Anyone here put over £40k per year in their pension pot?

Reading this thread and wondering whether I can afford a pork chop for tea or if I'm having lentils again is making me feel a little uncharitable.

 

It’s not widely known that some doctors particularly Consultants are employed by NHS for so many sessions/ shifts , anything above this is paid into limited companies that doctors set up so they only pay corporation tax on that money earned .

 

Durks, I was trying to make a joke alluding to your sessions with psychiatrists...it fell flat... coyr

 

I thought that with the NHS Superannuation, once you pass that point the pension racks up at a quicker rate, so it’s worth hanging on for a bit

 

The government have tried to get this past the public by saying it helps the NHS, as it is to try to keep NHS Consultants at work longer. If that’s the case, just do something about NHS Consultants’ pension schemes then. They must really think the public are stupid.

 

The problem is they are right.

Country is absolutely on its arse. Nobody in their right mind that isn’t on a higher income should ever remotely consider voting for them. (I’d argue even then you’d be a selfish **** but still, you could see a logical reason).

But…

Tories “stop the boats”

Frothing mouth brigade “yay, vote Tory, keep the Woke snowflakes out of power”

See previously “we got brexit done”

If they can’t see past that nonsense then they won’t see the nuance of this policy actually being a tax break - and unlikely to succeed in getting many, if any people back to work or to stay on longer.

They also won’t care about the disabled/unwell people being shoved (sorry, encouraged) back into the workplace. Cos a pint is 11p cheaper. Even though it won’t be…

There’s none so blind as those that won’t see. And the likes of the people protesting about migrants at Rotherham the other week all seem to be particularly myopic when it comes to seeing what this government is actually doing to them. Add those to the core Tory ‘I’m alright Jack’ voters, and the fact that nobody will vote Labour in Scotland anymore, and the next general election isn’t the foregone conclusion some would have you believe.

 

Messy.

 

There are a few taxes which are just badly conceived, and in urgent need of reform. Council tax and stamp duty are the big ones, but I'd put the pension lifetime allowance up there as well. People pay into their pensions over many decades, particularly now with auto-enrolment, so the government should at least try to keep the rules fairly consistent and easy to understand. A punitive arbitrary tax at an ever-moving limit which ignores things like inflation entirely has always been a silly idea and I think removing it is, on balance, a good thing. I think Labour immediately saying that that they'll restore it when they get in is bizarre and unhelpful for loads of reasons.

As usual with the tories, though, it's got nothing to do with efficiency or making sense, as the other half of the plan shows. I don't necessarily disagree with everything that could be done which helps the objectively wealthy (for example there are a couple of weird tax traps that I'd happily get rid of immediately, even though they only affect people earning £50-£120k), but on pensions the current limit of £40k is plenty, especially combined with carry-forward rules. Increasing it to £60k while not even looking at doing something like capping higher rate tax relief is obscene.

 

Totally agree with you, but for most highly paid the £60k is a total red herring, the max, as a result of tapering, that can be contributed is £10k. That applies to anyone over £360k or more.

 

I know Mick

 

It won't help the NHS a great deal. The best way to recruit and retain is simply by making it a less **** organisation to work for. The allowances - lifetime, annual and critically, personal - should have risen with inflation plus a corrective premium for the fact they've been frozen for years, despite inflation not being. Then there'd have been a bit of something for everyone.

On the subject of youngsters starting as early as they can, it's sound advice. Furthermore, parents can start a pension for their kids. If you have kids and fortunate to be well enough of to be putting money aside in a Junior ISA or CTF for them, consider a pension too. The money is tied up until old age and they may not get there, but they get 20% tax reclaim, despite not paying tax on up to £2800 a year (uplifting it to £3660). It will set them up well on the assumption that they will live long enough and, unlike other junior investments, they can't just spend it on 6 months in Ibiza and enough drugs to sink a battleship, the day they turn 18.

 

On the flip side...

I will never be able to retire. If I stop working I will no longer be able to pay may rent or my bills. I'm not on the cusp of retirement age, but I'm not that far away either. I'm nearly 5-1 on what I've lived compared to now to retirement age.

Did I take enough drugs to sink a battle ship when I was 18? No, I didn't, but I took some. Would I swap a single second of the life I lived when I was young for an extra year into my old age? No, I would not.

I don't want to stack up extra years in my old age. I had a great youth but I wished I lived it even more fully. Don't waste your life on saving it for old age, live it when it's amazing, when films and books and music and sex and drink and drugs and mountains and oceans and those people you find attractive make you burn inside and every second is worthwhile with great big ringing bells on. Don't exchange that for just existing into old age. Youth is wonderful. Living a long life isn't.

 

Mi fatha's 85 today; he's not done much 'cos he says all his mates are now dead.

 

Stick to your guns Sparky

 

Nah mate. Life's for living - all of it. The notion that from 30 onwards, all you're doing is working for nothing more than shelter and subsistence, to ensure you wake up the next day to repeat until you drop, is completely abhorrent to me. It may be the reality for a lot of people but it damned well shouldn't be.

So I'm going 50/50 with what I can afford to put aside for my kids. Some into a savings vehicle so they can hopefully afford to enjoy their youth but some locked away to perhaps give them a shot at being able to enjoy a post-work life too. Having more money than know-how as a young adult is a road to trouble in my opinion. Oceans, mountains, books, music, love - all can be enjoyed on a budget. A fool and his money are soon parted and if I'd turned 18 with a wad of unearned money, I'd have been a fvcking idiot.

 

You only get to enjoy what you've described if you're in the top 1% of the world's wealthiest. The rest of us, 7 billion of us give or take of the 7 billion of us on earth, can never hope to achieve that. You can destroy yourself grasping at that wealth, or actually enjoy yourself when money doesn't give you joy. And to be honest, it never should, and if it does, buy a mirror.

 

The problem with that is unless you’re (royal you) planning on euthanasia then if you’re going to live a long time you’re going to want some money to do things and not spend decades starving or freezing. I want to live all of my life fully, not just the early years.

 

So does everyone but people keep voting for political parties that don't allow that for the majority of us so you're on a loser. You cannot, as a working class person, in any country in the world, retire on the amount of money you need to keep you comfortable. But people keep claiming you can. You can have a life or capitalism and you all keep choosing capitalism, even though it destroys you.