Pension stuff, how's it all looking ? HAve you prepared ?

[Pirahna]

This ^ is why I don't like expat communities, all they do is slag each other off.

It's no different to village life in the UK, or office life, or anywhere else where people come together. I like to stay on the periphery, I have friends but most people are just acquaintances. I've never got involved in slagging people off and what's said behind my back I don't care about.

I've always understood "expats" to be people living in a foreign country on a temporary basis. When they've finished doing whatever is they do they go home, in your case, back to the UK. In my case, I have Spanish residency and am an immigrant.

[Yambo]

That does to an extent depend upon where you live though i'd say. For example in the UK i expect the initial unavoidable bills are potentially higher than where you are. Things like our council tax is £250 a month, TV licence £25 a month, heating bills i expect a lot more than you as is gas and water i'd guess too.
Moving to some little island/place in the middle of cheapsville does have a certain appeal though i'd agree... I can't see Mrs Weeksy going with the idea.

You're right of course, most things are cheaper here. My last month's electricity bill (I simply pay for what I use, there's no 'electricity company savings scheme' here) was 450 TL (£12.80 ish), a bit higher than normal as I've been using power tools a lot connected up to a big vacuum cleaner but it's still not bad; a gas bottle for cooking lasts over a year and I have no idea how much a fresh one will cost but I doubt it'll be more than £15; water isn't expensive , less than 10TL per cubic metre. Waste water 'removal' is more expensive; Bina vergi (basically council tax) is based on the stated value of your property and mine is considerably higher than most of my neighbours because I bought my house from a retired general in the Jandarme who of course was honest and put the full sale/purchase price on the tapu/deed documents. I think I paid 1380 TL last year (probably just under £60 but I've forgotten what the exchange rate was last April). Heating? I have a wood burner and live on the edge of a forest. Having said that I bought 1.5 tonnes of oak for the wood burner 3 years ago and still have some left.

For me, the question is why is your electricity/water/gas so expensive?

There are a lot of reasons to come to somewhere like this to live, climate, geography (I have hills on 3 sides and the Med to the east) more relaxed lifestyle, the people etc and the cost of living is usually not the top one. It doesn't suit everyone and people often pack up and either go somewhere else or go back to UK. Personally, I'm going to die here, this is home and no place I've lived has ever felt more like home.

[Yorick]

I'm well aware of all that, (my army pension was non contributory ) and I still pay taxes but that wasn't the point. Why you think that you're going to need an income of £60k a year during retirement is laughable. If you've been earning enough to provide a £5k a month pension (fair play to you!) then I would suggest you'll have most of what you need for retirement; no mortgage, car, insulated big house (may be too big for retirement when you only bump into the wife now and again) good social scene etc. What you gonna do with all that cash?

Just about all of the expats in this village are retired, most of them on way, way better pensions than mine. A neighbour of mine (single woman in her 70s) came here and stuck a £million in the bank - she'd worked in a bank in the City (Chase possibly) bought 4 properties, new car etc etc etc. Of course, her £1m is no longer worth that due to serious inflation here but she's still loaded. She's also one of the most unhappiest people I know. Sits in her big house (hers is a triplex, mine a duplex) all day with the aircon going cos it's chilly in winter and too hot in summer. Rarely goes out.

Another is called 'First Responder'. I think he managed photography shoots for Kays catalogue or some such thing. He has a big house more to the back of the village and is certainly not short of a bob or two. The 'First Responder' nickname? He sits on facebook all day and when someone posts something, anything, he is the first person to make a comment. What a sad fucker.

There are others with big pots of money and decent monthly incomes - they keep a couple of bars open during the winter. They have no life and although they have a car "so that I can go out when I want to" they rarely buy petrol. Quite a few of them tell me they envy my lifestyle - I'm usually busy doing something boats or doing things for others (I don't take payment) like today, I'll be helping another expat put his outboard motor back together. He's selling the boat because he can't find the time to use it enough. He's too busy watching films on the TV and telling me about them when we have a beer on a Friday evening.

The rest probably all have a nice pot of money in the bank to fall back on and a decent enough monthly income but they still, like me, buy their fruit and veg in the market on a Monday - the cheap option. But fair play to them, they managed to not die just after retiring so they can spend their time in a great place doing fuck all and waiting to die, still wealthy.

Now of course, you won't be like them just as they would have said before "I won't be like that". But time will tell.

Retirement is what you make it but in general, it doesn't need a lot of money. It needs a decent attitude.

I don't have a pot of money to fall back on btw, I get a monthly income from 3 pensions (one of them currently just £53 a month). But I'm a lot better off, happier and healthier that the fat cats.

This ^ is why I don't like expat communities, all they do is slag each other off.

Not here. We're all very supportive.

[Pirahna]

For me, the question is why is your electricity/water/gas so expensive?

Profit. For example, British Gas profit was £72m in 2022, £751m in 2023.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... s-centrica

[weeksy]

That does to an extent depend upon where you live though i'd say. For example in the UK i expect the initial unavoidable bills are potentially higher than where you are. Things like our council tax is £250 a month, TV licence £25 a month, heating bills i expect a lot more than you as is gas and water i'd guess too.
Moving to some little island/place in the middle of cheapsville does have a certain appeal though i'd agree... I can't see Mrs Weeksy going with the idea.

You're right of course, most things are cheaper here. My last month's electricity bill (I simply pay for what I use, there's no 'electricity company savings scheme' here) was 450 TL (£12.80 ish), a bit higher than normal as I've been using power tools a lot connected up to a big vacuum cleaner but it's still not bad; a gas bottle for cooking lasts over a year and I have no idea how much a fresh one will cost but I doubt it'll be more than £15; water isn't expensive , less than 10TL per cubic metre. Waste water 'removal' is more expensive; Bina vergi (basically council tax) is based on the stated value of your property and mine is considerably higher than most of my neighbours because I bought my house from a retired general in the Jandarme who of course was honest and put the full sale/purchase price on the tapu/deed documents. I think I paid 1380 TL last year (probably just under £60 but I've forgotten what the exchange rate was last April). Heating? I have a wood burner and live on the edge of a forest. Having said that I bought 1.5 tonnes of oak for the wood burner 3 years ago and still have some left.

For me, the question is why is your electricity/water/gas so expensive?

There are a lot of reasons to come to somewhere like this to live, climate, geography (I have hills on 3 sides and the Med to the east) more relaxed lifestyle, the people etc and the cost of living is usually not the top one. It doesn't suit everyone and people often pack up and either go somewhere else or go back to UK. Personally, I'm going to die here, this is home and no place I've lived has ever felt more like home.

I'm not sure 'why' is important, that's a whole kettle of worms and frogs to open, but pointless in this thread as it'll then get all wanky political. But you've got to understand just how much more the UK is, like electric/gas/water will be £400+ for most i think, council tax at £250, we're already wayyyyyyyy above yours, so the difference is huge automatically.

It's ace that you've found your happy place though.... i hope to find mine one-day when i retire... However, in reality, where i am is not far off it for most of the year. I do have little dreams though.

[Mr. Dazzle]

For me, the question is why is your electricity/water/gas so expensive?

Profit. For example, British Gas profit was £72m in 2022, £751m in 2023.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... s-centrica

But then again, loads of those profits would have gone into people's pension funds

It's a big ol' circle

[Greenman]

For me, the question is why is your electricity/water/gas so expensive?

Profit. For example, British Gas profit was £72m in 2022, £751m in 2023.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... s-centrica

But then again, loads of those profits would have gone into people's pension funds

It's a big ol' circle

What about 0.0003%?

[Mr. Dazzle]

When you see pension funds growing at whatever percentage per year, where exactly do you think that growth comes from?

[Greenman]

When you see pension funds growing at whatever percentage per year, where exactly do you think that growth comes from?

I understand how it works, i'm just stating the facts that i will be a very very small percentage of the profits made over a course of such a short period of time!

If the proportion that is paid into pensions is equal to the increase in profit made by the big energy companies in the past few years, all of their employees would of already retired!

[Mr. Dazzle]

PLCs don't pay their profits to their employees though, or even into their employees' pension funds.

[Horse]

For me, the question is why is your electricity/water/gas so expensive?

Profit. For example, British Gas profit was £72m in 2022, £751m in 2023.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... s-centrica

On what turnover, i.e. what % was profit?

[Yambo]

For me, the question is why is your electricity/water/gas so expensive?

Profit. For example, British Gas profit was £72m in 2022, £751m in 2023.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... s-centrica

You'd like to think that profit would be ploughed back into improving infrastructure but that doesn't appear to be happening.

[Pirahna]

For me, the question is why is your electricity/water/gas so expensive?

Profit. For example, British Gas profit was £72m in 2022, £751m in 2023.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... s-centrica

On what turnover, i.e. what % was profit?

You Google it, I couldn't care less. My gas is price capped by the government at €15.14 a bottle. I use approx 1 bottle a year for cooking and 2 for hot water over winter. The days are just about long enough for me to switch back to my electric hot water heater, I'm off grid for leccy but the sun goes behind the mountain a bit too early in the winter and running the water heater uses too much from the batteries.

[JackyJoll]

For me, the question is why is your electricity/water/gas so expensive?

Profit. For example, British Gas profit was…. …£751m in 2023.

So, about £28 per UK household.

[mangocrazy]

For me, the question is why is your electricity/water/gas so expensive?

Profit. For example, British Gas profit was…. …£751m in 2023.

So, about £28 per UK household.

As BG has a UK market share of approx 20%, the annual profit per household supplied is £140

[Horse]

Profit. For example, British Gas profit was £72m in 2022, £751m in 2023.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... s-centrica

On what turnover, i.e. what % was profit?

You Google it, I couldn't care less.

You obviously care a bit because you stated 'profit' and gave figures.

FWIW, one source says:

The profit boom was largely thanks to a tweak to the regulator Ofgem’s energy price cap that allowed the supplier to recoup some of the costs of supplying its 10 million customers during the energy crisis.

Ofgem’s controversial decision to allow energy suppliers to claim greater profits from hard-hit customers via the energy price cap also led to a windfall for EDF Energy and Scottish Power.

Another notes:

Centrica previously cancelled its final 2019 dividend payment and made no payouts to shareholders in 2020

'Operating margin' for BG Energy
2022 1.9%
2023 8.2%

[JackyJoll]

Profit. For example, British Gas profit was…. …£751m in 2023.

So, about £28 per UK household.

As BG has a UK market share of approx 20%, the annual profit per household supplied is £140

Yes that sounds more valid.

[Horse]

As BG has a UK market share of approx 20%, the annual profit per household supplied is £140

Yes that sounds more valid.

So - very roughly - one month's payment. Tying in with the 8% profit.

[JackyJoll]

This is all very exciting, but it's got nothing to do with pensions or whether you're prepared for retirement.

We can fit an anti-big business rant in anywhere.

[Horse]

This is all very exciting, but it's got nothing to do with pensions or whether you're prepared for retirement.

Ìt does if you consider contingencies.

Edit:
From one side, consumers, bills rocketing. From the other side, shareholders and dividends - or not.