Savings for Retirement

Lots of people do not change cars frequently - we tend to buy a new car and keep it till we think it is getting on a bit or we have a problem brewing. You can never tell whether people have lots of money or little by where they live or what they drive. Everyone has different ideas of how they want to live and also what they want to spend their money on.
I lived in an area where what you had was more important than the type of person you are - I found it sickening and was glad when I was able to move away.
What people consider to be a big house or wonderful car is very subjective and depends on the community in which you live. A few years ago we downsized about the time we retired - much to our amazement people in our new community thought we lived in a big house - we didn't and it was just that the houses they lived in were much smaller. We have now sold that house and live in an extremely rural community where no ones cares where you live etc and it is GREAT - neither do they keep on about nursing homes etc.
Interestingly here in France I understand children are legally obliged to fund nursing home care for their parents unless all are very poor etc. Parents on the other hand are unable to block a child inheriting from their estate when they die.

OMG Frank I am surprised you did not cancel your order seeing such an old car parked among those Volvos, and how dare the salesman give those common Escort drivers his attention. Worse still how dare he sell them one that was more expensive than yours. No wonder you are so heavily involved with social workers you must have been scarred for life poor lamb. because I must be simple to even bother.

absent

Hi glammanana

Oddly enough I purchased a Volvo a few years ago and made a few visits and happened to be there when some people turned up in a Ford Escort which was about 20 years old.
I visited the garage about 4 or 5 times before paying a deposit and saw these people twice looking at the cars.
When I collected that car I arrived a little early to find this old escort parked in a prime position on the front of the garage and the people were with the salesman paying for a brand new volvo which was a lot more expensive than the one I was buying and they drove away in it.
That old Escort remained on the front until the salesman finished with me.
I found out by chance later they lived in a very upmarket area in London and had the Escort for years while living there.

Frank

Previous comment continued.

Birmingham does seem to have some Social workers / Care assessors with strange views who try to get jointly owned property sold if one of the owners have to go in to care.
They must know that the council can not force the sale of a house if there is a joint owner living in it as they have the right to stay in it although they keep trying it on.

Frank

Our family house was very large and worth a lot of money and we had a sale agreed at the first viewing to the wackiest people you have ever met,but they where lovely they turned up in an old Fiat car falling to bit's so please don't think people are envious of what you have got Frank,not everyone is the same thank goodness.I must stop myself coming on here before I go off to work for the day it raises my blood pressure.

Hi absent

I am not sure of the situation in Birmingham overall but I am not sure if you are refering to the 20+ people who thought I should hand over the house which my father and mother willed to me to Dad's ex lady friend or the manager I had for a few months before I took retirement / redundancy from the council.
Unfortunately I have had this happen. The house is large and reasonably expensive for the area.
Oddly enough people do get things wrong and I don't think some realise I had a good job in London and was receiving a pension from it.
Another strange thing happened in London.
My parents found the second house my wife and myself purchased.
Two of the neighbours thought the house belonged to my parents and I just lived there. They were there a lot at the start helping to set it up and they only saw me walking down the road on my own.

Does Birmingham have an exceptionally high number of people who a) suffer from extreme envy of very ordinary things (house, car, etc.), b) blurt out stupid comments with no thought behind them and c) have absolutely no manners?

Many hardworking people (such as those working in nursing homes or in nurseries) have stressful working conditions, no "perks" and very poor pay, and many women (and men) have been unable to work, or work part-time, because of family/caring commitments. Because of this, they cannot afford to pay into pension schemes.

I'm with Jane and Annodomini I don't want to live in a country where it's "every man for himself". I don't mind paying tax (even though my pension isn't that great) if it helps other people to have a better pension, though I do resent the money spent on military hardware.

Hi Deedaa

I don't think the council was bad until near the end when I had a manager who kept on repeating that it was totally wrong I had the best car and house in the department and that was wrong.
Voluntary redundancies and in my case an immediate pension was offered and I decided to take it and go.

Frank

No HUNTERF I was employed direct by the council for all the good it did me. If I'd been working for an agency I suspect I wouldn't have had to claim Family Credit to survive.

As long as you and your daughters and grandchildren are okay financially Frank that's all that matters. To hell with all those genuinely hard working people on minimum wage who have literally slogged themselves to death. But hey if they didn't contribute into a personal pension they deserve to starve and freeze !

Your opinions make me sick !

Hi Deedaa

I presume you were agency staff.
As it happened I was the administrative staff member who did not start as agency staff at the time I was there.
Oddly enough all the agency staff who wanted to stay at the time I was there got a job either within the department or somewhere else within the council.
One lady who was made redundant / early pension by the bank I worked for got a job in another bank and is still working.
Another lady got a job with a neighbouring council nearer her home.

Frank

Well I'm afraid that we spent most of our married life in Cornwall, which meant subsistence wages, no sick pay, no holiday pay and certainly no pension schemes. At one point we did have our own business and started a private pension, but when the business went bust in the 1990's recession we lost all that we had saved. I would love to be sitting on a nice pension pot but to save for a pension you need something approaching a living wage.
The couple of years I spent working for the council were the worst of all, I was treated as casual labour and could have been sacked at any time on a whim.

And we all know about bank pensions and bonuses.

Well, at least you're honest, Frank. That's all there is to say, really...

Well, IMHO. You should be grateful for the fact that you had the intelligence that enabled you to take job that allowed you to do all that and still have enough to live on!
Many people do not have those god given opportunities.
You should sympathise with them not condemn !

Hi Galen

I am not grateful for the fact I am reasonably well off as I sacrificed all my bonuses and paid the maximum AVC's when I was in banking.
I paid a large portion of my salary into the council pension fund and mainly lived on my bank pension at that point.

Frank

Well I saved for my retirement and am grateful for the fact that I am comfortably off.
However I have no objection to contributing towards those people who for one reason or another had no way to build up their own pension funds.
If I didn't have money I wouldn't be paying tax.

Hi glammanana

I agree with what you are saying but this happened in the bank I worked for a lot.
As I have said Birmingham are trying to minimise this but it will take a few years to locate all offices in the optimum place.
I think you can bet something else will come along while this is happening which will upset the plans.
I could not be contacted a lot of the time as I was with service users or between offices.
When I worked for the bank I had to visit customers, other banks and offices. The bank provided me with a mobile phone and the council did not.
I could not use my phone when I was driving.
When I joined the council people took messages and I rang back at first but they later provided me with voice mail.
Occasionally if there was a very urgent call people would call me from the council on my personal mobile phone and I would call the service user.
In theory I could claim my expenses for doing this but these calls just tended to use my minutes included in my tarrif but 1 month I went over by about £1.50 due to council calls but I decided it was not worth claiming.

Frank

sorry slight stutter above ^^

My comment re our Council workers was posted in jest,when ever you try to get them on the phone they are never available but there are many walking around the Town Hall grounds seemingly doing nothing,now that is a waste of my taxes if ever there was.
glass you kept the windfall quuiet mate!!*
BarrowThink this is done to set us all up for the week-end.

Hi Barrow

They may need a decent pension to live on but I do not see why I should contribute to it as I paid for mine and should have the full benefit of it.
I help mt own daughters and granddaughters with money so I am doing my share in helping the young.

Frank

I wonder whether Frank posts these views just to get a rise out of everyone .

There will always be people who are able to save towards retirement and some that either can't or won't, but isn't a civilised society judged by the way it treats its sick and elderly? It makes no difference if someone couldn't save because of low pay or wouldn't save because they spent everything they earned, they still need a decent pension to live on.

Oh for gods sake HunterF you haven't got the faintest clue have you?

How the hell do you think someone on minimum wage can "save into a pension fund" ?