I attended a talk about my pension. There were some changes suggested by the USS (the pension fund manager), and it is beneficial to attend. There were some changes made to the early retirement age, which will later be adjusted upward, obviously not benefiting people like myself who will retire a lot later, but to my colleagues such as GB, who also attended the talk, he will not be affected. Indeed, he said that making the decision to retire early was the most liberating decision he ever made and he won the applaud of the audiences immediately.
Knowing GB as I do, I understand his career path in the academia is different from mine. He is living across two different systems, which like most, and hopefully not me next time, who appear not to have done enough to catch up and adapt to the change. His promotion, for example, becomes more difficult and expect a lot more at the same time. The speciality he belongs to, is not quite a popular as in the old day, and you can imagine what that would do to a person's morale. What also known to many is that, GB is currently taking care of his wife, who suffered from a stroke few years back and stopped working. In fact, sometimes I saw GB with this wife in her wheelchair doing his grocery shopping. I can tell he is a very good husband, taking care of his wife up to the fine details.
After the pension meeting, I have a little chat with GB and ask him how his manage his pension. He told me, since his wife was disabled, there had been huge claims from her pension and that supported a lot on the financial ends. Therefore, he has taken out about 83% of his income into a AVC scheme, where the contribution from is deducted before tax each month, that way you avoided paying huge tax bill. He also put some of the deductions into other low risk account. I understand GB's kids are all grown up and leaving home and leading their life, but GB is independent. On one occasion, he told me, though it may sound horrible, if the worst were to happen to his wife, he had it all planned up financially and will be all ready to get on to lead a new life. I thought that was reasonable, as he was supporting his ill health wife anyway.
GB amazes me in many ways. He is almost 60 year old and he keeps going. It is interesting because we only known one "insurance" in life is life partner, but GB let me see and think beyond. Falling back and not collapse. Yes, with a pot of pension in place, what else to worry. Surely we would want as much as possible for the pension, millions or something, but I guess it's the organisation of the finances. It's a simple rule applies to all and I see another important trait in GB, he seems to start with "being self-sufficient", ensuring his survival first, which is important, and which I think he will achieve that, and anything else comes along becomes a bonus. It seems like the sort of thinking I found familiar, combining desire, expectation and happiness. This perhaps also works when I retire, helping me live a sufficiently fulfilling retirement life.
0 comments:
Post a Comment