Does anyone here not trust Pensions?

[AndyAudi]

Got a general Facebook ad in my feed & scrolled through the comments for interest, on these posts there’s often some folks with odd views (in my opinion) & the likes of below are not uncommon.



I know we’ve often seen arguments here that property “bricks & mortar” is the way some say’s best for funding their retirement & things but is anyone genuinely scared to invest in pensions?

I’d a school friend - very successful businessman now with own company but when he was employed flat refused to take the matched defined contribution scheme his co offered as he’d “heard of folk who’d lost loads with pensions & he’d rather his money where he could see it” I’d be curious to know if that approach stuck with him now he’s worth millions (albeit I do know he’s surrounded himself with £‘s of collectible assets) when he sells his co I don’t expect he’ll need a pension either now.

[Rufus Stone]

I guess the biggest risk is that the money is locked away for a long time, and that gives a future Government ample opportunity to dip into it at will before you do.

[bitchstewie]

I'd say it's less about not trusting pensions and more about doing your due diligence about who the pension is with and what it's invested in.

If you invest all of your pension into a penny stock mining company that's going to announce the biggest Uranium seam ever found any day now or some of the batst things you read about in the Money pages of the Telegraph and Mail the the issue isn't that pensions are bad or can't be trusted if you see what I mean.

[Narcisus]

In my case Company Phoenixed but offloaded the pension to the PPF.

Kept my Pension but lost 10%

[PM3]

Rufus Stone said:

I guess the biggest risk is that the money is locked away for a long time, and that gives a future Government ample opportunity to dip into it at will before you do.

I'm still not quite at drawing pension ( may well start next year ) The what government might do to spoil a plan has always been my only significant worry. Saying that , I still contributed and took advantage of maximum matching offered .
It is of course always possible the government will at any future time interfere and change rules on any investment vehicle chosen and there is nothing Joe average can do. I do know a couple of silver and gold bar/coin stashing people ....but there is generally no accounting for Americans

Trust providers ? Not as far as I could throw them, so I stuck with mainly the usual suspects and roll with the averages.

[limpsfield]

Adrian screenshotted in the OP will be okay, because it never says “capitOl at risk”

[Sheepshanks]

Our NHS worker daughter says many of her younger colleagues won’t join, or have dropped out, of the NHS pension due to a combination of the contribution rate being quite high and that it’s been messed around with a few times so they think that’ll keep happening such that they’ll never get it.

Edited by Sheepshanks on Sunday 13th October 10:13

[Leicester Loyal]

Is there anyone 18-30 who thinks they'll get a decent pension? Even the huge tax free lump sum will be hit in the next decade, maybe very shortly.

[VR99]

I try to find a middle ground between pensions and everything else i.e: savings, ISA etc. For higher rate tax payers not much else gets close however IMO there is a balance, similar to comments above no control over what the govt might do in the future and personally not interested in whacking everything into the pension and living on beans and toast till retirement.

I generally stick to the established platforms and same applies to the funds/ETF's, keep it simple and try not to tinker much...easier said that done.

Re. younger generations I don't blame them...if it's not feasible to save+ sky high rent and living costs then guesses pensions get put on the back burner.

[Sheepshanks]

VR99 said:

Re. younger generations I don't blame them...if it's not feasible to save+ sky high rent and living costs then guesses pensions get put on the back burner.

The NHS youngsters blame having to pay student loan. Think their pension contribution is 9% too, so more than most private sector employees pay.

Of course they’re missing out on a massive employer contribution but that doesn’t help them today, and they don’t believe they’ll ever get it anyway.

[Simpo Two]

Is the question about company pensions or private pensions? Or just all pensions?

[InitialDave]

Rufus Stone said:

I guess the biggest risk is that the money is locked away for a long time, and that gives a future Government ample opportunity to dip into it at will before you do.

That's kind of my position on where the concern should lie, coupled with the fact you cannot access the money and the government get to change the rules on a whim as to when you'll be allowed to.

It's not enough to stop me having pensions, but I feel it's always worth being mindful of.

In terms of the risk, yes, it's an investment and carries the risk that comes with that, but if you're in a company scheme with matched contribution, the effective doubling of what you're paying in coupled with the tax relief does mean that you're starting from a good position in terms of what it's cost you out of your own pocket for that initial stake.

That's not to say you should treat it like monopoly money and not care, but I think for most employed people there's a strong weighting towards sticking with their company provision.

[AllyM]

I’m 34 and salary sacrifice around 1/3 of my salary into my pension but increasingly I’m thinking this might not be so wise. That said, the alternative is to give half away now in tax, so…

[lizardbrain]

Simpo Two said:

Is the question about company pensions or private pensions? Or just all pensions?

I don't trust state pension, and exclude it from my forecasts. But thats just a gut feeling, I havn't looked into it. It will be a nice bonus but i'm not relying on it.

I trust my vanguard SIPP about as much as anything else. I aim for a 25% split between Personal savings, SIPP, ISA and Business savings.

So if there are big changes in any of these, the impact is minimal. For eg, if gov clamps down on retained earnings in a LTD (which they should IMO, too much 'entrepenuer' cash sitting idle ) it won't be too painful.

[Slow.Patrol]

Narcisus said:

In my case Company Phoenixed but offloaded the pension to the PPF.

Kept my Pension but lost 10%

This happened to me as well. Although the company I worked for totally folded.

We've hedged our bets and the extra we could have put into a pension has gone elsewhere. A mix of investments, property, premium bonds, ISAs etc

[oldaudi]

I got caught up in the standard life collapse in 2009ish. Lost loads.

I also got shafted with the Woodford funds in my SIPP

Since then I collect gold coins and pay into a SIPP but mostly into individual stocks and companies that I know. . My work pension gets 15% from me and my employer.

So, I prefer to be in control of my savings but only have a few ETFs and invest across approximately 30 individual companies that pay dividends. 100 ways to skin a cat of course but I prefer the transparency of individual companies that I recognise, I can control my investment and research individually.

I’ve excluded the state pension from my calculations

[Narcisus]

Slow.Patrol said:

Narcisus said:

In my case Company Phoenixed but offloaded the pension to the PPF.

Kept my Pension but lost 10%

This happened to me as well. Although the company I worked for totally folded.

We've hedged our bets and the extra we could have put into a pension has gone elsewhere. A mix of investments, property, premium bonds, ISAs etc

Nice one I took my PPF well they don't call it a Pension do they it's compensation last year when I was 55 and will be taking my main Pension in about 4 months when I retire still not 100% decided what I'm going to do with it though ...

[eyeslikealemur]

Sheepshanks said:

Our NHS worker daughter says many of her younger colleagues won’t join, or have dropped out, of the NHS pension due to a combination of the contribution rate being quite high and that it’s been messed around with a few times so they think that’ll keep happening such that they’ll never get it.

Very much loling at that.

I thought docs were meant to be slightly clever.

Worrying.

[alscar]

I think its more about the length of time that the funds are locked away for and possibly rightly or wrongly they are still seen as “ boring “.
Some employer schemes also appear relatively ungenerous in any event.
Perhaps these days some people think an inheritance is their pension scheme ?

[Man of gas]

eyeslikealemur said:

Sheepshanks said:

Our NHS worker daughter says many of her younger colleagues won’t join, or have dropped out, of the NHS pension due to a combination of the contribution rate being quite high and that it’s been messed around with a few times so they think that’ll keep happening such that they’ll never get it.

Very much loling at that.

I thought docs were meant to be slightly clever.

Worrying.

We are! What’s worrying is that you think everyone in the NHS must be a doctor. :-)