I thought pensions were getting a lot of negative views lately because they are being seen as unreliable? I have to admit I dont have that much knowledge about them, but I thought a lot of people were losing their pensions (like the problems with the RM deficit) or they wernt paying out like they were supposed to?

Had my pension for 5 years now and im 26........need to up the payments though to be honest. Work pays in 7% of my salary which isnt too bad I dont think.

One problem with a company pension fund is that the company controls the fund and potentially can use it to their own ends. Ive seen my employer take a contributions holiday where the value of the fund was doing well enough they didnt need to pay into it to achieve the target value. Later they had to come cap in hand to the employees and ask for them to put more in when there was a shortfall  .
I have a personal private pension, so at least this cant happen. If you are self employed then you have no option but to sort it yourself; unless you think you are going to make so much money you wont need a pension.

Mine is a private pension with Aviva, and the company pays in 7% still.

yep, all employees in the UK have to be offered the option of a pension now... employee puts in whatever% and the employer also has to put in another%

(cant remember the numbers)

luck for me you can opt out of it.... and the guys working for me did !

I dont know much about them really, but why would you opt out? Surely its free money?

Quote from: dogbertWhat to do with your cash:

Income Protection : If youre out of work due to accident/illness this will pay a major % of your normal salary : Usefull if you have Mortage/Rent & Other high bills. Take this out as young as you can for the cheapest deals. Be carefull of the small-print many policys have detailed specific clauses that can make them difficult to claim. i.e. No payout for lung cancer if youre a smoker, no payout for broken bones if you drive a sports car etc...

Life Insurance : If you die - A Lump sum is paid on death to your next of kin. Good for wife/children other dependants.

Pension : Pay into a pension plan, on retirement the plan is auctioned for the highest pidder to provide you a yearly income. You can not withdraw/invest or otherwise move money once its paid into a Pension. - Persoanly I suggest paying the minimum and investing your cash in real savings.

Savings:

ISA - TAX FREE Savings : Limit is over £3600 soon to rise higher, all interest is tax free and best place to saves money

Shares - Gambling on the market - Dont invest anything you cant afford to loose.

Bank Account - Minimal Interest & Taxed against as income - So you dont get all the cash.

Income protection, not worth it as almost inevitably they will limit the amount you are paid or not pay at all. Loads of items about this happening. If you have money for this and are buying something big you are better off saving it in an account instead.

Pension, if you arent rich put a nice wedge in this as it will help a lot. If you are rich then you should be investing in shares, bonds and the like too.

ISA fill it up if you can.

bank account, go for a high interest one and keep some money in for emergency bills.

Property, can be a good investment but now pricey. Take care and investigate properly if you wnt to go this way

The property market is bottoming out, if anyone is thinking about property now is the time to be saving a very healthy deposit - in the next few years it will be at its lowest and it will be time to buy again. But not just yet.

Quote from: chrisdickoI dont know much about them really, but why would you opt out? Surely its free money?

well.... if youre on min. wage, live in a council house, and never want to get your own place / save up for anything.... then theres not much point in having a private pension... the government will look after you.... youd be better off with an extra tenner/whatever in your pocket every week instead of in the pension

Quote from: Clockd 0NeThe property market is bottoming out, if anyone is thinking about property now is the time to be saving a very healthy deposit - in the next few years it will be at its lowest and it will be time to buy again. But not just yet.

Were already picking up - now is the perfect time to buy. But in a year it will still be good value.

Quote from: Clockd 0NeI thought pensions were getting a lot of negative views lately because they are being seen as unreliable? I have to admit I dont have that much knowledge about them, but I thought a lot of people were losing their pensions (like the problems with the RM deficit) or they wernt paying out like they were supposed to?

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/discount-pensions is probably a better explanation than mine but....

Its important to understand what a pension actually is - a tax-efficient wrapper for types of investment to encourage people to save for retirement... so you can either have low-risk, relatively low-gain cash investments inside that wrapper, or you can have high-gain high risk investments inside the wrapper... lots of peoples bad pension performance is around picking a high risk mix of investments within the wrapper (assuming they have a choice over this).

Also, not sure whos comment was on pensions being free money... not really... if your company has to pay 7% into your pension that cost has to come from somewhere... aint magic

the thing is, unless youre over 40 (or a bit older) it wont really make any difference to your pension anyway.... its just a blip on the radar... youll probably be better off still because the economy was doing great before this...

Quote from: knightythe thing is, unless youre over 40 (or a bit older) it wont really make any difference to your pension anyway.... its just a blip on the radar... youll probably be better off still because the economy was doing great before this...

To an extent - hence you should reduce risk in your options as you get closer to retirement.