Baby Boomers - Where's My Audi Then?

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U

User482

Guest
From the public sector ?

What makes you say that? The scrapping of private-sector final salary schemes is a relatively recent innovation. My dad's private-sector pension was a thirtieths scheme, which is twice as generous as my (now scrapped) one.
 

Linford

Guest
It's fairly obvious that the older generation, are generally going to look better off to the young since they are likely to have had a full working life during which they have amassed wealth (if they are reasonably careful) and bought a house.

Britain has been on the slide since c. 1870, the peak year of the Empire after which the envy of other nations tended to be focussed our way. Two devastating world wars hastened the process and you can't blame 'boomers for those. Rather it is significant that we have had nearly 70 years of relative peace and seen off the threat from Russia without (much) blood shed by inhabitants of these islands.

I'll bet you didn't have to work and save for 12 years to save a deposit for your first house....which is where they are going with it now. You had access to free HE, my youngest daughter is having to find just under £9k PA to cover her tuition fees to uni...which means she has to take on a massive debt or end up with stacking shelves for the rest of her life whilst people 2 years older than her lucky enough to get a free degree can leapfrog onto a fastrack promotion ladder.

I've resigned myself to working until the day I die because I wanted to be an engineer and not a pen pusher working in the public sector.
 
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U

User482

Guest
I've resigned myself to working until the day I die because I wanted to be an engineers andnot a pen pusher working in the public sector.
Given the amount of time you spend on here, I predict that your work isn't going to wear you out.
 

PK99

Legendary Member
Location
SW19
What makes you say that? The scrapping of private-sector final salary schemes is a relatively recent innovation. My dad's private-sector pension was a thirtieths scheme, which is twice as generous as my (now scrapped) one.

It is often forgotten that a "full career final salary pension", while the norm in much of the Public Sector because of wide ranges of jobs and organisations being within the same schemes and the transferability between schemes (from which both my wife and i benefited), was a rarity in the private sector as most people moved companies during their career leaving behind frozen pensions (or pensions which, while increased in line with inflation, are based on salary at time of leaving not final career salary).

A friend is about to retire and one of her frozen pensions from early in her career will pay her £90 per year, someone at her level who had moved around the public sector would be getting 3/60 or 2/80 of £60k

Public sector final salary pensions (which my wife and i have benefitted from since we hit 50, despite each having moved industries within the Public Sector) are Gold Plated in multiple ways.
 
U

User482

Guest
It is often forgotten that a "full career final salary pension", while the norm in much of the Public Sector because of wide ranges of jobs and organisations being within the same schemes and the transferability between schemes (from which both my wife and i benefited), was a rarity in the private sector as most people moved companies during their career leaving behind frozen pensions (or pensions which, while increased in line with inflation, are based on salary at time of leaving not final career salary).

A friend is about to retire and one of her frozen pensions from early in her career will pay her £90 per year, someone at her level who had moved around the public sector would be getting 3/60 or 2/80 of £60k

Public sector final salary pensions (which my wife and i have benefitted from since we hit 50, despite each having moved industries within the Public Sector) are Gold Plated in multiple ways.

You're out of date: my pension is career average, not final salary. And you can't take it at 50 any more...

There's no doubt that public sector pensions usually have better terms than the private sector. That's Thatcher's fault of course.
 

asterix

Comrade Member
Location
Limoges or York
I'll bet you didn't have to work and save for 12 years to save a deposit for your first house....which is where they are going with it now. You had access to free HE, my youngest daughter is having to find just under £9k PA to cover her tuition fees to uni...which means she has to take on a massive debt or end up with stacking shelves for the rest of her life whilst people 2 years older than her lucky enough to get a free degree can leapfrog onto a fastrack promotion ladder.

I've resigned myself to working until the day I die because I wanted to be an engineer and not a pen pusher working in the public sector.

This being cafe, I shan't give my take on the macro situation any further. WRT my own leap on to the housing ladder, I didn't have to save 12 years it's true, however I did buy a tiny dilapidated terrace house in an area of Ipswich previously written-off by estate agents before the latest boom.

The b/soc withheld the full loan until I'd got the house liveable and I spent long evenings and weekends so doing. It needed a new roof, new windows, new doors, complete rewire, plumbing and some new floors plus a damp-proof course and loads of re-plastering. I couldn't run to central heating but used a 2nd hand gas fire for a couple of years. Indeed I was lucky because I qualified for a local authority grant for quite a bit of the work which helped.

The neighbours weren't great. The first couple were schizophrenic drug users and there was quite a bit of dodgy stuff going on including police visits. They'd threatened many locals with knives allegedly but luckily I seemed to have escaped that kind of attention. Eventually they moved out to Worthing and neither survived long after. But hey, I was on the ladder and moved on after 3 years.

Quite frankly Linford I reckon there are/will be quite a few people who would be grateful of the opportunity to 'work til they die' because they won't get the chance and they won't get much pension either. In the 70's I had a 6 year stint with British Rail before moving to private employers on Felixstowe Dock and seeing the Chinese stuff arriving. By the mid 90's the writing on the wall was there to be seen and we saved like scrooges. No posh motors or foreign holidays for us:sad: Whether our savings will be any use once the banking problem is resolved is impossible to say, maybe we should have joined the party because after all, we are still getting the hangover.

Public sector? You think they are part of problem? Your choice, I'm not going to tell you what to think like some journalist.

It is often forgotten that a "full career final salary pension", while the norm in much of the Public Sector because of wide ranges of jobs and organisations being within the same schemes and the transferability between schemes (from which both my wife and i benefited), was a rarity in the private sector as most people moved companies during their career leaving behind frozen pensions (or pensions which, while increased in line with inflation, are based on salary at time of leaving not final career salary).

Final salary schemes were not at all rare in the private sector up to just a few years ago. It is only in recent times, say the last decade that they have started to be replaced by defined contribution. In larger organisations it wasn't uncommon for people to spend their entire career with the same company and to be rewarded for loyalty (amazing as it now seems!).
 

PK99

Legendary Member
Location
SW19
Final salary schemes were not at all rare in the private sector up to just a few years ago. It is only in recent times, say the last decade that they have started to be replaced by defined contribution. In larger organisations it wasn't uncommon for people to spend their entire career with the same company and to be rewarded for loyalty (amazing as it now seems!).

None, ie None zero zilch, of the professional/degree qualified people I know in the private sector have stayed with the same company for their whole career - even those still in Final salary schemes.
Lots of similar I know in the public sector have racked up 30-40 years all counting to their final salary pension.

Interestingly, the insurance company which has just made my wife redundant, was one of the first ftse100 companies to kill off their final salary schemes for new joiners - being stuffed full of actuaries they had a pretty good idea of the real cost of such schemes. Their contributions to the replacement defined benefit scheme were very generous compared to many companies - 10% plus up to another 5% matching employees contribution - but that total 20% of salary comes nowhere near matching the value (per year of service salary related) of the (public sector) final salary scheme that has been paying her a pension since she hit 50 7 years ago.
 

asterix

Comrade Member
Location
Limoges or York
None, ie None zero zilch, of the professional/degree qualified people I know in the private sector have stayed with the same company for their whole career - even those still in Final salary schemes.
Lots of similar I know in the public sector have racked up 30-40 years all counting to their final salary pension.

Interestingly, the insurance company which has just made my wife redundant, was one of the first ftse100 companies to kill off their final salary schemes for new joiners - being stuffed full of actuaries they had a pretty good idea of the real cost of such schemes. Their contributions to the replacement defined benefit scheme were very generous compared to many companies - 10% plus up to another 5% matching employees contribution - but that total 20% of salary comes nowhere near matching the value (per year of service salary related) of the (public sector) final salary scheme that has been paying her a pension since she hit 50 7 years ago.

You didn't initially specify those concerned had to have a degree or professional qualification!

I too worked for a ftse100 insurance co for a while as an IT professional. The dept was stuffed with people who'd put in decades and were in defined benefit schemes until they too pulled the plug earlier this century. They were not the first to do so. Despite having myself worked for many employers, I would call my private pension provision adequate, way better than anything I would get now.

It is a fact that the public sector was once regarded as low paying but secure relative to the private sector. Now, however, private sector conditions have plummeted leaving the public sector looking much more attractive. It's a fact that certain interests use very effectively to divide public opinion against the public sector for their own ends. As I said, this is cafe, so that's as much as I have to add.
 
When I collect my NHS pension aged sixty in just under six years time I will have completed thirtyfour years and will stll have another six years to go to collect my state pension. All in all if I am still working for the NHS I will have done nearly forty years. When I first started in 1986 superannuation was one of the best pension schemes to be in and even though I am on the top of the lowest band it should be quite good.
 
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