Expat living

[Cronky]

It annoys me when people whinge about the cost of getting on and off the rock. It has never been so cheap to get away for a weekend to London, Liverpool or Manchester.

A day return flight to London you can now do for £50 there and back, similarly Mcr or L'pl although maybe not in a day. I recently did a trip to Glasgow via Mcr and it cost me more to get to Glasgow and back by train than it did to get on and off here.

There are many gripes about living on here but cost of getting on and off these days isn't one of them.

 

Those £50 tickets won't be around for long. They are just lowering the price so as to undercut British Airways who charge 5 times as much. Once people get used to the rout the price will go back up.

[Lxxx]

 

 

It annoys me when people whinge about the cost of getting on and off the rock. It has never been so cheap to get away for a weekend to London, Liverpool or Manchester.

A day return flight to London you can now do for £50 there and back, similarly Mcr or L'pl although maybe not in a day. I recently did a trip to Glasgow via Mcr and it cost me more to get to Glasgow and back by train than it did to get on and off here.

There are many gripes about living on here but cost of getting on and off these days isn't one of them.

Those £50 tickets won't be around for long. They are just lowering the price so as to undercut British Airways who charge 5 times as much. Once people get used to the rout the price will go back up.

Landing charges at Stansted are nowhere near what they were at Gatwick, when they had the route all to themselves. Plus they have Easyjet to compete with now. Granted £50 return won't be around forever but I'd be surprised if we had a repeat of the £300 return we had a few yrs back.

[woolley]

 

It annoys me when people whinge about the cost of getting on and off the rock. It has never been so cheap to get away for a weekend to London, Liverpool or Manchester.

A day return flight to London you can now do for £50 there and back, similarly Mcr or L'pl although maybe not in a day. I recently did a trip to Glasgow via Mcr and it cost me more to get to Glasgow and back by train than it did to get on and off here.

There are many gripes about living on here but cost of getting on and off these days isn't one of them.

 

Those £50 tickets won't be around for long. They are just lowering the price so as to undercut British Airways who charge 5 times as much. Once people get used to the rout the price will go back up.

 

If they were "undercutting" then they wouldn't be charging a fifth of the price.

[Roger Smelly]

Spook how's the big smook yussir ?

[spook]

Spook how's the big smook yussir ?

 

Don't like London, or as it is widely referred to now, Londonistan.

 

There's times that it's worth a short visit for a few hours, or to go and see a show, but that's all.

[Cambon]

Spook - just like from here then really.

[spook]

Spook - just like from here then really.

Very true, except that it's a whole lot easier to get to London from here, especially where we are, but there were many more reasons for us to move from the Island than ease of visiting London.

[Cambon]

I know Spook. In fact, I wonder how many people here realise just how badly off they will be in retirement? I was talking to a friend the other day who is in his fifties, and had a pension review, something he has not had in quite a few years. He has a pension fund of around £250K, but he has been advised that he needs to increase his payments into the fund as at the moment, the projections show that he will be able to take the 30% lump sum (around £75K) and then only draw down 6% because pensions over here, including draw down, are still based on GAD, as are annuities. GAD is calculated based on GILT rates, which have been in continual decline for years, currently at about 1.5%. He will not even be able to draw down the SIPP return on investment.

 

What this means is a £250K pot, after lump sum, will not even give you minimum wage due to the inflexibility of the Manx drawdown. People like my mate have been saving for decades to achieve these figures, and are on quite high salaries. However, will probably end up on some form of top-up benefit due to old laws, based on outdated methods of calculation. What sort of message does this send out to people just starting out?

 

He has written to Eddie Teare about it. I have no idea whether there has been any response.

[woolley]

I know Spook. In fact, I wonder how many people here realise just how badly off they will be in retirement? I was talking to a friend the other day who is in his fifties, and had a pension review, something he has not had in quite a few years. He has a pension fund of around £250K, but he has been advised that he needs to increase his payments into the fund as at the moment, the projections show that he will be able to take the 30% lump sum (around £75K) and then only draw down 6% because pensions over here, including draw down, are still based on GAD, as are annuities. GAD is calculated based on GILT rates, which have been in continual decline for years, currently at about 1.5%. He will not even be able to draw down the SIPP return on investment.

 

What this means is a £250K pot, after lump sum, will not even give you minimum wage due to the inflexibility of the Manx drawdown. People like my mate have been saving for decades to achieve these figures, and are on quite high salaries. However, will probably end up on some form of top-up benefit due to old laws, based on outdated methods of calculation. What sort of message does this send out to people just starting out?

 

He has written to Eddie Teare about it. I have no idea whether there has been any response.

IMO the whole pensions industry is a huge con. Someone has to pay for all of those fancy offices and salesmen and chiefs on six figure salaries with big motors - and nice pensions of their own to match. Guess who it is.

 

So he has £325k. When is he considering retirement? 60? If he had saved this sum outside a pension scheme, even now with the crappy interest rates he could earn at least £6k a year on it. He could draw around £20k a year from that for around the next 20 years. I know it doesn't take account of inflation but neither do many flat annuities and the older you get, the less you tend to need for travel and leisure outgoings. It also doesn't take account of interest rates which will eventually rise and earn him more. I also appreciate that this ignores the tax relief that he had on his pension contributions, but believe me, I am happy to forego that to keep my money out of their hands.

 

ETA: The above applies to the most unsophisticated investor with the money kept on deposit. With half of the money invested in a basket of good yielding quality equities you would even make a profit for some of the time!

[MikeW]

 

I know Spook. In fact, I wonder how many people here realise just how badly off they will be in retirement? I was talking to a friend the other day who is in his fifties, and had a pension review, something he has not had in quite a few years. He has a pension fund of around £250K, but he has been advised that he needs to increase his payments into the fund as at the moment, the projections show that he will be able to take the 30% lump sum (around £75K) and then only draw down 6% because pensions over here, including draw down, are still based on GAD, as are annuities. GAD is calculated based on GILT rates, which have been in continual decline for years, currently at about 1.5%. He will not even be able to draw down the SIPP return on investment.

 

What this means is a £250K pot, after lump sum, will not even give you minimum wage due to the inflexibility of the Manx drawdown. People like my mate have been saving for decades to achieve these figures, and are on quite high salaries. However, will probably end up on some form of top-up benefit due to old laws, based on outdated methods of calculation. What sort of message does this send out to people just starting out?

 

He has written to Eddie Teare about it. I have no idea whether there has been any response.

IMO the whole pensions industry is a huge con. Someone has to pay for all of those fancy offices and salesmen and chiefs on six figure salaries with big motors - and nice pensions of their own to match. Guess who it is.

 

So he has £325k. When is he considering retirement? 60? If he had saved this sum outside a pension scheme, even now with the crappy interest rates he could earn at least £6k a year on it. He could draw around £20k a year from that for around the next 20 years. I know it doesn't take account of inflation but neither do many flat annuities and the older you get, the less you tend to need for travel and leisure outgoings. It also doesn't take account of interest rates which will eventually rise and earn him more. I also appreciate that this ignores the tax relief that he had on his pension contributions, but believe me, I am happy to forego that to keep my money out of their hands.

 

ETA: The above applies to the most unsophisticated investor with the money kept on deposit. With half of the money invested in a basket of good yielding quality equities you would even make a profit for some of the time!

 

 

That's pretty much what it boils down to. Many private pension schemes whilst being tax-efficient savings do feel like gambling with little reward.

[spook]

I don't think that Tear has any room for movement if for no other reason than the utterly scandalous Public Sector pension liability.

 

Rene Thom is well known for having originated a special case of dynamic systems theory which he described as 'catastrophies' (not in the conventional meaning of the word though in the case of the Isle of Man it is what is coming down the pike) and are bifurcations between stable states ----- oh go and read up on it if you must.

 

But the point is that there are times that things fold back on themselves and radical changes must then be made to restore what had been thought of as normality.

 

I sincerely doubt if Tear or Bell or almost any of the sorry shower in The Keys have even heard of this hysteresis like effect let alone hysteresis economics or the dreadful situation would have been ringing alarm bells at least ten years ago.

[MikeW]

 

The thing that really is making me have second thoughts about living on the isle of man is travel, getting off the rock is expensive, if you live in the UK its just a tank of cheaper fuel in the car.

 

As I am getting older I am wanting to see more of the world and travel more, living on a small island is far too restrictive I think.

 

It's great being able to just go somewhere - despite being at the very bottom of Cornwall I'm inside the M25 in less than 5 hours (includes a pit stop for the dog), Wales is just 4 hours away.

 

 

I moved to the island in 2013 and I'm inside the M25 in under 3 hours, although it does require a flight...

[spook]

The M25 should be made one way with a single exit - Dover.

[Cambon]

Wooley - Tax relief and employer equalling contributions. He has £250K, less £75K =£175K * 0.6 = 10,500 per annum. It does not matter when he retires. The percentage of GAD he can take goes up as he gets older, but GAD itself goes down at a similar or faster rate. His best bet is to not draw anything, and leave it to his wife when he dies. She will get it all tax free. If he takes the lump sum, the remainder is moved in to a Manx SIPP, which is taxed at 7.5% on death.

 

I think Eddie Teare has no choice but to do something about this. With CI65 reports on benefits and pensions breathing down his neck, what else can he do? If everyone including the middle classes end up requiring hand outs, even though they have saved for retirement, but only because of the inflexibility that the UK has already stamped on, it will be HIS fault. A simple change to the law would allow my mate to take possible £20-25K a year instead of 10K.

[woolley]

Well certainly SOMETHING needs to be done. Yes you are correct about the employer contributions of course. However, I maintain my view about the industry, the returns are grim indeed and am very glad I am not tied up with it.