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Lost the mojo...

Retirement

HI Guys,
One thought that will affect everyone who retires.....Try to start saving into a personal pension as soon as you can. You may hear that this is a waste of time. It is not, a properly invested scheme will give you a choice of WHEN you can retire. Anybody can manage their own scheme with a bit of effort, l started managing my own Pension scheme after the 'Equitable' cock up! I found that all the information I needed was out there on the internet. By the way, I am not a retired financial advisor!;
Sorry if I have gone off thread a little chaps.
Regards,
G.T.
 
Graham Tremble said:
HI Guys,
One thought that will affect everyone who retires.....Try to start saving into a personal pension as soon as you can. You may hear that this is a waste of time. It is not, a properly invested scheme will give you a choice of WHEN you can retire. Anybody can manage their own scheme with a bit of effort, l started managing my own Pension scheme after the 'Equitable' cock up! I found that all the information I needed was out there on the internet. By the way, I am not a retired financial advisor!;
Sorry if I have gone off thread a little chaps.
Regards,
G.T.
Click to expand...

Totally agree Graham. We are now well past the annuity rip-off years, and there's a lot of money to be made/saved with a small amount of effort. You can be a victim, or 'do quite nicely'.. its totally up to the individual. Finance can be an additional and fruitful hobby to fishing IMO.
Re. OP... there's no easy answer to not having the drive/desire to 'want to catch'.. its such a subjective quandary. I 'lost my mojo' for 7yrs, but regained it by moving house/river. I needed a challenge, but personally I've never needed a purpose (there is NO point in life IMHO!).
 
Don't have a private pension, I'm 42 this year, can't and never have been able to afford to put into one, so think that's probably out the window save some luck or maybe nepotism. Never been career minded which hasn't helped my career prospects!
All that said I've been lucky enough to have never had to really struggle, yet. I'd be happy enough to settle for working part-time as opposed to full retirement which is probably just as well.
Work life balance has always been important to me, with the emphasis on life. I might regret that when I'm in my 80's slowly dying of hypothermia!
Stay happy :)
 
I retired 2 years ago at 55 after 39 years in the city. Couldn't wait to get out and haven't missed it one bit, I think you have to go in with a positive frame of mind and create some structure and purpose that works for you. I golf as well as fishing so to be honest I don't have any spare time at all, some weeks I don't even wet a line. Me and my wife discuss what we want to do about a week in advance then we have a plan and know what's going on. For me work was only a means to an end, give the family a good upbringing and a decent lifestyle, once that was accomplished the last few years felt purposeless to me. I have friends in a similar position that are finding it hard to walk away from the money but that was never an issue for me, having total independence and freedom beats that hands down !
 
At only 30 I'm pretty convinced I won't get a retirement. The way the economy is the schemes are pretty crap, plus the state pension age is getting higher and higher. My mortgage has got about 30 years left on it due to the house prices.
I've resigned myself to hoping to be working a mind numbing job part time by the time I'm 60. That is probably the best I and many others of my age can hope for. Generous company pensions are a thing of the past.
 
Very interesting...I do not think the purpose we have/had at work can be substituted. Work is/was anything from 40-80+ hours a week, for 48 weeks a year, for 35-45 years for most of us. How can this be replaced? In my view nothing I have ever done or can do will ever be as all consuming as my 18 years as a teacher and even if it was, being so much older, i would not be able to cope. So is it about finding a replacement purpose or actually a totally different approach that is required? I feel that in the last year i have tried to find similar purpose to when i was working i.e. an obsession, but have now released that, for me, this is a fruitless pursuit (many of the comments above have reinforced this). So it is now about figuring out what i want to do and how...outside the huge range of chores which somehow have now become important (the I can't do that as i have to work no longer cuts it, i wonder why) ...and how fishing now fits into this given it does not have the same role as it did 18 months ago. This is not as easy as one might think or I am not finding it so but why would anyone after 37 years dominated by work?
 
Suppose it comes down to how dedicated you are/were to your job, how much it meant to you etc. Personally I find it quite mind blowing that anyone can struggle not being in work, but then my job has always been a means to an end for me, a source of income and nothing more. I can always find something to fill my time, as someone suggested there's always volunteering opportunities if you are really struggling to find something.
 
Graham Tremble said:
HI Guys,
One thought that will affect everyone who retires.....Try to start saving into a personal pension as soon as you can. You may hear that this is a waste of time. It is not, a properly invested scheme will give you a choice of WHEN you can retire. Anybody can manage their own scheme with a bit of effort, l started managing my own Pension scheme after the 'Equitable' cock up! I found that all the information I needed was out there on the internet. By the way, I am not a retired financial advisor!;
Sorry if I have gone off thread a little chaps.
Regards,
G.T.
Click to expand...

I quite agree Graham, but a word of caution. If you are thinking of taking out a private pension (if like me perhaps, you had no chance of a company pension), then make sure you use a reputable company, and watch regularly how the investments that company has arranged for you are doing. When I was in my thirties, I was pondering the problem of not having any sort of pension, when like a genie from a lamp, a rep from a very large provider (Abbey Life) cold called, and pointed out the folly of not having made any provision for our future. long story short, my wife and I agreed on a monthly sum that we could afford, and to annual increases to keep up with cost of living increases etc.

The investments seemed to be doing fine, the promises of early retirement and a good pension looked like becoming a reality...so after a number of years I stopped keeping check of progress :rolleyes:

Some years later, the husband of my wife's best friend (a financial adviser) asked if we would like him to take a look at things, on a professional basis, which he did...and promptly declared them a financial disaster. It seemed Abbey were on the verge of collapse, and the investments were actually loosing money hand over fist. Again, long story short, we agreed to his company taking over our finances, they reinvested into high risk areas....and in very short order lost virtually all of what was left of twenty odd years of savings. Our life savings and hopes had disappeared just like that.

I did get about £10,000 back via the Ombudsman, and reinvested that far more wisely, but WAY too little, too late. My pension is now a joke, but that's life I fear...partly my own stupid fault, and I long ago accepted that...s**t happens, as they say. My only point in relating this is that you MUST be sure of those your put trust in, rather than being a naïve idiot like me. There are a lot of predators out there ready to consume the unwary :mad:

Cheers, Dave.
 
David Gauntlett said:
I quite agree Graham, but a word of caution. If you are thinking of taking out a private pension (if like me perhaps, you had no chance of a company pension), then make sure you use a reputable company, and watch regularly how the investments that company has arranged for you are doing. When I was in my thirties, I was pondering the problem of not having any sort of pension, when like a genie from a lamp, a rep from a very large provider (Abbey Life) cold called, and pointed out the folly of not having made any provision for our future. long story short, my wife and I agreed on a monthly sum that we could afford, and to annual increases to keep up with cost of living increases etc.

The investments seemed to be doing fine, the promises of early retirement and a good pension looked like becoming a reality...so after a number of years I stopped keeping check of progress :rolleyes:

Some years later, the husband of my wife's best friend (a financial adviser) asked if we would like him to take a look at things, on a professional basis, which he did...and promptly declared them a financial disaster. It seemed Abbey were on the verge of collapse, and the investments were actually loosing money hand over fist. Again, long story short, we agreed to his company taking over our finances, they reinvested into high risk areas....and in very short order lost virtually all of what was left of twenty odd years of savings. Our life savings and hopes had disappeared just like that.

I did get about £10,000 back via the Ombudsman, and reinvested that far more wisely, but WAY too little, too late. My pension is now a joke, but that's life I fear...partly my own stupid fault, and I long ago accepted that...s**t happens, as they say. My only point in relating this is that you MUST be sure of those your put trust in, rather than being a naïve idiot like me. There are a lot of predators out there ready to consume the unwary :mad:

Cheers, Dave.
Click to expand...

Very sad Dave, but my advice would be...trust no one (ESPECIALLY financial advisors**), trust yourself. Research and learn, all the information you need is fully available free of any charge. I learnt the hard way too, but I'm now in full control of my financial situation..which now is better than its ever been, thanks to me :eek:

Start at ... http://www.hl.co.uk/pensions/sipp
for info re. starting a Self Invest Pension

and

http://www.hl.co.uk/funds
for researching which Funds to buy/sell.

There's loads and loads of data, graphs, charts, etc etc etc online. Its almost my second hobby' now...and my background is not remotely 'financial'.

** F.A.s used to initially take anything between 3 and 10% of what you invested, when any profit was often much less than that in the first year. Then they'd take 0.5-1.5% p.a. of your 'pot' ad inf. Now thankfully they can only (legally) charge by the hour for advice, but they may still get back-handers from Fund providers etc.
 
A lot of this thread makes for quite depressing reading, and also makes me realise how lucky I am in some respects.

For most of my working life I've been working in some government capacity - started off in the civil service with a half decent group pension scheme, then worked in the private sector for a couple of years, and then went to local government, back into the same pension scheme I had at the civil service, and that's where I've been since, making equal contributions as my employer. I also have a small savings account, which amounts to very little at the moment.

Having said that, it's nevertheless not without its downsides - it's no longer a final salary scheme and, at 38 years old, I'm NOWHERE near enough retirement age to even bank on the current facts and figures. As it stands currently I'll be retiring at 65 with an income from pension of about £16K a year. BUT the scheme has already changed twice in the last few years, the retirement age is steadily increasing, and the way they calculate your pension has changed as well. So I can easily see myself working until 67 or maybe even 70, with a much reduced pension by the time I get there (and this is all assuming I still have a job at that point, of course, what with the tory t**ts hating local government). And then, will I be fit and able enough to even be able to go fishing? Last year I bought a job lot of tackle off eBay from a guy whose dad had retired with the idea of spending as much of his week fishing as possible, only to suffer a stroke within a couple of months of retiring, putting paid to his plans and hence the eBay sale.

As for losing the mojo - I first started fishing in my early teens (early 90s) and then, due to various factors, had to stop in the late 90s (life basically "got in the way"). In between starting work, having a new social life, getting a girlfriend, having more responsibilities, getting married etc etc, even the idea of fishing took a total backseat to everything else. Although I kept all my stuff with a view to re-start at some point, I had absolutely zero desire to go fishing for nearly 15 years - even walking by a river or lake didn't awake the angler in me. But then, after my daughter was born, and some unhappy things happened concurrently with that, I felt piscatorial stirrings for the first time in many years. It was still a while before I could act on it, though - as many of you know, a new child tends to swallow up about 99% of your life outside of work. But now, with my daughter moving out of toddlerhood (she's now fast approaching 7) and being less in need of round-the-clock care, it allowed me the opportunity to dust off the rods and reels and get back into it, which I did with aplomb re-starting at the beginning of last season.

And I've not looked back, really. I've fortunately been able to go about once a week on average, and occasionally I manage two days, and/or the odd short session here and there, but I'm now back in a frame of mind where I would LOVE to go a few times a week, every week. Admittedly that is partly due to me not really enjoying my job as I once did (although, don't get me wrong, I appreciate the fact that I DO have a job) and would much rather be sat on the bank blanking than some of the stuff I'm doing at the moment, but all the same I frequently catch myself glazing over the next 25 years of my life to being retired and being able to go fishing every other day.

Course, by then there'll be nowhere to fish/no fish left...

Happy christmas!
 
Terry Simner said:
Very sad Dave, but my advice would be...trust no one (ESPECIALLY financial advisors**), trust yourself. Research and learn, all the information you need is fully available free of any charge. I learnt the hard way too, but I'm now in full control of my financial situation..which now is better than its ever been, thanks to me :eek:

Start at ... http://www.hl.co.uk/pensions/sipp
for info re. starting a Self Invest Pension

and

http://www.hl.co.uk/funds
for researching which Funds to buy/sell.

There's loads and loads of data, graphs, charts, etc etc etc online. Its almost my second hobby' now...and my background is not remotely 'financial'.

** F.A.s used to initially take anything between 3 and 10% of what you invested, when any profit was often much less than that in the first year. Then they'd take 0.5-1.5% p.a. of your 'pot' ad inf. Now thankfully they can only (legally) charge by the hour for advice, but they may still get back-handers from Fund providers etc.
Click to expand...

Thanks for your thoughts Terry, and I am sure you are absolutely right in this. Nowadays, I would be doing exactly as you, but at 72, it's a bit too late to do anything. The problem was that as a young man, I was so trusting and naïve I must have had the proverbial 'Them' rubbing their hands with joy, and laughing all the way to the bank.

'Tis true, I am a cynical old misery guts now, but back then I was painfully stupid and trusting. Having said that, there was no internet or the like back then, so finding things out was not as simple as it is now. And, there were no investigative journalists doing these wonderful expose' things that you read or watch on the box now, the info to alert you just wasn't there. But, I should have been more savvy than I was, no excuse.

My advice then (with the joys of hindsight) is to think about Terry's advice, then act on it if you can. I can only wish that he had been there to batter me with the realities of life 40 odd years ago :D

Cheers, Dave.
 
David Gauntlett said:
I can only wish that he had been there to batter me with the realities of life 40 odd years ago :D
Cheers, Dave.
Click to expand...

Thanks Dave, as I said....I too got well and truly stung, by a 'friend of a friend'. I can fully understand folk shying away from the subject, as there's surely very little in life more boring than pensions. I was lucky in a/. realising that I was being done (he was driving an AMG Merc but couldn't answer a single question I asked him about the particular Funds he was trying to fob-off on me, so I had to find the answers myself), and b/. that this event happened just before the vast changes in pension regulations came into effect.
40yrs ago Dave I too knew nowt about pensions, and cared even less. But now I do know that "Financial advisor's advice" is mostly, if not all, smoke and mirrors.
 
Yes Dave, we live and learn mate.
Not having being part of a company scheme or working in the public sector I thought I would do the sensible thing and try and boost my state pension by sacrificing some of my hard earned cash to a private jobby when I could least afford it.
This was in the days of my first mortgage in 1980 when endowment scheme interest rates reached 18 percent.
My wife, being the cynical so and so that she is, always said that it would be better to put the money in the building society but I had been naively convinced that a private managed pension was the way to go.
I also opted out of serps, so I had two " working for me " in tandem.
Gordon Brown didn't help matters for the pension sector...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...nal-salary-schemes-suddenly-unaffordable.html

Being pragmatic, I often look back and think, ... what was the attraction of someone turning up in a company Merc trying to convince me that if I would be good enough to surrender a substantial slice of my earnings to them for the next 35 years with absolutely no guarantees of any cash at the end was such a wonderful deal!
Quite a few of us have naively gone down that road,...
I have to live with my other half reminding me that she told me so!:rolleyes:
 
I must be one of the lucky one's :) I retired in January 2016 and was lucky enough to have 2 company pensions which were transfered in to one pot last year . I love being retired not having to worry about commuting to work in the morning :) and the commute home . Having all the time in the world to be able to do what I want when I want :) and no longer having to fit every thing around a work .

Going fishing in the week :) when every one else is at work and having the pick of any swim I want :rolleyes:
 
I'm with Joe, 5 years since I retired at 51. Still loving every min of every day. Don't fish in the Uk as much as I once did and not often for barbel. There is so much more to keep me occupied and I fish when the fancy takes me.

As for pensions, cashed it all in and invested it myself, works for me.
 
I retired at 55, with a lump sum that paid off the house, bought a new car and a 8 week foreign holiday, in addition I have a good monthly pension, to ice the cake my wife also has the same as me so between us we are hopefully "set up". Late this year I will be 65 and the govt pension will make an appearance. Sounds very nice, well it is......
But, and it is a big but, my first wife managed to grab a big lump of my income when I was still working, even though I gave her the house, car , caravan, etc. She wasted it by moving to Spain, taking two horses with her, and drinking herself into stupidity..... Ce La Vie.

I will say this though... when I started my job the very last thing on my mind was the pension scheme,it was just one of those things that melted into the small printing on the bottom of our salary slip each month. it was not until I had retirement on the horizon that I realised that I was so lucky, years ago we were offered the "opt out " scheme, and yes, the smart men in the Mercs appeared with lavish promises, and quite a few colleagues were dazzled by the inducements, but now they all have lost a great deal and have not much to show for their years of contributions.
I paid over £350.00 a month into the occupational pension scheme, as did my wife, and worked damm hard and long and unsociable hours as well, so although I have had a few sideways looks from some people , I feel that I have only got back what I put into it.I worked for it so say what they will, I earned it.
I now take advantage of midweek fishing trips, when the banks are empty, I also travel to the coast for beach trips and boat trips. I have noticed though, that as the free time has appeared, the wear and tear on the body also appears as well, I still walk a few miles with the gear on my back, up and down cliffs at the coast, wade out in rivers when float fishing, and get bashed about when out on charter boats , the downside is that it takes that bit longer for the aches and pains to disappear.
Over the years I did to an extent "lose the mojo" especially when domestic matters screwed thngs up, but it is back now, and I take advantage of it whilst I still can.

Dave
 
Don't forget chaps that when you get your OAP pension you get taxed on your company pension or private one.....

And as my Final salary Scheme was earned over 23 years that those years didn't qualify as full earned contributions.

Luckily I got pretty close to years required.
 
Cheers for that Graham, death and taxes, cant escape either of them, its a joke because I was taxed on the pension contributions at source, two bites of the cherry again ! I am taxed on my "company" pension atm, so the amount will go up no doubt .

Dave
 
Never lost the mojo in over 40 years of angling, just keep changing what I do and what I fish for. As I'm getting older with no offspring at home now draining my resources I'm finding that I've been looking further afield for my angling adventures. Plenty of charlatans out there eager to take your Dollar/Euro but there are some excellent guides too.

I've found that concentrating on barbel these last few years has seen me fishing the same rivers using the same methods and invariably fishing the same swims. Switching to a new club I find re-invigorates me to learn a new stretch of river and enjoy the sense of adventure in the challenge of mastering it.

As for pensions, my main 'final salary' scheme (there are a few left) is still massively in deficit but with a recovery plan in place; I'm just hoping that I get there without it going belly up.
 
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