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[tunnie]

everyone needs to pay more, as we live longer than we used to. Although strikes were well shown in the news, the turn out was actually very poor, just a 5th of what the unions wanted!

I increased my pension contributions from 4% to 8% last week, as all this talk made me see how much I would actually get.

Add the 8% my employer pays in, I have a not too reasonable 16% pot now. Which in todays Monday (according to the Pension calculator) is around £24k a year.

Still not great, well under half what I'm earning now 

I personally think property would be wise investment, not go mad, just get a second flat in London thats easy to rent out. In 25 years time mortgage paid off, the value of the flat is there, plus the rent is clear easy money, at least a grand a month in todays money.

Could be a nice little earner, just need to blag my other contracts going long enough to save up a deposit.  :-/

[Marks DTM Calib]

everyone needs to pay more, as we live longer than we used to. Although strikes were well shown in the news, the turn out was actually very poor, just a 5th of what the unions wanted!

I increased my pension contributions from 4% to 8% last week, as all this talk made me see how much I would actually get.

Add the 8% my employer pays in, I have a not too reasonable 16% pot now. Which in todays Monday (according to the Pension calculator) is around £24k a year.

Still not great, well under half what I'm earning now 

I personally think property would be wise investment, not go mad, just get a second flat in London thats easy to rent out. In 25 years time mortgage paid off, the value of the flat is there, plus the rent is clear easy money, at least a grand a month in todays money.

Could be a nice little earner, just need to blag my other contracts going long enough to save up a deposit.  :-/

I bet its not as much as 24K either.....what is the calc equations as I suspect that figure incldues the state pension to (as most include that in the total)

[tunnie]

Humm good point, did'nt think about that 

It did say "likely" figure....

Makes me think second flat is even better, property prices may slow, might even fall a little (although London tends to be bit more stable)

If like i've seen on the news Pension companies going under, people loosing the lot.

Property is not guaranteed, but I'd say its the better choice.

[Shackeng]

everyone needs to pay more, as we live longer than we used to. Although strikes were well shown in the news, the turn out was actually very poor, just a 5th of what the unions wanted!

I increased my pension contributions from 4% to 8% last week, as all this talk made me see how much I would actually get.

Add the 8% my employer pays in, I have a not too reasonable 16% pot now. Which in todays Monday (according to the Pension calculator) is around £24k a year.

Still not great, well under half what I'm earning now 

I personally think property would be wise investment, not go mad, just get a second flat in London thats easy to rent out. In 25 years time mortgage paid off, the value of the flat is there, plus the rent is clear easy money, at least a grand a month in todays money.

Could be a nice little earner, just need to blag my other contracts going long enough to save up a deposit.  :-/

This is a good time to get back into buy-to-let, but not necessarily in London. Check the prices of property around the country. I was in that market a few years ago, and it proved very profitable. Go for it Tunnie.

[El33t]

The greek and Irish economies are not in a mess because of public spending cuts. They are in a mess because for many years they have been spending money they havent earned and dont have.

I will retract the reference to the Greek economy, as I made that without knowing everything, but the Irish economy IS broken due to spending cuts.

The government there was praised for having a pretty stable economy, however when the recession hit they imposed a series of "emergency budgets" that cut public spending, including reducing wages and benefits and charging MORE for public services.

They are now in their THIRD year of recession, and are slipping further into it. If spending cuts are the way out, why is their economy not improving? Unemployment there reached 13.7% in April 2010. It's now 14.2%.

Sounds like a good ecomony to me!

I would like to ask you a question though if I may. If the report in the link I posted is true - that I contribute more to your pension than I do to my own - do you think thats ok/fair/just/reasonable ?

No it's not, but is that the fault of the public sector? No. Look at your employer. I am not in a strong position to say this about yours directly, but in general, the private sector pensions are hampered by rather wealthy CEOs at the top who have very generous pensions (like the MPs in parliament!) who are disproportionately having more paid into THEIR pensions then the people who are working for them.

Why should I pay (by which I mean, lose out on what I could potentially have) just because there are some greedy rich people at the top of the companies in the private sector who aren't willing to ensure their hard-working employees get a fair deal?

I dont want anyone to fight for me, Im capable of fighting my own battles. Dont need someone like Bob crowbar on his £100,000+ p.a. to tell me he is going to lead me out of my misery to a socialist utopia.

Well that's your decision then, isn't it? Fighting as a union (or in union with other similarly affected people) is more effective then taking on everyone by yourself. You don't want to fight for the better pensions that you deserve then live with what you do have and don't complain and don't get upset when other people begin fighting for what they should be getting. I take the same attitude with colleagues who refuse to take part in what we do, and it's entirely fair.

What has become really evident since that day is the HUGE divide between private and public sector workers. The Government and press are doing their damndest to turn us against each other for the Government's own benefit (although I can honestly say that the support we received on Thursday was brilliant, at a local level at least).

It's also sincerely depressing that EVERYONE'S attitude is that the way to approach unfairness is to cut, cut, cut, rather than raise everyone to the same level.

It's the old race-to-the-bottom attitude and we implemented it across all working practices and in all professions then we truly would be back in the early 1900s.

[Varche]

The greek and Irish economies are not in a mess because of public spending cuts. They are in a mess because for many years they have been spending money they havent earned and dont have.

I will retract the reference to the Greek economy, as I made that without knowing everything, but the Irish economy IS broken due to spending cuts.

The government there was praised for having a pretty stable economy, however when the recession hit they imposed a series of "emergency budgets" that cut public spending, including reducing wages and benefits and charging MORE for public services.

They are now in their THIRD year of recession, and are slipping further into it. If spending cuts are the way out, why is their economy not improving? Unemployment there reached 13.7% in April 2010. It's now 14.2%.

Sounds like a good ecomony to me!

I would like to ask you a question though if I may. If the report in the link I posted is true - that I contribute more to your pension than I do to my own - do you think thats ok/fair/just/reasonable ?

No it's not, but is that the fault of the public sector? No. Look at your employer. I am not in a strong position to say this about yours directly, but in general, the private sector pensions are hampered by rather wealthy CEOs at the top who have very generous pensions (like the MPs in parliament!) who are disproportionately having more paid into THEIR pensions then the people who are working for them.

Why should I pay (by which I mean, lose out on what I could potentially have) just because there are some greedy rich people at the top of the companies in the private sector who aren't willing to ensure their hard-working employees get a fair deal?

I dont want anyone to fight for me, Im capable of fighting my own battles. Dont need someone like Bob crowbar on his £100,000+ p.a. to tell me he is going to lead me out of my misery to a socialist utopia.

Well that's your decision then, isn't it? Fighting as a union (or in union with other similarly affected people) is more effective then taking on everyone by yourself. You don't want to fight for the better pensions that you deserve then live with what you do have and don't complain and don't get upset when other people begin fighting for what they should be getting. I take the same attitude with colleagues who refuse to take part in what we do, and it's entirely fair.

What has become really evident since that day is the HUGE divide between private and public sector workers. The Government and press are doing their damndest to turn us against each other for the Government's own benefit (although I can honestly say that the support we received on Thursday was brilliant, at a local level at least).

It's also sincerely depressing that EVERYONE'S attitude is that the way to approach unfairness is to cut, cut, cut, rather than raise everyone to the same level.
It's the old race-to-the-bottom attitude and we implemented it across all working practices and in all professions then we truly would be back in the early 1900s.

Not everyone . In my earlier post "As usual everyone has missed the point.

If Britain is the rich country we are led to believe then surely decent pensions should be top of the priorities. Lets get both the public and private sector pensions up to a decent level.

How? Well a cut out waste drive in every industry(public or private) would be a good start, improved efficiency all around, less (zero) involvement in wars except if Nato ask for a contribution, scrap new aircarft carriers, tax on "Britains got Talent", self sufficient prisons. There is a long long list. " I referred to exactly that.

I think you are right in that the government are dividing by making all public sector workers look like shysters that do diddly squat and have a decent pension to look forward to. You only have to judge the strength of feeling on here. I suspect there are many OOFErs that are public sector workers but don't comment for fear of being marginalised.

We need to get our own house in good order and our own people, then we can bail out foreign countries and contribute billions towards the EU for potentially little return.

[El33t]

I apologise, I did read your post and agreed with it, but I forgot when I got irritated by posts following it.