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I'm back for a little rant....
I have been talking to my dad in Australia, and he was telling me about how well he is doing with his pension, making around 10-20% in a really good fund. He is retired, and basically is able to live off his pension earnings without even taking money out.
Great thing is, he is allowed to put cash in and out without penalty, only if he hits the tax-free chunk of it from original contributions he has to pay tax on it now, assuming it is over his anual allowance.
That to me makes sense.
However in this country, - I'm just finding this out now - once you retire you are forced to buy an 'annuity' with at least 3/4 of your pension pot, which means an insurance company gets all of that money in exchange for a set salary every year. If you die early, the insurance company keeps all the money. In the meanwhile you are totally stuck, no investment options, no ability to control what happens to your money.
This all came about in knee-jerk reaction from the government to protect people from being without pension.
Why not make directors more responsible for their actions instead? Why not give people options, to at least make a desicion based on the individual, like you have to go see an accountant when you retire, or something? Make sure that pension companies who are investing the pension have more than enough money to cover any loses.
I wasn't anti-labour initially, I agree with spending in public sector areas where there isn't the ability for private companies to compete - obviously if the money is spent wisely. But some of these desicions and policies seem to be a direct response to articles in the Sun...
[/rant]
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