How's next year looking for you?

[Blobber]

electrostatic precipitators.

I'm not even going to Google that as my heads still exploding because I haven't funded my hedges, I'm sure there are grants for hedges so ill gogle that instead

 

[bricol]

There's Welders on here?

I thought it was just a forum for miscellaneous chit chat and miserable old men.

I do recall some conversation occasionally about welding

 

[Jelly_Sheffield]

You don't see a fair proportion of the posts in this thread displaying a poor level of financial 'savvy'? For me, there is a distinct tone of "we poor workers can do very little to improve our situation at retirement" in several of the posts.

I think there's a lot of people talking at cross purposes, looking at advice that's not necessarily aimed at them, seeing it makes no sense, and dismissing it out of hand

The advice to young people to invest in pensions early to maximise the benefit of compound growth is sound advice... But you need to do that in your 20's and early 30's to have a realistic chance to beat inflation.

But my impression is that most of the forum members are on the older side, even if they still view themselves as young.

Many of those members can't just invest out of the hole, whilst being exactly the right age to have not have been well advised on managing the transition from defined benefit to money purchase schemes, or simply not to have been inadequately advised regarding the necessity of a private pension.

I know that the advice both my parents received regarding pensions when they were younger was utterly dire, leading to my dad putting about 50% of his pay into his pension from the point they paid off the mortgage, to ensure they would collectively be OK, when he finally did go to a proper financial adviser in his late 40's.

 

[Barking Mat]

I've never in my life had any extra or spare money to stick in a pension, ever.

 

[sparkysy]

I've never in my life had any extra or spare money to stick in a pension, ever.

No nor me, by the time I've paid for everything there is just enough left for buying tools!!

 

[dobbslc]

Tools are a kind of pension though, right?

 

[MetalMonkey]

You don't see a fair proportion of the posts in this thread displaying a poor level of financial 'savvy'? For me, there is a distinct tone of "we poor workers can do very little to improve our situation at retirement" in several of the posts.

I'm deliberately not mentioning specific posts or members; it's nothing more than an observation of what I suspect is a reflection of the general poor level of understanding of such things among the general population.

I find it fascinating that with the resources available to everyone today, there isn't a better average level of understanding; nothing more, nothing less.

How many members do you think have a plan to hedge inflation for example (as a fraction of the regular posters)? My guess would be less than half.

Honestly I think I've seen far more useful and relevant posts here, especially for the self-employed and small business owners, than on any other non-finance related forum I can think of.
Some of our members even have day jobs in the sector...

Welding and Fabrication for the most part isn't exactly the best paid profession, and I'd imagine there are a good many people working hard to just keep up with the pressures of the here and now without having the luxury to worry about planning future financial investments.

It’s also worth keeping in mind, while it is absolutely a good idea to make the best possible provision for the future, essentially it all boils down to a glorified ponzi scheme.
The majority of modern economics and finance being based off fairly unprecedented growth in a relatively settled period of human history.
Given the amount and pace of global change and the uncertainty of previously stable markets, it shouldn't be totally unexpected if many of those pension pots diminish or even evaporate over the next 30 years.
As they say, the value of your investment may go down etc.

I’ve always thought probably the most reliable investment you can make is in yourself, be that knowledge, skills, qualifications or anything that can create opportunities.
The eclectic nature of the collective on here certainly helps with that.

 

[nickk]

I'm not even going to Google that as my heads still exploding because I haven't funded my hedges, I'm sure there are grants for hedges so ill gogle that instead

Funnily enough….there are,but there’s a minimum metreage requirement .

 

[Barking Mat]

I've never in my life had any extra or spare money to stick in a pension, ever.

@nickk it's the truth, hand to mouth, but we get by, just.

 

[nickk]

To return to the original question of the thread,in 40 years of my business in general metalwork,this has been the slowest,first noticed this in September/ October,enquires down significantly also. Just before September I had to reduce my workman’s hours down to 4 days,he’s got a mortgage and two girls under 3, never had to do this before. Fortunately I’ve no debts so feel secure nevertheless.

 

[Blobber]

Funnily enough….there are,but there’s a minimum metreage requirement .

Yeah I know we've looked before, same old thing we don't qualify, story of my life

 

[Craig-SM]

For all the talk of pensions being a guarantee of easy retirement you shouldn’t be complacent. When New Labour came into power the first thing Gordon Brown did was raid private pensions by removing the tax break on dividend income in pension schemes. This was done retroactively! Pension pots were decimated. A guy I knew in a neighbouring unit as with a tailoring business was due to retire. His back was knackered, arthritis was making it near impossible to work and suddenly he could afford to retire. He continued to work for another 4 years and gone from a jolly grandad type bloke to completely drained before he took retirement without the income he’d had projected prior to the pension raid. £250bn is the quoted cost of that pension raid.
Liz Truss's budget had the markets crashing but the main cause wasn’t the budget but the offloading of government bonds by the financial institutions. Bonds are usually guaranteed incomes so strange that they would offload them and the BoE had to step in to buy them to avoid a financial crisis. The financial institutions that are building your pension were buying bonds then borrowing money against those bonds to buy more bonds and doing it over and over again leveraging the original bonds way more than they could return. This is known as liability-driven investment (LDI). The bond rate went up on the news of the budget to make them more attractive when the alarm bells sounded with an unfunded budget. This compounded the financial institutions problem so they had to dump their leveraged bonds to repay the loan payments with £65bn bought up by the BoE and total of £425bn wiped off pension funds.
Now you have Rachel Reece in charge of the economy and she isn’t the sharpest tool in the box as her CV stated she was an economist but turns out she actually customer services but I’m sure hard people’s private pensions are safe with her.

 

[Gritineye]

For all the talk of pensions being a guarantee of easy retirement you shouldn’t be complacent. When New Labour came into power the first thing Gordon Brown did was raid private pensions by removing the tax break on dividend income in pension schemes. This was done retroactively! Pension pots were decimated.

That little trick cost me at least 40K by the reckoning at the time, may well have been a lot more.

 

[owas]

Well that's why you have money in a stocks and shares isa too.. (world/s&p500)

But tbh if it all goes to poop, the world's in a mess and a pension is the least of your worries

 

[addjunkie]

Well that's why you have money in a stocks and shares isa too.. (world/s&p500)

But tbh if it all goes to poop, the world's in a mess and a pension is the least of your worries

A broad portfolio I agree, as for the ISA bit, many of them the charges outweigh the benefits, as with many financial products. Always look at the charges.

And if it does all go poop, to have something is better than having nothing when it happens.

 

[Craig-SM]

Well that's why you have money in a stocks and shares isa too.. (world/s&p500)

But tbh if it all goes to poop, the world's in a mess and a pension is the least of your worries

ISA's weren’t around at the time, Gordon Brown introduced them later, but would have been subject to the same tax changes for shares. The tax exempt status of ISA's can always be removed, nothing is permanent.
Prior to the last budget many expected employers pension contributions to lose their national insurance exemption had it happened this would come out of your pension pot the same as it did with the change to dividends if applied retrospective.

Unfortunately it does go to poop and the world carries on just like it has on many occasions and if you funds invested in property you may wish to invest elsewhere. WFH, internet sales and recession cause a decrease in demand for commercial property and therefore reduces rental income as well asset value. By the time you see empty shops it’s too late.
Domestic rental property that many got into after their pensions were raided is now just as shaky. Even more rights for tenants are been pushed through parliament with the Renters Rights Bill and many landlords are selling up prior to this coming in and fear of increased capital gains tax whilst allowances decrease. Increases in stamp duty on second properties are putting off individual investors from buying these properties with ready tenants so the effect is decreased rental stock increasing rents for tenants as demand outstrips availability and it becomes a buyers market as house prices stagnates which will only become worse if the government meets their pledge to build 1.5m new homes.

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

So basically we'll all look back at 2024 and wish we still had it so good!

Hopefully things will bounce back.

When systems have failed in other countries physical assets have been the ones to have...time to buy more tools me thinks

 

[dobbslc]

When systems have failed in other countries physical assets have been the ones to have...time to buy more tools me thinks

This is what I've been worried about. When the IT goes down how do you get at your money?
Stashing it under the bed probably is a good idea now...

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

When the IT goes down how do you get at your money?

Reckon people would switch to bartering maybe.

So probably worth having something to barter with I guess!

 

[GRW]

"Consumer Confidence". That always was a buzz word regarding the state of, and forecast for the economy, business etc.
Let's be honest - there is no confidence, and there is no trust.
We now expect (through bitter experience) to be blindsided and fleeced by our own govt, & to expect that no matter what we do/do not do to try and have any sort of retirement... that any/all funds will be raided & diminished.

Where I now work is a small engineering workshop. The kind that if it closes you'll likely never see its like again (from reading posts on here I get the idea there are many similar small businesses being run by members). Rent just leapt by £200/month for 1st Jan. Electricity and other bills are expensive. Now there's a greater demand for NI contributions on top.
A large portion of customer base is Agri Engineers, who in turn have got the Farming Industry getting hammered by our "govt" (whose only objective seems to be the utter decimation of the economy & the UK - every move hamstrings SME'S, workers and consumers one bite more).
I know my boss is worried & stressed. He's 44, has 2 primary school age kids. It wouldn't take much to push any good little business over the edge, trapped between operating costs and a customer also feeling the pinch. There's a necessity of raising prices to offset rising costs, but what can the market stand? Its a fine line between being a busy fool scraping by, and a business with profitable jobs but not enough of them!
My concern is not just for my own job, but for the thousands of small businesses that are the backbone of the economy.... the govts total lack of support (in fact the opposite) must (IMO) see thousands go to the wall, and few if any will have the capital, plus the desire, plus the skills combined to ever see these businesses return.

"Buy Land - they aren't making any more of it" is sound fiscal advice.... or used to be. However the Inheritance Tax on Farms will now see Families unable to meet the Death Duties.... and there are now Corporate Giants circling like Vultures to buy up any/all farmland (with no intention of farming it).
Owning a home is being priced out, while again Corporations expand their portfolios. Rents keep rising, ensuring those renting stay trapped renting, while those on the housing ladder face greatly increased materials costs and taxation.

There's a relentless increase in costs and restrictions on use of vehicles, so those with a job lose a chunk more just trying to get to & keep a job.

TBH, I'd say that if I found an ordinary working person who had Confidence in the govt, the economy and the future.... I'd question his sanity & grip on reality (yet there must be millions of them given the outcome of the last GE).

"Confidence". Sorry to be doom & gloom, but I see zero reasons to have any. We are being inexorably flushed down the pan by what I regard as a traitorous "political class" who have allied with a NWO that classes us as pests, (& they are Pest Control).

2025 & beyond has a bleak outlook IMO. The quest for most of us has switched long ago from "thrive" to "survive". Without a drastic reform and reset to a different objective, "we're all doomed".