All is not lost if your employer does go bust. The Pension Protection Fund (PPF), the industry lifeboat scheme, will then step in: it usually protects 100% of pensions already in payment and 90% of the pension entitlement savers have built up so far if they’ve not yet retired. However, if you’ve yet to claim your pension, the PPF does have limits.
For example, someone retiring at 65 would not be able to claim a pension of more than 90% of this year’s cap of £41,461, no matter how much entitlement they’ve built up. If your pension is worth significantly more, you could really lose out. People in this category who are worried about their employer’s solvency therefore need to take independent financial advice on whether to transfer their defined-benefit savings to a defined contribution scheme.
You’ll forfeit the certainty that the former offers, but for those who would be substantially out of pocket in the PPF, this may be a price worth paying. Meanwhile, savers with defined-contribution pension plans have their own problems. The stockmarket declines of recent months – UK shares are down around 16% since the start of the year, while the US is off by 10% will have hit many savers’ funds. Some fixed-income assets, particularly at the less risky end of the spectrum, have been more resilient, but the yields they offer have fallen sharply.
If you have some way to go before retirement, you can afford to take a sanguine view of this volatility, since there is plenty of time for your funds to recover. But it is still worth reviewing your pension investments regularly. Are your plans still on track, are your chosen funds delivering competitive returns and is the way you have allocated your money still appropriate?
Motivational Quote Of The Day
“If you don’t like the road you’re walking on then start paving another one.”
Dolly Parton
Alternative Quote Of The Day
“When people say “it’s always the last place you look”. Of course it is. Why would you keep looking after you’ve found it?.”
Billy Connolly
Curiosity Cash
People are naturally curious…nosy is another word…and there’s many a business opportunity that’s been based on this simple fact. The latest thing we’ve seen is an app from Greece called Peekinto.
As the name suggests, Peekinto gives the user the opportunity to get a snapshot of someone else’s life via a 12 second video clip. As a user, you can offer yourself up as a provider of such a clip or request a clip from someone in a particular geographical location.
There are practical applications…perhaps you want to see how long the queue is for a concert or what the traffic is like on the M1…but it’s mainly about curiosity. What is someone else doing? What can they see from where they are?
Is there some way you can tap into people’s desire to have their curiosity satisfied or to pander to their voyeuristic tendencies? If there is, you could have the basis of a fortune-making business.
Today’s National Day
NATIONAL MOM’S DAY OFF !
PUBLISHERS NOTICE
Dear Streetwise Customer,
I hope you’re keeping safe and well.
This offer is limited, so we are only make it available to our most valued Streetwise customers at the moment.
Back in the autumn, we alerted a few of our customers to a course, created by a guy making what seemed at the time to be an outrageous prediction.
He predicted the world would soon be gripped by a unprecedented crisis which would create a huge financial opportunity. Crazy eh?
Anyway the course revolved around a strategy which would enable anyone to make £2,803 a month to ‘tick over’ in normal times, but would then transform into a massive fortune maker once the implications of the predicted crisis hit.
Not many people (including me!) believed the prediction, but £2,800 a month is certainly worth having and a number of our customers got on the bandwagon and started doing well with it…and then the crisis came…sooner than anyone thought.
The big opportunity he planned for is about to hit, and I want as many of our customers as possible to benefit…but there’s a hitch.
For reasons explained when you take a look at the details here, I can only help NINE people at the moment. But those nine people are going to get something nobody else has been able to get up until today…
The full programme in one package and at a huge discount!
For full details take a look here.
www.streetwisenews.com/CFTFC
Very Best Wishes,
John Harrison
Streetwise Publications
P.S. Everything comes fully guaranteed and makes truly fascinating reading.