To think that a lot of us will be in trouble when we retire...

[Fleetheart]

This generation seems very unlike the previous ones in that we take out loans for everything, buy holidays on credit, kitchens on credit, new clothes etc etc. And pension schemes are getting less and less generous. And most of us don’t understand them anyway. I’ve always earned well, but have split up from partner, so still have s lot on my mortgage, no savings, and really not very much in my random pension schemes most of which are money purchase schemes and won’t pay a lot. And I know many people of my age (mid 50s) who have no pension at all. And meanwhile the govt is being less and less generous. What will become of us all?

@XingMing They went into workhouses or relied on parish help. Yes there are clear recorded cases of parish neglect. These recorded cases are the equivalent of our recorded cases of disabled people not getting the help they need and should be getting. They are recorded cases about the system that should be helping, breaking down.
I am not arguing it was pretty. The help was to stop people starving, nit to give them a good life.

But it is simply not true that we cannot provide state pensions. We have spent an absolute fortune om Brexit. There is always money available for anything the Government deems a priority.

And most people do not live for 30 years collecting their state pension.
And people of my generation largely started full-time work at 16.

I'm pretty sure I'll be OK.

On top of my state pension, for which I've already done at least half my contributory years with another 25(ish) years to go before retirement age, I've been paying into a pension since my 20s. I'm now on a defined benefit superannuated scheme for which the contributions are high (10% of my salary) but it'll be worth it in the end.

Also most people like myself who are not on good wages save enough in our pension to top up the state pension only. I could not afford to replace the state pension.

Thanks very much puzzled I'll look into that 😊

There is a time bomb and public sector pensions are bearing the brunt currently. There won’t be enough young workers to fund pensions for the retired - and Brexit won’t help.

Add in a more hedonistic, must have culture with people thinking things like holidays and cars are essential rather than luxury but using debt to fund it. Raised expectations and a need for instant gratification whereas a previous generation might have suggested you don’t have what you can’t afford.

People are living longer after retiring. There are more frail elderly and disabled to support.

If they decide to means test the state pension I’ll be bloody pissed off. I got a pay rise just as means testing came in for child benefit (so no child benefit from then onwards), and I’d love to make up for the years when i couldn’t afford to save much into my pension - but I’m hit by the limits on how much I can get tax relief on (which came in just before I got a significant pay rise taking my salary over £100k). So I imagine you can probably bank on means testing of the state pension being introduced in 2043 or there abouts.

Jesus, Obliette, on a salary of £100k, there’s probably about 90% of people on this thread far worse off than you. I think you can stop worrying about how you can fund your retirement.

Oubliette!

I’ve had to leave work to be a carer for my disabled son. He needs lifetime 24/7 care, will never live independently.

I had a career. Money. Life.

I never anticipated this. It is a complete mindfuck.

Whilst I worry about money (things are tight financially now with DLA & carers instead of my wage & now my husbands firm uncertain) I worry more what will happen my son when I die / be unable to care for him.

It has been an interesting thread.

It’s MN’s race of gloom though isn’t it.

One thread worrying about how we will support ourselves in our old age and the other worrying that we’ve fucked the planet so badly we won’t get to be old!

We need to decide what to be collectively worrying about.

poster OtraCosaMariposa Sat 17-Aug-19 17:45:52
And I know many people of my age (mid 50s) who have no pension at all
...

More fool them. I'm not that far off your age (mid 40s) and joining work pension schemes was always advised ever since i started full time work in the early 90s. If you've consistently ignored that advice and got to your 50s without a pension, that's very short-sighted.

Don’t let your halo slip, it might choke you.

Well no-one actually knows what we will be facing! MN just provides a forum to explore people’s concerns. I wouldn’t call it a “race of gloom”.

Don’t let your halo slip, it might choke you.

What, are you 12?

Yes there are more frail elderly and disabled people to support. But the issue isn't really pensions, it is social care.

Dh and I are same age as you, OP. Do you mean people our age take loans for everything? Or the ones coming up in their 30's?
Dh and I always lived within our means, much like coco's FIL we never took loans for anything other than the house mortgage. Older cars, cash for short breaks with the kids, or saved hard and paid for longer trips to see relatives abroad from us. Meals out were a big treat and still are.
We only bought things we actually needed, like new clothes. Now it seems younger people have new things and shop constantly.
Dh and I both have pensions to come, paid in over many years but we aren't old enough to collect them as yet. Dh is home not really well enough to work, but not disabled so I work and support us, as he did for years when we were younger with babies in the house.
Back in the early 80's I remember none of my friends thought there would ever be a state pension for us to collect and started to pay into work pensions back then.
This is nothing new. I was a newly qualified nurse and remember thinking I'd never afford a home of my own or a family, it all seemed very doom and gloom then too, before the 80's took off.

We're about to find out as dh retires in December at 58. He has a public sector pension which is enough for us both to live on, and I will be job hunting when we return to the UK as I have 6 years of NICs to make up to get my 35 years for my state pension. My LG and Teachers pensions kick in when I'm 60, so clocking up the last year of NICs should coincide with my pensions starting.

I was about to say I thought we were getting better about not taking out loans for everything. But you are my aunt's generation (my aunt is quite a lot younger than my parents, so not their generation), and she seems to be constantly relying on credit, and she doesn't have a pension at all.

DH is older than me and is now in his 50s, and while he doesn't have a lot of loans, he also doesn't have a pension scheme, other than the small NHS pension he got when he worked for them for about 5 years. So basically his retirement plan is that I'll still be working, and he'll probably be dead by the time I retire (he's only 10 years older than me, but the men in his family tend to die young :( )

I'm 40 and have a teacher pension which I think is still pretty good, although not quite as good as the one my mum had as a teacher. I haven't had any debt other than the mortgage for about 15 years now, and live well within my means. So I think I'm fairly well set up for retirement financially. I don't know that I'll be physically well enough to enjoy it though, as I've still got many years to go before I reach retirement age. The stress of life (as well as several chronic medical conditions) may have sent me on my way before I ever get to retire.

I saw the pensions issue coming a long time ago - well actually, my dad did, due to the career he has, and he's been banging on about it for years. DH and I have paid into pensions since our early twenties, and both of us from a very early age have aimed to work part time/freelance/condensed hours/whatever, as we realised that working our arses off 9-5 in a good job then retiring with a golden handshake at 55 wasn't going to happen for us. So we're resigned to working until we drop, but we've set up our lives so that it'll be part time work, and a good work life balance. We live incredibly frugally, we are home owners with a tiny mortgage because we deliberately bought in a cheap area and it will be paid off by the time I'm 45. The plan is that we will always be able to work a day or two a week, basically until we can't move, and this, along with our small pensions and no mortgage, should be fine.

We call it taking "lifelong retirement" - instead of working five days a week until age 55 then retiring and dying at 80, we're working three days a week forever.

Not for everyone, and God knows if it will work out in the end, but failing all else I can always jump into the sea with a pocket full of stones. If it was good enough for Virginia Woolf...

So his pension plan is to die. Well it’s a plan.

I used to say when younger I was happy to work part time as long as I could. And then I got ill. I still work but am not going to manage to keep working till I die.

If you do not know what to worry about you have not been paying attention. Try the brexit thread they seem to be on to a winner.

Other things could be the China crisis, nuclear Armageddon, an asteroid strike, the end of the world, a global plague, antibiotic meltdown, zombies,

Personally I am going to go with the Black Death. Rather like a lab culture we have exceeded our maintainable population levels. Obvious really. Contagion. Extinction.

"There is no point in me having more than 10k in the bank upon retirement because it will be docked from any benefits I get."

You are gambling that there will still be a benefit system as we have now
and that the state pension won't be cut
and that housing benefit will remain

Instead, there may only be dormitories or an updated form of workhouses
The pendulum has stuck for years at lowering tax,
so there may well not be enough to give the poorer elderly anything like the benefits and conditions they have today

I'm 40 and my workplace still had a final pension salary when I started.

Sadly it doesn't anymore.

"If people were penalised after saving all their lives to pay for their own retirement while the ostriches splurged then there would be fucking RIOTS"

It is the young who riot, not the elderly
or the workers could strike over paying higher taxes, but how could the retired strike ?

Most likely, in decades to come, spending per pensioner and their benefits will be slashed:

those pensioners who cannot support themselves will be warehoused in massive dormitorie,
while those can afford care homes will live at a decent standard

Even several years ago, when choosing a home for my late mum - she was skint, so I was paying
That enabled me to choose a brilliant home for her, not one of the dreadful ones to avoid
Money gives more choices, at all life stages

imo, in maybe 20 years time there will be a great chasm in quality of life in old age, depending on whether people have capital & savings, or not.

Relying on the government is always a risk

Making yourself totally* reliant on a future govt in decades time is madness !*