Blow it all?

[harwood red]

welcome back gayle. Is it ok if I come and see you when I need a large lump sum of money??? Just for your luck to rub off on me??

[entwisi]

Originally Posted by garinda

If you get knocked down by a tram next week, can I as your dearest friend, have what you've squirelled away?

You know you can trust me, and I won't spend it on wine, women and song.

In the words of George Best "I spent 90% of my money on Wine, Women and Song. I wasted the rest!"

In my case, I have been saving in pensions etc since I was 17. I have a good protfolio spread across many investment areas to avoid spikes in teh stock market. I review all my stuff regularly with my IFA. I aim to have paid off my mortgage before I'm 45. This comes from careful planning. We are lucky that we both have good jobs. When we started out our married life we earned a third what we do now. I remember going to Aldi and buying a bottle of White lightning and a bottle of 12 p lemonade to water it down because that was all we could afford. Its all about levels. Now we can get piddled whenever we want and have the nice things that we want. We have both put in plenty of hard work to get here though.

I personally feel that whilst benefits are a neccessary safety blanket they shouldn't be everlasting. They should be a stop gap to help people get back on an even keel. In cases such as Rindy how come your pension didn't cover critical ilness? Maybe I'm lucky but in a case such as that my company pension is paid up to completion straight away and taken from day 1.

Ian

[garinda]

My private pension was payable early but I had to jump through hoops to make them pay it, which you don't realise until you have to claim it.