do you have a pension?

whelan1

just wondering , i am paying in to one this last few years , wondering is it worthwhile.

vanderbadger

ya just the last few years as well

whelan1

out of interest how much a month do you pay and what age are you?

vanderbadger

whelan1 wrote: »

out of interest how much a month do you pay and what age are you?

im 33, im not too well up on these things but i think its a prsa pension, I can make voluntary contributions if I wish outside of what goes in every month, apprx 400 euro, for instance i had terrible trouble when the old fella passed over the farm, some parerwork issue messed up everything and because it took so long I didnt get any payments, reps or single farm etc for an entire year, the result was i got 2 set of payments the following year and ended up getting a big tax bill so i made a pension contribution instead of paying the tax

whelan1

i am 37 paying 400 also , i think in this current climate it is a lot of money/month

vanderbadger

whelan1 wrote: »

i am 37 paying 400 also , i think in this current climate it is a lot of money/month

yep, well if i wasnt working i would be knocking it on the head, you can keep an eye on it online, the sales person from boi wanted me to go into a stocks portfolio in the worst way but i think i went with pretty much low risk option, i suppose her argument made some sense in that stocks can only go up after the last few years but to be honest if whatever amount i put in was intact at the end of it and it didnt make a loss i would be happy enough

reilig

I've a very small PRSA pension. I started it about 4 years ago. The first year i paid in €2600 and at the end of the year it was valued at €1700. The plan was to up it a small bit every year but after it losing so much value the first year I haven't bothered. Had a statement from it a few weeks ago. I have €7800 paid into it and it is valued at €2100. I would have had a better return from buying cattle. Unfortunately my job is only on contract so I do not have a state pension but the OH is paying some type of spouse and child pension through her job for me which I look forward to getting.

Plan to farm till I die!!

Have a relative who has invested over €150k in a pension through BOI and its valued at €23k at the moment. He seriously regrets not putting his €150k into a high interest account for the last 20 years.

johngalway

vanderbadger wrote: »

stocks can only go up after the last few years

I bet Mammy O'Rourke said the same about Eircom. Stocks are on a par with gambling.

To answer the OP's question, no, and I know I should have, but can't afford one

reilig wrote: »

Plan to farm till I die!!

:pac: I think we've much the same plan, probably have a dosing gun, crook, or hand shears with me when they're sticking me in the box.

Muckit

Yes have pension setup through work. It comes out of my salary so I don't miss it. Should be better at keeping track of it. It's one of those things as a young person I don't really think enough about. WIll be thankful of it though when the time comes It is tax deductable so I suppose it pays to be paying into a pension of some sort.

vanderbadger

reilig wrote: »

I've a very small PRSA pension. I started it about 4 years ago. The first year i paid in €2600 and at the end of the year it was valued at €1700. The plan was to up it a small bit every year but after it losing so much value the first year I haven't bothered. Had a statement from it a few weeks ago. I have €7800 paid into it and it is valued at €2100. I would have had a better return from buying cattle. Unfortunately my job is only on contract so I do not have a state pension but the OH is paying some type of spouse and child pension through her job for me which I look forward to getting.

Plan to farm till I die!!

Have a relative who has invested over €150k in a pension through BOI and its valued at €23k at the moment. He seriously regrets not putting his €150k into a high interest account for the last 20 years.

what drives me mad is that you set up this pension and they are all about you, your money goes in every month but do they even send you a statement..i never receive anything about my one anyway, i had to go to a fair bit of trouble just to get the online thing set up to keep an eye on it, fecking banks are as sneeky, for all alot of people might knwo their pensions could be making a loss

reilig

vanderbadger wrote: »

what drives me mad is that you set up this pension and they are all about you, your money goes in every month but do they even send you a statement..i never receive anything about my one anyway, i had to go to a fair bit of trouble just to get the online thing set up to keep an eye on it, fecking banks are as sneeky, for all alot of people might knwo their pensions could be making a loss

I don't think too many pensions kept their own value over the last 4 years. Has everyone else's pension increased in value relative to the amount that they have paid in recent years??

Miller80

Some people got really bad advice on investments/penions. Some of the figures given are criminal, no way should an investment of 150k be down to 23k unless it was invested directly in iseq alone.need to look at management charge and allocation rates and then where its invested. there are some decent places left to invest where you can get a return of 3.5% with little risk. In todays climate its not bad, if paying a monthly premium you can afford to put some in equity.

vanderbadger

reilig wrote: »

I don't think too many pensions kept their own value over the last 4 years. Has everyone else's pension increased in value relative to the amount that they have paid in recent years??

ya it worths a couple grand more than what ive put in

reilig

vanderbadger wrote: »

ya it worths a couple grand more than what ive put in

That's not bad. I am going to have to look at mine and see about changing to less risky investments.

Username John

I started one with work recently enough. I pay in about 200 / month I think and work contrbutes as well, so its fairly good. Am 33 - the guy selling it said I should be paying in more than 200, cant remember what now, but I felt 200 was enough.
I actually got a statement there last month, and I think it was running at about +11% but the statement didnt give much detail... (suspiciously enough)

I am thinking of doing some planting as a form of pension. Well, more as a form of having something worth a bit of money in 40 years time. At least its someway tangible...

Did I see they were planning to change the tax laws around what you could put into a pension tax-free, was that a proposal somewhere? Not trying to scaremonger now, just thought I saw it somewhere...

BeeDI

reilig wrote: »

That's not bad. I am going to have to look at mine and see about changing to less risky investments.

The single best thing you can do at this point, is pull out the documentation, and establish ALL charges pertaining to your plan!

Believe me, some of the plans are a TOTAL, rip off excluding any risk which the invetments take on the stock market.

The other thing is, assuming your pension investments are on the stock market, you should in all probability be in a good state:cool:

The S&P 500 was around 1,480 in March 2007, now four years later it is back up to 1,350. During that time it crashed right down to 625.
So over the four years your fund should have been buying stocks primarily at the bottom of the cycle and on the way up from the bottom.
There is absolutely no rational reason why you shold be in such negative territory, UNLESS you are being TOTALLY FLEECED, on charges AND you have a complete IDIOT managing the fund.
Check the charges first!

whelan1

i have paid in €316210.8, my prsa is now worth 30785.98

pakalasa

Ok, don't laugh......... but do people not think that property is a good inverstment at the moment?
I know houses selling at the momment at 1/3 of what they were at their peak. It's the same bloody house, at the end of the day.
If you have a guaranteed rental income, albeit very low, it's still a good investment.
I stopped paying into my pension years ago. As the head financial guy in our company said - "why pay into something, that if you get back, what you put in, you are lucky" . Makes sense to me.

vanderbadger

whelan1 wrote: »

i have paid in €316210.8, my prsa is now worth 30785.98[/Q
not too bad really, your are kinda on a par with what you put in, considering how bad things have been

Username John

pakalasa wrote: »

Ok, don't laugh......... but do people not think that property is a good inverstment at the moment?
I know houses selling at the momment at 1/3 of what they were at their peak. It's the same bloody house, at the end of the day.
If you have a guaranteed rental income, albeit very low, it's still a good investment.
I stopped paying into my pension years ago. As the head financial guy in our company said - "why pay into something, that if you get back, what you put in, you are lucky" . Makes sense to me.

But surely the risk is you may not have rental income? Maybe the house wont go down in value, but it may not be possible to sell? What do you do then?

As for pension, well, I guess you need something. Be it a 'normal' pension or some kinda investments to cash in when you retire...

blue5000

I stopped paying into mine about 2 yrs ago, much better policy to invest in your own business I think

Box09

I work as a part time farmer and i also work in a technical role in pensions full time.

I would have serious reservations about the figures Reilig is quoting. To put it simply your asset allocation is obviously too risky and you either only have yourself to blame or else you got particularly bad advice. Likewise, i also have serious concerns about the validity of stories of someones BOI pension who invested 150K and is now worth 23K. This is not a reflection of pensions but of a person who was too risky and essentially gambling in equites solely or bank shares. Properly diversified portfolios have recovered to 2007 levels.

Pension contributions mentioned here are low. In order to buy a pension of €10,000 euro if you were retiring today , increasing with inflation to death, you would need savings of €250,000.

Pensions are a good tax efficent way to save for retirement as long as the current tax reliefs remain in place. I would advise people to put aside what they can afford and change the levels subject to the limits and your outgoings. However in order to get the most out of your pension you need to:

• Engage with your pension - review your policy documents, review your investment choices, review the risk level you have taken on, is appropriate to your age?
• Review the charges - transfer to a standard PRSA - don't use a broker - threaten to transfer your money to a different provider.
• Read your annual benefit statements
• Ask for internet access to your policy - actively monitor it

The main question to ask is do you want to depend on a state contributory pension of €230 per week that may or may not be there when you retire.

whelan1

blue5000 wrote: »

I stopped paying into mine about 2 yrs ago, much better policy to invest in your own business I think

if you stop paying in to it , what happens to the money you paid in already

Box09

whelan1 wrote: »

if you stop paying in to it , what happens to the money you paid in already

It becomes a "paid up" or "deffered" pension until you retire and draw down the benefits, more than likely from age 60 or else earlier through ill health. However be careful with this as there is a annual management charge that will continue to be deducted and this may eat into your "pot" if the investment returns are poor.

ravima

Look, tis a long term investment. You are putting in money and thus far getting some tax relief at the highest rate (which for most of us, might not be teh actual highest attainable rate) but still, the money is being invested in something and when we reach 60 there will be some fund that can be used to give some income.

We might laugh at the returns to date, but don't forget our parents were never advised to invest for the future and how much better would things be for both them and us if they had!

I'd like to be able to step back and let the next generation take over around 55/60. If I want this, I can't lumber them with looking after me for perhaps 40 years and must make provision for myself. otherwise, they will be inheriting a millstone rather than an asset.

whelan1

i have 23 years left of investing , seems a long time away . 60 is the minimum age on my policy to retire

kboc

I am a teacher what i have seen happen with pensions is a disgrace and embarassing (in the North anyway).

Teachers pensions is half of the salary at the highest point of their last 3 years of service. So if a teacher earns £40,000 per year they get a pension of £20,000.

But, I have seen some teachers get promoted to Vice Prinicpal or even Principal just before they retire. They get a whopping grate salary for the last 2/3 years of their service. They probably have lost all interest at this stage of their career and they are not really doing it for the salary BUT the pension. He/She now has a salary of £65,000 for doing fook all extra in the last years of work but has a pension worth £32,500 per year.

I have seen/heard this happen many times in my wee while teaching. A disgrace and totally condoned as it is allowed to happen. No were else except Civil Service.

johnstown

I was a good little boy and started contributing from an early age. At times I wondered was is worth it. The main sweetener was that the company I work for matched the contributions up to a specific rate.

A few years ago I started maxing out my AVC's in anticipation of the tax changes and thought that once the changes came in that I would not contribute any more AVC's and just maximise the contributions that the company would match.


One thing I don't like about the pension is the fact that you only get around a 4% return on your pot at retirement (65), which in fairness is probably going to be inflation linked. Depending on the type of annuity, it may die with you (there are other types of annuities that cost more that make provisions for your spouse etc).

Anyhow, I have been contributing this long now that I hardly notice the deductions now. When I retire I have a tax free lump sum to look forward to and also the pension. The other thing is I like the idea of the ARF's which are now available which essentially give you more control with the pension pot at retirement and it does not die with you. BOX09 would be best explaining all these to people here.

Finally, some say you would be best not to be depending on a large state pension at retirement. Relatively speaking, our current elders have it fairly well.... it might not be that way in 30 or 40 years time.

Username John

kboc wrote: »

I am a teacher what i have seen happen with pensions is a disgrace and embarassing (in the North anyway).

Teachers pensions is half of the salary at the highest point of their last 3 years of service. So if a teacher earns £40,000 per year they get a pension of £20,000.

But, I have seen some teachers get promoted to Vice Prinicpal or even Principal just before they retire. They get a whopping grate salary for the last 2/3 years of their service. They probably have lost all interest at this stage of their career and they are not really doing it for the salary BUT the pension. He/She now has a salary of £65,000 for doing fook all extra in the last years of work but has a pension worth £32,500 per year.

I have seen/heard this happen many times in my wee while teaching. A disgrace and totally condoned as it is allowed to happen. No were else except Civil Service.

Not sure I agree with this view - why shouldnt people be allowed to progress within their job, regardless of their age?
If they have no interest, and they still get the job, then thats more an issue with the people interviewing surely...

As for principals doing nothing extra, again - that prob depends on the individual. I chave known teachers who do nothing, and dont deserve their pay every month, but it would be unfair to say this about all teachers...

kboc

Username John wrote: »

Not sure I agree with this view - why shouldnt people be allowed to progress within their job, regardless of their age?
If they have no interest, and they still get the job, then thats more an issue with the people interviewing surely...

As for principals doing nothing extra, again - that prob depends on the individual. I chave known teachers who do nothing, and dont deserve their pay every month, but it would be unfair to say this about all teachers...

I totally agree. There is some people worth their weight in gold. This issue does not happen so much not as some years ago, but still happens.

It is kinda a reward for 30 years service.