18-40 year olds unable to cope with debt and money

Im worried about getting a pension tbh with all the recent scandal regarding people loosing theirs

id rather have an ISA

i have been a complete tosser with money in the past. Credit cards, loan. its ruining my life tbh. i hardly ever have any money. i have no one to blame but myself tho.

I've got an overdraft left from uni and my student loan which ive not even started repaying yet.

I'm paying into a pension now but is it gunna be worth it in the long run??
People have mentioned to me about sticking the money in an ISA instead!

Thankfully I've always refused to have a credit card cos I know the consequences and I think the companies know too as i get about 2/3 letters regarding them every couple of weeks! I dont even open em just chuck em!

i would never get a credit card im a strong believer in not buying things until ive worked/paid for them but i have an overdraft of £400.00 which has crept up as ive enjoyed my social life a bit to much so fingers crossed when i get to uni il be knuckling down to study 'and would have paid my overdraft off'

im just worried about putting into a pension and in the future the money disappearing?

I dont have a clue about it either!!

I just know 50 odd quid leaves me account each month for me pension where it goes, who has it, who i contact regarding it or what its upto already I have no idea!!

I'll prob end up freezing me nuts off in some box when I'm 70 unless my online poker career takes off!!

brid you are right it is a very worrying scenario, especially seeing how most of our economy is propped up by this debt.

i came out of uni with no debt as i decided i would work part-time the entire way through to fund my studies. granted i was helped out significantly by my parents, but equally if i had chosen to live like some of the students around me i would probably of walked away with close to £20k of debts.

The blame surely lies with the banks and creditcard companies for making it so easy to acquire credit, i know of one person who simply lied on application forms and managed to get credit cards with a total limit of nearly £15k which he promptly used to travel the world with.

Pensions have always been a risky investment. First there was the scandal of Financial Advisers telling people private pensions were better than Employer Pensions when they were not. Financial advisers are rarely independent and most are vague about their administration charges. They will invariably tell you to invest as much as you can as early as you can in your pension. What they won't tell you is:

The large administration charges
Very High Transfer Penalties
Fund may disappear if you die
You have to buy an annuity
That pensions are no longer as tax efficient as they once were
Also what many financial advisors will tell you is that pensions are tax free. Well they are not. Tax is simply deferred until you take the pension. So suddenly pensions do not sound as attractive as the big pension companies would have you believe.

If the above wasn't enough Labour have put the final nails in the coffins of pensions, with a combination of stealth taxes and misguided legislation.

In the 1997 budget Gordon Brown stopped pensions from reclaiming tax on share dividends. This has cost pension funds £5 billion a year. This huge stealth tax went largely unnoticed at the time. It is only now that people are beginning to realise that Labour have carried out a huge smash and grab raid on their pension funds.
Labour have introduced a new accountancy rule FRS 17, which will force companies to show their pension liabilities on their balance sheet. As a direct result of this new rule many companies are now closing their final salary schemes. Many other companies are now investigating following suit
So where does this leave us. Prudentials own study says a man aged 30 would need to save £480 a month to achieve a £15,000-a-year indexed linked pension at 60. This assumes the savings grow by 5% a year. This is likely to be just a quarter of the average salary in 30 years time.

Who can afford to save £480 a month? With the huge Labour tax burden and the high cost of living in the UK most people do not have any spare cash left at the end of the month.

With employers closing final salary schemes, and private pensions under performing due to a poor stock market and Labour stealth taxes the government tell us not to rely on state pensions. National Insurance NI is supposed to fund future state pensions. However NI is simply treated as another tax for labour to waste on ineffective initiatives. It leaves us with an ever increasing aging population living in poverty. And it will only get worse.

Yeh having a contribution based pension is the business. I contribute 3% and end up with 11% in total, gotta love it

Do people really think that? An ISA is an essential investment route for everyone though in my opinion, any savy person will use their allowance each year. Then extra cash can be invested in other means.

Helps that i work for the government then doesn't it

Surely the blame lies with those who get into debt! No-one is forcing them to.

I think the worry is just whats going to happen to the pensions full stop.

I'm happy to pay into mine and will increase payments when i can afford too. I just hope its enough in the long term.

I know a couple of people who are disgarding the pension idea and are saving in an ISA simple to try and get into the property game which they see as a pension fund in itself.

Just flog ya property(s) and ya cushty.... well that their idea.! lol

and they should be made to work or at least volunteer a few hours to maybe a charity shop

pisses me off i work over 40 hours And study part time and the Vicki Pollards get most things free