08-24-2021, 07:00 AM
Good post Tom.
Yep, there seem to be some who think all pensioners are living in the lap of luxury with incomes of tens of thousands and assets to match. If I am not mistaken the state pension is actually below the ‘living wage’.
I do remember those ‘interesting’ (see what I did there) days. We took out our mortgage at 7% and within months, it seemed, it had almost doubled. I wasn’t on a great wage at the time and in fact, never was. We had a new baby and the ‘financial controller’ decided to give up work to look after her for four years. So, for us, there was not a great deal of disposable income in those years.
I did, however, thankfully heed the many calls, at the time, to take out a private pension which was unusual for me, to be honest. I moved into a job with a slightly better salary and was able to allocate a good proportion of the extra to said pension. That pension has performed far better than I’d expected and with my wife’s company pension we hope to have a worry free last few years. As long as we budget well.
Yes, I consider myself fortunate and still can’t believe I made such a good call. We do still have our modest house and can have a week or two self-catering hols in Britain and hopefully, covid willing, the odd trip to the theatre.
My mother worked for from 14 years old to 60 in hard menial jobs. Lived through the depression and was drafted to work on the buses in the Second World War. She never owned her own home, was widowed at 57. She is now ‘allowed’ to keep about a fiver a week out of her state pension for pocket money, the rest goes towards her care.
So, I do not apologise for sounding off when I hear or read people talking cr*p about how well off pensioners are or how selfish they have been and still are. The vast majority are not living in the lap of luxury and able to live off the interest from assets, tax free.
Yep, there seem to be some who think all pensioners are living in the lap of luxury with incomes of tens of thousands and assets to match. If I am not mistaken the state pension is actually below the ‘living wage’.
I do remember those ‘interesting’ (see what I did there) days. We took out our mortgage at 7% and within months, it seemed, it had almost doubled. I wasn’t on a great wage at the time and in fact, never was. We had a new baby and the ‘financial controller’ decided to give up work to look after her for four years. So, for us, there was not a great deal of disposable income in those years.
I did, however, thankfully heed the many calls, at the time, to take out a private pension which was unusual for me, to be honest. I moved into a job with a slightly better salary and was able to allocate a good proportion of the extra to said pension. That pension has performed far better than I’d expected and with my wife’s company pension we hope to have a worry free last few years. As long as we budget well.
Yes, I consider myself fortunate and still can’t believe I made such a good call. We do still have our modest house and can have a week or two self-catering hols in Britain and hopefully, covid willing, the odd trip to the theatre.
My mother worked for from 14 years old to 60 in hard menial jobs. Lived through the depression and was drafted to work on the buses in the Second World War. She never owned her own home, was widowed at 57. She is now ‘allowed’ to keep about a fiver a week out of her state pension for pocket money, the rest goes towards her care.
So, I do not apologise for sounding off when I hear or read people talking cr*p about how well off pensioners are or how selfish they have been and still are. The vast majority are not living in the lap of luxury and able to live off the interest from assets, tax free.