The point of pensions

I’m currently paying about 7% of my salary into a pension every month and I’m told that next year this is probably going to have to go up to around 11% which is a large chunck of my takehome when you consider everything else that has to come out of my account every month.

It was a really tough decision for me to join the pension scheme, despite all the warnings, threats and general harrassment that is piled on by employers, middle aged people and the government about the ‘importance of saving for your future’.

You see I’ve got two young children support, rent to pay, an internet addiction to fund and a wife on a healthy eating crusade (why does it have to cost so much more to eat heathy), as well as all the other bits and pieces that go with 21st Century living.

When I was first confronted with a MacBook a years worth of money going out of my account into some magical mystery fund I have no real control over, I was a bit reluctant.

The hounding first started when I got my first ‘proper’ full time job about 6 year ago. First it was leaflets, then websites, then meetings with trustees, then seminars and ‘talks’ with management and then after all that, having still decided at 19 I was too young to be putting money into my pension having to sign several million forms stating I wouldn’t hold the employer responsable if I suddenly retire with no money (in 45 bloody years).

Then I left and started with a new company and the hounding started all over again. The company I work for now have a policy of pesterring a couple of times a year and then giving you an ultimatum after a few years.

Basically in August I was told ‘join now or you’ll never be able to join’ and that I was goingly to be automatically signed up unless I filled in a form or seven to say I didn’t want a pension and was prepared to risk death in a pool of my own vomit freezing in a carboard box at the age of 65.

I gave in and joined but it’s still painful seeing money go towards this mythical beast every month that could go towards a nice holiday for the family or a new computer for me.

One of the biggest problems I’ve got is that by the time I retire in 40 years (if… BIG BLOODY If… the pension age actually stays in same as it is now) or so I would have probably changed job 7 or 8 times and with it moved my pension scheme which would probably have de-valued a shocking amount due to the collapse of the world economy and I’ll still end up dead in my own vomit frozen in a carboard box but at the age of 85 because I couldn’t afford to retire at 65.

Share/Save