The Retirement Thread

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Mo1959

Legendary Member
Chucking it down out there. Looks like that'll be the pattern for the week.

Next week is looking chilly and possibly even a bit wintery up here.



Screenshot 2025-11-10 at 10.27.19.png
 

Baldy

Veteran
Location
ALVA
It's actually stopped raining here, first time since about last Thursday. The sun is trying to come out. Just had the last filling done but the mouth is still numb. Hopefully get some walking in later.
 
Just looking at the News and found that an American private equity firm has taken over teh Very Group

which was owned by The Barclay Brothers who combined it with The Littewoods Group

As I used to work for Littlewoods and my pension is mostly from that time

then I am glad the pension has been moved well away from all that

although, to be fair, the pension part of the whole thing was looked after pretty well

but I would rather is was more secure as it is now!
 
I think most folk would be shocked if they knew how many "British" firms are actually owned by American private equity companys.
I'd recommend reading "Vassel state" by Angus Hanton if you would like to know more.

If you are a politician then it is called
"Foreign Investment"

and doing anything about it is "protectionism"

I have never been at all sure why foreign company buying up any British company that look at all worth having
is a good thing for Britain

but several governments do seem to have shouted about how wonderful it is


but I seem to miss the point
 

Dave7

Legendary Member
Location
Cheshire
Just looking at the News and found that an American private equity firm has taken over teh Very Group

which was owned by The Barclay Brothers who combined it with The Littewoods Group

As I used to work for Littlewoods and my pension is mostly from that time

then I am glad the pension has been moved well away from all that

although, to be fair, the pension part of the whole thing was looked after pretty well

but I would rather is was more secure as it is now!

I confess that I don't understand pension funds etc. My own private pension is small as I moved around a lot job wise until my later years
The pension I do have/had was with a group called "Streamline Holdings". This was a large group that went bump after I left (so not guilty m'lord).
1st i knew was a letter from someone called The Pension Protection fund. I assume it's government run but with them I get (i think) 80%ish of the full amount I was due....a lot better than some people get.
 
I confess that I don't understand pension funds etc. My own private pension is small as I moved around a lot job wise until my later years
The pension I do have/had was with a group called "Streamline Holdings". This was a large group that went bump after I left (so not guilty m'lord).
1st i knew was a letter from someone called The Pension Protection fund. I assume it's government run but with them I get (i think) 80%ish of the full amount I was due....a lot better than some people get.

Yes - I used to know a bloke who spent most or his working life as an officer on merchant ships
all proper British flagged and all that

but apparently the pension funds were "invested" in something that went bust

so his pension for all that time is enough to maybe buy a Mars bar every month - or that was how he described it

He and his wife lived in a nice house in West Kirby as he had a good salary after that looking after the local Police radio and comms system

but he reckoned that he had to work until he just COULD not
then they would have to moved house to somewhere cheaper as the pension from the Police stuff would be good but as it was only a few years then it would never cover their expenses ina decent house

Wasn't there something about The Daily Mail pensions at one point - and a large splash off the back of a boat???

Which is, of course, why protections were put in place and things are better nowadays (
 

Dave7

Legendary Member
Location
Cheshire
Yes - I used to know a bloke who spent most or his working life as an officer on merchant ships
all proper British flagged and all that

but apparently the pension funds were "invested" in something that went bust

so his pension for all that time is enough to maybe buy a Mars bar every month - or that was how he described it

He and his wife lived in a nice house in West Kirby as he had a good salary after that looking after the local Police radio and comms system

but he reckoned that he had to work until he just COULD not
then they would have to moved house to somewhere cheaper as the pension from the Police stuff would be good but as it was only a few years then it would never cover their expenses ina decent house

Wasn't there something about The Daily Mail pensions at one point - and a large splash off the back of a boat???

Which is, of course, why protections were put in place and things are better nowadays (

My Bro has a good pension (by chance really) as he had an iffy job in NHS North Wales and was asked to move into something called Data Protection......that was in it's infancy.......and as it grew so his job got more important. Some years before he retired he was made redundant then immediately taken back on a consultancy basis.......3 days a week on more money than he had been getting full time.
 
My Bro has a good pension (by chance really) as he had an iffy job in NHS North Wales and was asked to move into something called Data Protection......that was in it's infancy.......and as it grew so his job got more important. Some years before he retired he was made redundant then immediately taken back on a consultancy basis.......3 days a week on more money than he had been getting full time.

The company that I worked for had a policy that people who had been made redundant or resigned WOULD NOT be taken back as consultants for 3-5 years (can't remember which!)

but my wife worked in the NHS and she knew several people who did it
normally ina more junior role but treated as if they were still in charge of at least the bits they were working on

I remember at my leaving do at Littlewoods I did a little speech and commented on the length of my "to do " list
and how some things were critical and I knew more about them than anyone else
so if they wanted me back, I am sure we can come to some terms

The new senior manager - who didn't like me - was heard to comment "Not gonna happen"

and it didn't
I reckon he would have cost the company millions rather than ask me back to sort something out
and I certainly know of one change that cost many many thousands that I could have made work with a 2 line program change
but only I knew that (unless someone read the documentation I left behind - but only my ex-team member would do that and they might just deliberately forget to read that bit!!)
 
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