1 hour ago, pegman said:

We use to hear that from the right (Reform Party) in Canada all the time. Conservative/Right leaning gov's hate pensions. Have they introduced or improved upon them anywhere? One of our centrist gov's started a fund to divert pension contributions to so they could be invested and grow in value. It's doing very well so I'm very sure it will be there when my soon to be 6 grand-babies need it. I wonder how many posters on here vote for pension hating right wing parties then complain about the results? Those conservative/right gov's always seem to find a way to cut taxes for corporations and the super rich though. 

 

http://www.cppib.com/en/

The reason that the UK state pension is so low IMHO is that no state employee, and no one working in an industry which subsidises pensions, expects to live on that alone. Many self employed and poor non state workers on standard state pensions only, are basically tossed on the dump. The current government debt for unfunded occupational pensions for ex state employees approaches £1 trillion - yes that's a Trillion. No wonder they say they can't afford a decent basic state pension.

 

NO government has faced up to this problem, doing so is a vote loser, it has always been easy to ignore . The baby boomers once again have set themselves up cosily leaving the next generation to pay for them. The demographic change, and the total lack of realism by the Unions are part of this problem. 

3 hours ago, EVENKEEL said:

God Bless America......

Yes, Land of the Free.  Plenty of free advice and opinions.  One might get a bit of free health care by walking into a hospital emergency room or getting on Medicaid.  But only if you don't have enough money to buy food or a room. 

 

Don't mind me.  I'm managing care for my 91 year old Mom and a 61 year old brother who has just been diagnosed with a fatal motor neuron disease.  Fun year.

4 hours ago, rickudon said:

... leaving me with 400 a month for all discretionary expenditure such as food...

English understatement ...  I love it when it's humor but not in a case like this.  Eating is optional or occasional?  Just damn. 

 

In the USA, I knew that Social Security was no security, so we saved and invested all we could comfortably manage over the years.  I'd like to leave a nest egg for the young one who survived in addition to providing for my wife.

18 hours ago, Chomper Higgot said:

I see, trigger the spite and envy, you don’t have a good pension so nobody else should.

 

How about livable pensions for all, and seeing civil servants as working people rather than someone to envy.

 

You are being manipulated in the age old ‘divide and rule’. 

 

Incidentally, the reason why civil servants get good pensions is because it’s a means to combat corruption. If a civil servant is dismissed for corruption, criminal or gross misconduct they lose their pension.

 

The whole promotion, responsibility and accountability system within the civil service is designed to ensure civil servants don’t get any real power until they have so much skin in the game they dare not step out of line. You can thank Samuel Pepys for this.

 

The civil servants receive good pensions is because they,'re subsidised by ratepayers regardless of their circumstances,so if a civil servant gets caught thieving he loses his pension?think you,'ll find he or she won,t lose the pittance they paid in,just the lucrative top ups paid for by ratepayers.easy to see what your former  job was.

On 10/24/2019 at 5:07 AM, Damrongsak said:

I just applied for Social Security in the US, as I turned 66.  I could have taken a lesser amount at 62 but didn't.  I'm supposed to get about $2,300 USD per month before tax, which is chump change these days. Glad I have a pretty big piggy bank that I've been stuffing all these years.  Never did have a job that had a retirement plan. 

Actually that is a very good SS IMHO

 

But the main thing is when you turn 62 (yes 62 not 66) you should have had all bills paid off by then including any mortgages.

Then it takes very little to live a very nice life????

27 minutes ago, meechai said:

Actually that is a very good SS IMHO

 

But the main thing is when you turn 62 (yes 62 not 66) you should have had all bills paid off by then including any mortgages.

Then it takes very little to live a very nice life????

Good words of wisdom, sadly not everyone lives by them.

1 hour ago, Damrongsak said:

Yes, Land of the Free.  Plenty of free advice and opinions.  One might get a bit of free health care by walking into a hospital emergency room or getting on Medicaid.  But only if you don't have enough money to buy food or a room. 

 

Don't mind me.  I'm managing care for my 91 year old Mom and a 61 year old brother who has just been diagnosed with a fatal motor neuron disease.  Fun year.

My sister was in a convalescent home paid for by the gov. they took her SS check monthly. Not a place I would like to end up. 

2 hours ago, Nigel Garvie said:

The reason that the UK state pension is so low IMHO is that no state employee, and no one working in an industry which subsidises pensions, expects to live on that alone. Many self employed and poor non state workers on standard state pensions only, are basically tossed on the dump. The current government debt for unfunded occupational pensions for ex state employees approaches £1 trillion - yes that's a Trillion. No wonder they say they can't afford a decent basic state pension.

 

NO government has faced up to this problem, doing so is a vote loser, it has always been easy to ignore . The baby boomers once again have set themselves up cosily leaving the next generation to pay for them. The demographic change, and the total lack of realism by the Unions are part of this problem. 

Sounds to me your problem was not having a union. 

21 hours ago, wwest5829 said:

Yep, that is my retirement budget per month after 41 years. My fault, I chose to be an American educator. SS is about half ($1292) of my required 65K baht per month to be allowed to stay retired in Thailand.

You don't also receive a teachers pension?  You were, in 41 years, never given a chance at a savings plan from the schools you teach in?  

13 hours ago, EVENKEEL said:

I hit the age of 62 with 21.5 yrs federal time (DOD) Pension is based on base pay, not to include OT. FERS pension will get me about $1100/mo and my SS is about $1700/mo plus 2  rentals...…..I'm done.

No  TSP savings ?

7 hours ago, White Christmas13 said:

Since when do you pay tax on a pension?

Since sometime in the early 1980"s. part of the Ronald Reagan effort to save Social Security. Doesn't take too much income to have to pay taxes on 85% of your SSA benefits.

42 minutes ago, IAMHERE said:

You don't also receive a teachers pension?  You were, in 41 years, never given a chance at a savings plan from the schools you teach in?  

I addressed the comparative earned Social Security monthly payment based on my working years earnings. As I say, I draw an additional amount from my own funds. I was not in a "defined benefits" state plan (good for me as the current Republican Kentucky government is trying to cut payments). My earned retirement funds were immediately vested in my name with TIAA-CREF. Those invested funds are drawn on for about half the 65K monthly required to live retired in Thailand on my Visa Extension of Stay. (Also a major reason for not withdrawing invested funds and parking the 8000K in a Thai bank).

On 10/24/2019 at 7:06 AM, Chomper Higgot said:

The comparison and numbers don’t take into account other ‘social wage’ factors; health care, social and welfare services, housing assistance etc.

 

Old folk I know in the UK and Netherlands all say they have never been so financially comfortable in their lives.

This has got to be a first.  I actually agree with you and yes I am one of the 'old folk'.   Very!

 

I planned my retirement way back in early part of 1960 and now I am reaping the benefit of that planning and following the advice given to me then, which was that if I didn't have the cash available, I couldn't afford the purchase.   No credit cards and never any debt.

 

I have many times had cause to thank the fictional character Polonius, a fictional character in Shakesperes 'Hamlet', who counsels his son Laertes before he embarks on his visit to Paris. He tells his son, 'Neither a borrower nor a lender be'.  This despite generally being regarded as wrong in every judgment he makes over the course of the play.   However for me very sound advice which has stood me in good friendships for all of my 80 odd years of life.

 

why people get so little ?  because they imported millions of people with no education, that never contributed, that imports their parents and grandparents, that have never worked or contributed and ALL GET A PENSION, same as you, who might have worked xx years

5 minutes ago, justin case said:

why people get so little ?  because they imported millions of people with no education, that never contributed, that imports their parents and grandparents, that have never worked or contributed and ALL GET A PENSION, same as you, who might have worked xx years

And the most amazing,

 

the "people who get so little"

let the "they" carry on.

Edited October 25, 20196 yr by luckyluke

What did the report say about some UK pensioners being deprived of a full pension on the basis of where they live?
Did they find this quite acceptable?

I don’t know, maybe you could help me out with that as I have only seen the summary of their holistic findings.
While your at it maybe you could also help me out by telling me the relevance of your questions to my post


Sent from my iPhone using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

8 hours ago, pegman said:

Sounds to me your problem was not having a union. 

I am self employed, we don't have a Union only a federation (FSB). I am not complaining about my personal situation, I am happy to work (Now part time) till I cop my wack. However you avoid the point, which is that the amount paid in doesn't cover the amount paid out - not even remotely- if you took the figures to an actuary they would die laughing when it was suggested one would cover the other. I am not union bashing, far from it (I was a MU member for years), I am saying that the now subsidized occupational pensions were not funded, we awarded ourselves a pile of gold for a crock of sh#t. Wonderful for the baby boomers, cra#p for their kids.

 

My son works in Amsterdam, he pays around 45% in tax on a good but not huge income, no surprise that the pensions are so good. 

9 hours ago, kingdong said:

The civil servants receive good pensions is because they,'re subsidised by ratepayers regardless of their circumstances,so if a civil servant gets caught thieving he loses his pension?think you,'ll find he or she won,t lose the pittance they paid in,just the lucrative top ups paid for by ratepayers.easy to see what your former  job was.

Ahhh KD, finally I agree with you on something! As I said the gap is 1 trillion, paid for by taxpayers (Not ratepayers BTW). But it extends beyond the state, in industry the gap is funded by the employers also.

40 minutes ago, Nigel Garvie said:

Ahhh KD, finally I agree with you on something! As I said the gap is 1 trillion, paid for by taxpayers (Not ratepayers BTW). But it extends beyond the state, in industry the gap is funded by the employers also.

 

40 minutes ago, Nigel Garvie said:

Ahhh KD, finally I agree with you on something! As I said the gap is 1 trillion, paid for by taxpayers (Not ratepayers BTW). But it extends beyond the state, in industry the gap is funded by the employers also.

Think you,'ll find the final salary pensions are a thing of the past,I have no problem with what ever anybody gets in pension,how ever what I have the problem with is last time I looked at my council tax bill breakdown over 20% was going to prop up council pensions,so perhaps it is reasonable to expect the council workers should not expect ratepayers to subsidise their pensions and pay more contributions.

On 10/24/2019 at 3:10 PM, EVENKEEL said:

That's right, up to me to take at age 62 and 2 mos. My insider info is not as good as your so I'll take my money when I can.

I don’t have insider info, what I have is pretty common knowledge. The reality is if you wait to 70 and we’re working still it will increase from when you took it by around a third. But good luck to you anyway.....maybe you needed it then. I had many friends take it early based on thinking they would be better off getting that money for those eight years or so......I looked at it from the point of view that I will need it later and not now....working pretty good for me.

On 10/24/2019 at 12:44 PM, pegman said:

They drop dead at 71 how much did they short change themselves then? Even worse at 68.

Not a very positive way at looking at it.....but if they are dead they don’t need money anyway so what does it matter?

On 10/24/2019 at 5:07 AM, Damrongsak said:

I just applied for Social Security in the US, as I turned 66.  I could have taken a lesser amount at 62 but didn't.  I'm supposed to get about $2,300 USD per month before tax, which is chump change these days. Glad I have a pretty big piggy bank that I've been stuffing all these years.  Never did have a job that had a retirement plan. 

Just out of interest, what would be the tax rate on that?

4 minutes ago, Mansell said:

Not a very positive way at looking at it.....but if they are dead they don’t need money anyway so what does it matter?

My mum was a teacher in the UK and after paying in all those years, kicked the bucket when she hit 60 so she did not receive any of her money back. She'll be helping to cover those lucky ones who live so long they are taking out more than they put in. No problem with that really. Life isn't always fair.  

58 minutes ago, GarryP said:

Just out of interest, what would be the tax rate on that?

He will pay 12%

3 hours ago, GarryP said:

Just out of interest, what would be the tax rate on that?

12% would be the rate but there are deductions available that would reduce the taxable amount.

 

https://smartasset.com/taxes/current-federal-income-tax-brackets

 

The new standard deduction is $12,000 for single filers and married filers who file separately. Joint filers will have a $24,000 deduction and heads of household get $18,000.

17 hours ago, sidgy said:

I don’t know, maybe you could help me out with that as I have only seen the summary of their holistic findings.
While your at it maybe you could also help me out by telling me the relevance of your questions to my post


Sent from my iPhone using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app

"I don’t think it does rate as the worst state pension in the world, in fact according to the OP it ranks as the 14th best"

 

Your words. You appear to be assuming that every aspect has been taken into consideration.

On 10/25/2019 at 5:38 PM, Tounge Thaied said:

He will pay 12%

I file Federal each year and pay nothing on $2,300. Why would they have to pay anything?

20 minutes ago, Mansell said:

I file Federal each year and pay nothing on $2,300. Why would they have to pay anything?

Yes I think assuming no other substantial income the tax would indeed be zero in that case as it's social security income. 

 

The key thing here is that when figuring your total income including social security, you only include 50 percent of the social security part.

Edited October 26, 20196 yr by Jingthing

The best pension system in the world is to save your money and invest wisely. Counting on corporations and the federal government is becoming more and more foolish every years.

On 10/23/2019 at 10:24 PM, chrisandsu said:

Yeah the British pension is appalling ! My dad would get literally peanuts to survive on. Where I live I could retire in Thailand comfortably on what the social security have estimated what I will get . 

No you could not. As the maximum British state pension is about 7500k BPS thats only 23k Thai baht a month. That is not enough. The thai government you to have a retirement income of 65k baht and that is not enough to live really.