#40

I honestly think that the next two years will determine the futures of so many people in the UK. Compared to most people in the UK, we’re in a hugely privileged position, but even so, there’s massive uncertainty there.

Before May 2015, and certainly before June 2016, our plan was for me to start paying 20% into a pension, and to be mortgage-free within ten years.

Architects don’t tend to retire as such, but a big part of that is because virtually no firms have ever had pension schemes. With one, I was quite looking forward to having a decade or so of looking after the garden, working an allotment, and travelling.

But now though, I can’t see the construction industry not having a recession bigger than 2008-2012, and I’d be surprised if public sector workers (which my girlfriend is) weren’t shat on from a great height until they burn out or quit even more than they are now.

One solution might have been to escape rainy fascism island to where there are more jobs and where my girlfriend might be able to do the job she loves without being shafted, but obviously the collapse in the pound and means that we might be trapped.

:confused:

#42

Yeah, but the world should be getting better and progressing, not stepping backwards.

Plus, the removal of the safety net in this country when things do go wrong is going to a) screw over so many people and b) screw over the whole economy for everybody else.

#44

I admire your optimism that they’ll manage to get most of the damage done within two years.

#45

Feel like I’ve got two options:

  1. Grind away at my current job for the next 35 years which is OK not-doing-any-harm but not really what I dreamed of doing. Still, it has good pension and pay prospects so I can live OK in old age…
    OR
  2. Do something I believe in a bit more which will inevitably be far less well paid and won’t allow me to save up a pension, but I won’t feel like I’ve wasted my life getting there

It should always be number 2, shouldn’t it?

#46

Yes, but the idea that you can plan your life 35 years down the line is for the littlebirds.

#47

This feels like the real toss up. I’m 26 so I’m hoping that I’ve still got a few years of floundering a bit trying to find something which brings me greater satisfaction, before admitting defeat and submitting to my corporate overlords.

#48

Sounds good man! There’s always luck involved in these things but you made choices with those things as well.

#50

Both my parents will be retired by the end of this year, boggles my mind what they’ll do with themselves. They don’t own their house quite yet but think they will soon and will likely sell it and live in a smaller place so they can afford to live…;
Not worried myself because I will be dead long before 65

#51

yeah my gf’s dad retires next week and my folks will have their mortgage paid off in < 5 years. pretty crazy. but yeah with a bit of luck the nuclear winter will take us anwyay

#52

We had been overpaying the mortgage when we could from the start, which has made a massive difference. Now we have an Offset account, so all savings are in that which saves a lot in interest. I’m hoping to be mortgage free (or at break even on the mortgage/savings) within 5 or 6 years. But more realistically 8-10 years. Currently 6 years into a 25 year term.

I’m also trying to increase my pension contributions via salary sacrifice. I took a £25 monthly pay cut last month, which means an extra £40 a month goes in my pension. Think I’ve got about £270 a month going in now. But still the pension I’d get is pretty poor. I need to up it a lot more.

Once the the mortgage is paid off/at break even. I’ll probably salary sacrifice the equivalent of the monthly mortgage payment and try and max out the pension.

My parents have always lived in social housing and struggled in the past, I don’t expect much if any of an inheritance when they pass away, which is why I have got in the mindset of saving and overpaying from an early age.

Also at retirement, I’ll probably sell up and move somewhere more affordable.

#53

All the same quite sad silently waiting for the light to die on the concepts of pensions as politics whittles them into nothing as the market overrides public opinion. Probably take some direct action at some point to save them, but unlikely to actually happen. A nice thought though.

1 Like
#54

One of the likely consequences of the current demographic problem we’re in is that then it comes to OUR retirement there is likely to be a surplus of decent inexpensive rural property you can downsize to after all the Baby Boomers who were in them have died and their children/grandchildren have sold them to buy property in the cities…

#55

Will not having kids help d’ya think?

Or will I have no-one to look after me in my old age?

#57

Certainly will increase your ability to save and reduce your outgoings.

Although this idea that “when I’m old my kids will look after me” seems completely at odds with how most people ACTUALLY treat the elderly in their families.

1 Like
#59

FINALLY someone with a good idea in this thread.

1 Like
#60

Mug’s game mate, all the money’s in shifting Magic and Yugioh, and there’s no way I’m spending my twilight years around THOSE people.

#63

Don’t think they’ll be pensions in 20 years.

1 Like
#64

Well, from personal experience, my father has been nothing short of a saint to his parents. He deserves for me to look after him when he’s decrepit, but I will be too busy on two zero hour contracts at 62 to take him to ASDA’s

#65

Hahahaha as if that boat’s gonna look after you when you’re old

1 Like
#66

Your father is a good man.