Possible shift in U.K. Politics.

[maddocgrotsnik]

There is a balance though.

I’ve been in my career for 10, coming up 11 years now. There’s still a level of progression wide open, then it will kind of plateau, as the levels above have a super low attrition rate of 2-3%.

But what I bring to the table is knowledge, experience and to a certain degree, knack. Though how much of that knack is knowledge and experience turned “instinct” is open to debate.

Do I want to work until I’m 70? Fuck no! Whilst my current pension projection kind of suggests “tough shit, fat boy”, the prognostication doesn’t take into account significant changes in circumstance. For instance, whilst I hope it’s no time soon? Once Dad has shuffled of this mortal coil, I’ll be able to comfortably afford a modest home, lock stock and barrel, with some cash left over. Looking at the long game? A chunk of said left over cash will be dropped into my pension pot. And the significant savings of “well spank my ass and call me a grape, i no longer have £800 a month rent!’ will allow me to significantly increase my monthly contribution and still come out ahead monthly. So maybe I will be able to retire relatively early. Not 55 early, but possibly 60. Which is just 17 years away. Which is terrifying,

Sorry I’ve forgotten where I was going with this. Oh yes. Trying to keep skilled folk in work longer.

It’s not necessarily a bad thing. Yes those in physical roles face hurdles us office slobs just don’t, and that will affect how long they can work for. And I don’t particularly like to se the retired having to work. But if experienced Doctors, Scientists etc can be encouraged to stick around? They have skills and experience to pass on to those coming up to replace them.

[herzlos]

Experience is definitely valued - in my field senior engineers are in high demand because whilst there are literally hundreds of new engineers graduating every year who are good at the development stuff, they don't know much about the bigger picture and reality of making software work.

In my field I could probably work well into my 70's, assuming my mind stays sharp enough. Would I want to? Like you, no chance. Some of the guys I've worked with stayed on a year or 2 after retirement for whatever reason (usually because their spouse was younger so they'd retire together), but it's definitely not a common thing. People were more likely to retire early (in full or part), for those who are already nearing retirement age.

It'll be a similar thing for doctors - they aren't retiring early because they've maxed out their pensions - they are retiring early because they can afford to whilst working in an underfunded and undervalued NHS. The solution to the doctor availability problem isn't some pension tweaks - it's improving conditions and funding to stop burnout, and improving training and immigration to bring new doctors in. The antithesis of the Tory Party.


My pension plan isn't quite as optimistic unfortunately. I'd technically be due enough inheritance to take a significant chunk off my mortgage but my parents are estranged and unreliable, so I need to assume no help there. Ditto the state pension, which in theory would be about £9k/year if it exists in another 25 years. So the plan is 2 fold: (1) get enough into the pot to buy a pension that'll keep me just under the tax threshold (£15k/year), which means I need to throw the next few bonuses at it, (2) buy a bigger house to be paid off by retirement, then downgrade it to a tiny apartment and sell off most of my stuff for cheap running costs and to live off the proceeds. Maybe I'll even get a caravan (trailer).

And I'm starting from a position of relative privileged - white man with a degree and a well paying job who already has a mortgage. I can't fathom how anyone could have a secure retirement if they are entering the workplace now unless they are relying heavily on the bank of mum & dad, but not everyone has access to generational wealth like that.

For someone on an average income, they'd probably be needing to put about 20% of their salary into a pension, which will be near impossible with student debt, rent, starting a family, etc.

[Haighus]

A lot of senior doctors did retire early or reduce hours because they filled their pension pots. People were getting unexpected tax bills in the region of £30k-£50k in a single tax year, which is, uh, a lot. I'm not sure if this was specific to the NHS pension or the pension pot issue, but there was a big scramble about it just before the pandemic hit because these bills were somewhat unexpected for reasons I am unsure of.

[maddocgrotsnik]

It depends on your job I guess. I’m super lucky that with a mere handful of out of date GCSEs, I work in a role you might expect to be reserved for graduates. The pension is rock solid. 12% of wage, for free, put in by work. And they match me up to 3%.

I’m currently doing 20% overall, of which only 5% is coming from my wage packet. Hence it’s looking fairly rosey. Downside is if I leave, I can’t pay into it. But I’m not about to leave what is the best job I’ve ever had, despite its imperfections and downsides.

Used to make me laugh when I was mentoring. So many freshies straight out of Uni complaining about the job. Poor wee things had absolutely no fucking idea.

[nfe]

SNP election in a bit of a mess.

Candidates raising Trumpian questions about election processes, then demanding total membership numbers, disputing the response of the leadership on numbers, then being proven right and three senior figures resigning, and now one of them is paying a legal challenge to have the election stopped.

Absolute shambles.

As a hilarious addendum one candidate, Kate Forbes, a white Christian woman, is trying to position herself as a minority because she's 'someone of faith'.

[herzlos]

Mar 18, 2023 19:40:22 GMT -5 maddocgrotsnik said:

12% of wage, for free, put in by work. And they match me up to 3%.

That's pretty good. I'm sure I've read before that you used to need to aim for 15% to get an equivalent quality of life.

I don't get anything free, it used to be the company would match to 3%, now they match to 6% so I've always put in enough to get the maximum.

It's tough because the best time to invest in a pension is early - apparently if you pay in from 18-30 and then stop you'll be better off than if you pay in from 30-65 due to compound interest and stock growth over time. Of course, for most of us, 18-30 is when we're trying to get somewhere to live, a partner and kids and are thus in the most financial strain.

After a handful of pretty bad financial decisions, I'm still at the point where all of my 'spare' money goes on debt so I've never really had any money I can just throw into a pension. It's a bit different now I'm a higher tax payer because the tax efficiency makes it more pronounced: I can either put £100 into my pension or get £57 in cash. Given that cash helps me *now* it's still difficult to justify paying into a pension.

Trying to do the same for someone on minimum wage and not paying tax, they could have £100 they need now, or put that £100 aside to help then in 40 years time.

[maddocgrotsnik]

Mar 19, 2023 13:07:20 GMT -5 nfe said:

SNP election in a bit of a mess.

Candidates raising Trumpian questions about election processes, then demanding total membership numbers, disputing the response of the leadership on numbers, then being proven right and three senior figures resigning, and now one of them is paying a legal challenge to have the election stopped.

Absolute shambles.

As a hilarious addendum one candidate, Kate Forbes, a white Christian woman, is trying to position herself as a minority because she's 'someone of faith'.

Kind of feeling like they’re headed back to being the fringe lunatic laughing stock they were when I was a kiddo.

I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not.

[nfe]

Mar 20, 2023 3:30:42 GMT -5 maddocgrotsnik said:

Mar 19, 2023 13:07:20 GMT -5 nfe said:

SNP election in a bit of a mess.

Candidates raising Trumpian questions about election processes, then demanding total membership numbers, disputing the response of the leadership on numbers, then being proven right and three senior figures resigning, and now one of them is paying a legal challenge to have the election stopped.

Absolute shambles.

As a hilarious addendum one candidate, Kate Forbes, a white Christian woman, is trying to position herself as a minority because she's 'someone of faith'.

Kind of feeling like they’re headed back to being the fringe lunatic laughing stock they were when I was a kiddo.

I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not.

They aren't. They'll still win all (Scottish) Westminster and Holyrood elections without trying. Labour might catch some extra seats from the culture war. 90% of people don't know any of this is happening because hardly anyone watches Scottish broadcast news, and even those who do are still overwhelmingly voting on constitutional issues.

This wouldn't be happening if they weren't so relaxed.

[herzlos]

Braverman in a show of her usual lack of integrity, took a select bunch of right wing press (including GB News, all at taxpayer expense) to the prison in Rwanda that they are hoping to send refugees too. Naturally, the rest of the press is pretty pissed off : www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/18/vanity-project-braverman-under-fire-for-taking-only-rightwing-press-to-rwanda

Then showing her lack of class, she joked that she'd need to hire the prisons interior designer. Maybe she likes the idea of having her own private dungeon, who knows.

This is all to a background of the courts still trying to find out if it's actually legal, and no airliner being willing to do the transports. So it all seems like a total waste of money, but this is in her personal vanity project.

[herzlos]

Mar 20, 2023 4:02:19 GMT -5 nfe said:

Mar 20, 2023 3:30:42 GMT -5 maddocgrotsnik said:

Kind of feeling like they’re headed back to being the fringe lunatic laughing stock they were when I was a kiddo.

I’m not sure if this is a good thing or not.

They aren't. They'll still win all (Scottish) Westminster and Holyrood elections without trying. Labour might catch some extra seats from the culture war. 90% of people don't know any of this is happening because hardly anyone watches Scottish broadcast news, and even those who do are still overwhelmingly voting on constitutional issues.

This wouldn't be happening if they weren't so relaxed.

It's a shame to see the SNP fall apart so quickly; Sturgeon really was the best politician the UK has seen for a long time.

But as you say, this seems to be completely irrelevant to most people; I've seen essentially no news or chatter about it, and there's no real credible opposition up here. The Labour party may as well not exist and ex-SNP voters aren't likely to turn to the Tories.

I'd like to think that most of the indy voters are smart enough to understand that independence isn't tied to Sturgeon anymore than it was to Salmond or any other figurehead or Government. We still want the right to make our own decisions, whoever we decide should be leading us.

[pacific]

Mar 20, 2023 4:28:20 GMT -5 herzlos said:

Braverman in a show of her usual lack of integrity, took a select bunch of right wing press (including GB News, all at taxpayer expense) to the prison in Rwanda that they are hoping to send refugees too. Naturally, the rest of the press is pretty pissed off : www.theguardian.com/world/2023/mar/18/vanity-project-braverman-under-fire-for-taking-only-rightwing-press-to-rwanda

Then showing her lack of class, she joked that she'd need to hire the prisons interior designer. Maybe she likes the idea of having her own private dungeon, who knows.

This is all to a background of the courts still trying to find out if it's actually legal, and no airliner being willing to do the transports. So it all seems like a total waste of money, but this is in her personal vanity project.

She is an utterly vile, reprehensible human being. It shows the state of UK government that she is even anywhere near politics, let alone a minister. 

[Haighus]

The "Rwanda policy" is just straight hypocrisy. It is inhumane (frankly that cruelty is the goal) but also hugely inefficient and wasteful from the party that likes to crow on about supposed fiscal responsibility. Can't spend money on public services to actually help people, but you can spend millions to torture brown people, that's still conservative apparently.

Utter scum.

[herzlos]

Whilst they claim to be the party of fiscal responsibility, I'm not sure they've ever done anything fiscally responsible.

I *think* the idea is that by banning "illegal" migrants from applying for asylum and/or immediately shipping them to Rwanda, that they'll put people off travelling in the first place. However it doesn't actually work like that, because the people coming over are desperate and there *aren't* any legal routes. You can't just walk into an embassy in a warzone and fill out an application form.

No-one wants to hike across Europe and then cross the channel in a tiny boat; it's suicide

It'd be significantly cheaper to process the migrants properly, allow in this who we feel need refuge and get them into the work force and paying tax, than keeping them held indefinitely at huge expense. It'd also alleviate the Brexit-induced worker shortage.

But that'd upset the right wing too much, so making empty threats to deport them is the way it's going to be for a while.

[maddocgrotsnik]

Sooooooooo Johnson’s defence dossier.

It’s basically “I r thick, not lie”.

[maddocgrotsnik]

Oohhhh, and “bigger boys done it and made me say it”

What a slimy little creep.