Don't bother with a pension: will u live in poverty, or will tax payer bail u out?

right, i'm in my late 20's.

i've been paying a pension for the past 5 years.

seems there's alot of folk who don't have a pension.

i know they'll get the state pension, but this is hardly enough to live on.

my question is this, if you don't bother paying a pension, will you live in poverty, or will the tax payer bail you out?

Re: 30 years from now

paperclip said:

my question is this, if you don't bother paying a pension, will you live in poverty, or will the tax payer bail you out?

Click to expand...

The $6 millon question (or is it $60B?). I'm in the same boat & I've had the same thought. To some extent it has started already over the nursing home debate & whether people should have to pay from/sell their residences to cover the costs, but this is potentially a separate debate.

I think if you follow the argument to it's logical conclusion, the only option is to make pensions compulsory and increase tax/PRSI as a result, but no government with an election looming next year is going to do that.

My other concern is that the ground rules seem to keep changing, advice that people got, laws & tax incentives were different 10 years ago. What will they be like in 30 years time? I feel like it's a moving target and no one is going to guarantee that you'll be able to hit it when your own retirement comes...

Re: 30 years from now

One assumption could be that the State will pay a minimum pension - enough to keep you alive on bread and water but not enough for steak & chips. So if you want to avoid a poverty-ridden old age, it's up to you to fund it.

Re: 30 years from now

but its a fair point, you start a pension now and you're told you can take 25% etc as a lump sum when you retire, you sign up - pay in - thirty years later the Government decides to change the rules and hit your pension for more tax.

Well, you will still have a vote in 30 years time, so you can always vote them out before they do it!
Given that there will be a lot more pensioners in 30yrs time and given that pensioners vote more than 30 year olds, I suspect that their needs will be heeded more than the younger voter.

There is the question of funding the services to the increased number of older people - I'll be dead by then :-( (at least, I probably will be, statistically speaking), so it won't be my problem !