Bouba
Well-Known Member
We haven’t had to cut back...but prices make you drawn in your breath ..... I watch parents with families (or worse grandpa treating everyone) and feel for them
Being retired; painful
- Thread starter Cerebus
- Start date
Davy_S
Well-Known Member
When we go to the airports there is never a shortage of retired people waiting to go on holiday! I always think the airport queues are a good indication of sod the so called cost of living crisis, they planned for the future so intend to enjoy it.
Wansworth
Well-Known Member
According to the news here in Spain airports are popular places to doss down in for the homeless,mainly men in 50/60 age group.Social services have set up groups to controls in Barcelona and Madridto offer help !
lustyd
Well-Known Member
Having just put a lot of thought into retiring at 45 this is definitely true. We don’t call it inflation but rampant unchecked capitalism means prices are rising more than ever and pensions can’t hope to keep up. Sadly part of the reason we “must” drive growth is to make pensions rise since they rely on the markets. It’s an arms race and will eventually falter. I’m spending and enjoying now before the system fails entirely.
Poignard
Well-Known Member
I suppose it depends to a great extent on where you live.
In the 'leafy London suburb' where I live there I don't see signs of financial pain amongst the retired community in general.
Builders are kept busy with repairs and alteratiions, nice cars abound, gardeners and cleaners are hard to find, old people are taking exotic holidays, after the 0930 threshold they are packing into the trains to London to enjoy the delights of the capital, and so on.
True, we might grumble at paying 71.3p for an apple but we still buy them.
Bouba
Well-Known Member
I remember one motorway services in France....like many, they are quite attractive often with large wooded areas...in fact that is their attraction to us as a stopping place for the dog to do his ablutions. This one had a steep wooded hill....when we came across a shantytown....the scariest moment was when a crazy old woman started to scream at me in a language I didn’t recognize....me and the dog made a hurried descent.
Afterward I started to wonder....how did they get there...how will they leave ?
Wansworth
Well-Known Member
Walking…….service station offers cheap food? Ablutions,warmth and away from city gangs etc
Poignard
Well-Known Member
Going where you're not wanted, and being told to clear off.
Must have seemed like reliving your YBW 2 experience, Booby!
Bouba
Well-Known Member
And occasionally here as wellGoing where you're not wanted, and being told to clear off.
Must have seemed like reliving your YBW 2 experience, Booby!
Sailing steve
Well-Known Member
They are indeed
But those retired travellers with money to spend on foreign travel are the visible ones - you see them waiting to board aircraft and ferries and enjoying their boats and premium cars and luxury hotel breaks but you never see the other retired people who can't afford to do any of that and instead are sitting indoors day after day worrying about the cost of putting the heating on.
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newtothis
Well-Known Member
My partner refers to the business-class lounge as the final-salary pension room. Seems to be no end of people older than us in there, and we ain't young.
Bouba
Well-Known Member
Ahhhh....the business class lounge....my favorite place....
wonkywinch
Well-Known Member
Unfortunately the internet revealed to people how to get a BA gold card (and all it's partner benefits) for under £3k. So much so that lounges have become so overcrowded that BA have recently rejigged their "Executive Club" to "The Club".
I'd travelled a bit on BA recently including business class to Singapore & back. Originally that lot would have got me a silver card (lounge access etc), now after the trip and rejig, I'm not even "Bronze" status.
Expect to see a massive fall off in lounge attendance after 31st March 2026 when everybody's status is reset.
Dozens of You Tubers commenting including this one ..
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lustyd
Well-Known Member
Lounges have become easier to access as they’re now just a credit card benefit. So much so the airports are often now less busy than lounges.
wonkywinch
Well-Known Member
I occasionally use those type of mass market lounges but as you say, every man and his dog gets access. Even got those horrible "On The Beach" TV ads for them ..
Holiday firm slams 'abusive and fat-shaming' trolls who took aim at ad
RunAgroundHard
Well-Known Member
Rich pensioners is very much a modern thing. The norm is that if you don’t work, you don’t eat, unless family supports you.
We have never had it so good.
We have never had it so good.
GEM43
Well-Known Member
Yes and no. Pensioners with decent disposable incomes have generally thought about and worked toward that objective. Getting by on the State Pension alone wouldn’t be easy.
Fr J Hackett
Well-Known Member
They are in the minority and will be, there was a bubble of the golden age of company pensions which is about to come to an end which means there will be less and less pensioners that have more than the state pension to rely on. People forget that we are a microcosm of society with even those with small and modest boats of 30, 40 50 years old having more than the state pension or average earnings. There are an awful lot of people out there that live from week to week either relying on their pay packet and overtime or social security and come the end of the week they are skint.
wonkywinch
Well-Known Member
Not sure I agree. I was fortunate to join a DB scheme with the "world's favourite" employer. Employee contribution rate was upwards of 14%. It was replaced with a DC scheme, min employee contribution 0% to (employer 5%) to max employee 6%, employer 15%. The max employee rate was now less than half of the old DB scheme. I produced spreadsheets that showed if someone kept their contribution rate up at 14% or more, they could easily match the benefits of the DB scheme (though not guaranteed of course). They would also have the benefit of being able to pass this on to their heirs unlike a DB pension.
It was only a "golden age" because it didn't require any thought. Martin Lewis and Pete Matthew bark on at trying to get basic financial stuff taught in schools but if you don't make any provision for your own deferred salary, then you only have yourself to blame.
As Pete Matthew says, he has never once had to use a quadratic equation in the real world but spent useless time learning them instead of basics of personal finance. My friends mocked when I didn't have the latest car whilst I was squirreling 50% of my salary into a pension for almost 30 years. Now they want to come out on the boat but don't have the time as they are still not able to retire in their late 60s due to mortgage and other financial commitments.
GEM43
Well-Known Member
Indeed. We’ve great friends our age, early 60’s, who’ve worked in a traditional fashion (mum raised children) all of their lives but through life’s hurdles have never accumulated any wealth. They’re renting a cottage at £1k/month which is paid from a £38k salary as an excavator driver. We love them to bits but at the same time they drive me mad - he’s just signed an agreement for a £50k MB car. They just don’t get it, I worry what the future holds for them, the State Pension won’t pay for their future. But they think I’m bonkers - I drive around in an eleven year old bmw and they just don’t get why. Luckily we’re all different.