My son-in-law went to secondary boarding school and Uni in the UK and he's not a UK national but understands the culture, we were having lunch with the family over at theirs and he was talking about one of my cars in the UK and he asked me if I worry that one of the neighbours sees it and gets resentful and it becomes awkward. His parents have a place in the UK and in the same conversation they told us that they purposely don't have nice cars there just for that reason, they have a base model 3 white Tesla each, purposely chosen so no one will be resentful towards them, I actually felt ashamed to be British when they told me, that's what people think of us.

We shouldn't get confused between smart folk making the right choices in life and having nice things and folk bragging on public forums about how many millions they have.

There may be folk on here who are struggling with the cost of being alive, and imo reading on a public forum about how much they have just doesn't sit well with me and doesn't help the forum. Imo.

Nothing sad about it.

Nobody is saying how much they have

But if someone has worked hard and got a few tasty cars, I wanna hear about it.

There are very few reasons to be skint and moaning in your 50s and later.
We all had chances.

[v8-powered]

Was talking annuities with my wife this morning, who's an IFA, she reckons if you can get 7% you are doing well.

We are both focusing on exit strategies from our respective jobs, got to get off the merry go round.....

Is that as simple as it sounds? E.g. I put £500k in and I get £35k (7%) a year for the rest of my life?
If it was literally that black and white I'd probably go for it, that's £3k a month for life.

Every time I've looked I've ended up being put off by the return so I ended up not reading much past that point.
I heard some will only guarantee for a certain time, like ten years, then you're at the mercy of a B0fE rate?

To be honest I kind of switch off a bit when she starts talking finances, its not my thing and trust her to do what is right!

Guess rates will change over the duration but would have to ask her....

[Yorick]

Was talking annuities with my wife this morning, who's an IFA, she reckons if you can get 7% you are doing well.

We are both focusing on exit strategies from our respective jobs, got to get off the merry go round.....

Is that as simple as it sounds? E.g. I put £500k in and I get £35k (7%) a year for the rest of my life?
If it was literally that black and white I'd probably go for it, that's £3k a month for life.

Every time I've looked I've ended up being put off by the return so I ended up not reading much past that point.
I heard some will only guarantee for a certain time, like ten years, then you're at the mercy of a B0fE rate?

The FAs I've spoken to weren't great, they want you to sign up because of a big commission and are very coy about what happens in the future.

There are lots of online annuity calculators if you Google it

[weeksy]

I find this so incredibly sad.

My son-in-law went to secondary boarding school and Uni in the UK and he's not a UK national but understands the culture, we were having lunch with the family over at theirs and he was talking about one of my cars in the UK and he asked me if I worry that one of the neighbours sees it and gets resentful and it becomes awkward. His parents have a place in the UK and in the same conversation they told us that they purposely don't have nice cars there just for that reason, they have a base model 3 white Tesla each, purposely chosen so no one will be resentful towards them, I actually felt ashamed to be British when they told me, that's what people think of us.

We shouldn't get confused between smart folk making the right choices in life and having nice things and folk bragging on public forums about how many millions they have.

There may be folk on here who are struggling with the cost of being alive, and imo reading on a public forum about how much they have just doesn't sit well with me and doesn't help the forum. Imo.

Nothing sad about it.

Nobody is saying how much they have

But if someone has worked hard and got a few tasty cars, I wanna hear about it.

There are very few reasons to be skint and moaning in your 50s and later.
We all had chances.

What an absolute load of shite

[Yorick]

We shouldn't get confused between smart folk making the right choices in life and having nice things and folk bragging on public forums about how many millions they have.

There may be folk on here who are struggling with the cost of being alive, and imo reading on a public forum about how much they have just doesn't sit well with me and doesn't help the forum. Imo.

Nothing sad about it.

Nobody is saying how much they have

But if someone has worked hard and got a few tasty cars, I wanna hear about it.

There are very few reasons to be skint and moaning in your 50s and later.
We all had chances.

What an absolute load of shite

I'm interested to know why?

[weeksy]

Think of the bloke who works in Tesco and his missus is a bar maid. Think of the guy who works on your car and his missus who works in a greasy spoon.

These are earning not much more than minimum wage and there's a lot more of them in the country than iT blokes on 80k

Thi k back to when you lived in Bradford. How many of the people got out and made it?

Especially now with property booms no longer a thing and house prices being insane

You live in a little bubble and it makes me laugh how you see the world

[Yorick]

Think of the bloke who works in Tesco and his missus is a bar maid. Think of the guy who works on your car and his missus who works in a greasy spoon.

These are earning not much more than minimum wage and there's a lot more of them in the country than iT blokes on 80k

Thi k back to when you lived in Bradford. How many of the people got out and made it?

Especially now with property booms no longer a thing and house prices being insane

You live in a little bubble and it makes me laugh how you see the world

I worked hard. Took part time jobs. Worked overtime.
Did extra training to improve my job prospects
When my wife died when I was 39, I came here to see my dad.

Decided then to retire here

So worked my bollox off and got what I wanted

The guys on minimum wages in supermarkets could get extra part time jobs like I did

Nobody gave me anything

[weeksy]

Think of the bloke who works in Tesco and his missus is a bar maid. Think of the guy who works on your car and his missus who works in a greasy spoon.

These are earning not much more than minimum wage and there's a lot more of them in the country than iT blokes on 80k

Thi k back to when you lived in Bradford. How many of the people got out and made it?

Especially now with property booms no longer a thing and house prices being insane

You live in a little bubble and it makes me laugh how you see the world

I worked hard. Took part time jobs. Worked overtime.
Did extra training to improve my job prospects
When my wife died when I was 39, I came here to see my dad.

Decided then to retire here

So worked my bollox off and got what I wanted

The guys on minimum wages in supermarkets could get extra part time jobs like I did

Nobody gave me anything

Now try getting a 2nd job when you've got 2 kids as well.

Not everyone can make it. Thr odds are, most cannot.

Only 33% of UK own their home outright and 67% of them are over 65, as you'd expect

16-18% are in social housing.

We on here are a small and very fortunate piece of society mostly.

[Count Steer]

Wiki: In the West, boomers' childhoods in the 1950s and 1960s had significant reforms in education, both as part of the ideological confrontation that was the Cold War, and as a continuation of the interwar period. Theirs was a time of economic prosperity and rapid technological progress, and many grew up expecting the world to improve with time.

...and it, pretty much did. That was then and this is now and I'd say I had it a damn sight easier than the subsequent generations in jobs, income, pensions, houses and opportunities in general. There's bugger all point in me saying to a 21 year old 'just do what I did son'.

[Yorick]

Think of the bloke who works in Tesco and his missus is a bar maid. Think of the guy who works on your car and his missus who works in a greasy spoon.

These are earning not much more than minimum wage and there's a lot more of them in the country than iT blokes on 80k

Thi k back to when you lived in Bradford. How many of the people got out and made it?

Especially now with property booms no longer a thing and house prices being insane

You live in a little bubble and it makes me laugh how you see the world

I worked hard. Took part time jobs. Worked overtime.
Did extra training to improve my job prospects
When my wife died when I was 39, I came here to see my dad.

Decided then to retire here

So worked my bollox off and got what I wanted

The guys on minimum wages in supermarkets could get extra part time jobs like I did

Nobody gave me anything

Now try getting a 2nd job when you've got 2 kids as well.

Not everyone can make it. Thr odds are, most cannot.

Only 33% of UK own their home outright and 67% of them are over 65, as you'd expect

16-18% are in social housing.

We on here are a small and very fortunate piece of society mostly.

My pride and joy is an 8 year old Dacia Duster

Every day we see folk on here talking about their mega expensive cars and vans.

Hmmm

[JackyJoll]

Our economy is deteriorating.

If the problem is ever solved, it won’t be by blaming “boomers,” immigrants, or even “the elite.”

[Dodgy69]

It's definitely harder these days. I and most on here would of had 25 year mortgages, so hopefully in your 50s you're clear and maybe able to retire early, or whatever. Today it's all 40 year mortgages, god knows when that gets paid off and this poxy part ownership bollox.

Many of these new houses going out to part ownership ( my niece ) are absolute shit builds. She has water running down the inside of the walls when it rains. Warranty doesn't seem to count for anything and everyone's blaming everyone else, it's a joke.

Talking to a lad last week, he's got his 20k deposit money but the lenders won't give him a mortgage to buy, only if he goes down the part ownership route they will lend him. He and his girlfriend both work full time.

It's a proper shit show for the young these days and I'm sure reading 1 or 2 posts on here will cheer them up no end.

[IccyV2]

We got rid of the politics section but the politics weren’t the problem, the problem is the mentality of apathy, envy and resentment.

Here we are again, woe is me, the world is against me, it’s too hard to make it, I haven’t got the right chances, life isn’t fair, blah blah.

A bit of a twist this time though because it seems people aren’t complaining on their behalf, it’s on the behalf of someone else who might be reading about my thirty year journey from homeless to reaching my targets and this might upset some mythical young people who are apparently reading this.

Young people have some challenges that we didn’t have but they also have huge advantages, they’ve got so much information and opportunity at their fingertips that it’s staggering, stuff that I couldn’t have even dreamed about, you can become a millionaire from your bedroom on YouTube.

Unfortunately many of them will do what you’re doing, they’ll blame other people, say that life isn’t fair and it’s impossible to get ahead. Their parents probably reinforce this mentality and encourage it.

Meanwhile those with a different and more positive attitude will find a way, like me they’ll probably try to encourage others to do it as well but they’ll just get told they’re wrong and eventually they’ll stop trying.

I’ve tried so many times over the years to encourage people and all I got was shit for it. I told everyone on here at least two years before it happened that interest rates would spike and a cost of living crisis was coming, two years before the phrase was even used in the news, but I got told I was wrong or an apathetic “there is nothing I can do” and you were right, I as good as gave you next weeks lottery numbers and most of you just sat on it and did nothing.

And now here we are again, another opportunity to moan and blame someone else for your woes, people moaning that life isn’t fair and it’s not their fault. But they’re not the problem, I’m now the problem because I have some nice cars - keep it up, let it fester and grow again and you’ve got the politics section back under another name.

I used to get blamed for it but I left the forum and it got even worse. Without any push back it just became a full on left wing moaning cesspool. Now I’m back and soon enough we’re creeping back to the same old tired shit, we can’t even have a conversation without the resent pouring out. The problem wasn’t a forum section, the problem is the mentality of some people and it’s starting again.