27th March 2008, 09:59 AM
Unit of 1 might have a valid point. However my objection was to his hijacking other threads to make that point.
I agree that the pension situation is lop-sided. Our colleagues in Local Authorities and National Government Agencies (EH, Natural England etc.) have very generous pension provision. On the other side of the coin, salaries in local authorities are extremely low.
As with Peter I have an incomplete NI record (due to the transitory and cash-in-hand nature of many early archaeological jobs) and no pension provision through employer or private scheme. As I approach 40 I do worry about these things. My advice to anyone is to get saving before you are 25 to build up the kind of fund Peter is talking about.
However my personal view is that private pension schemes do not offer good value for money. My own preference is to invest what I can afford using tax-efficient savings vehicles. Clearly this is insufficient but what can we do? I don't expect anyone is suddenly going to leap out of the woodwork and say 'there there, poor archaeologists, never mind we will make sure you are OK in retirement, have #163;800,000 to invest!'.
We do need to make sure that the new generation of archaeologists (those now in their 20s) does not suffer the same way that we did.
I agree that the pension situation is lop-sided. Our colleagues in Local Authorities and National Government Agencies (EH, Natural England etc.) have very generous pension provision. On the other side of the coin, salaries in local authorities are extremely low.
As with Peter I have an incomplete NI record (due to the transitory and cash-in-hand nature of many early archaeological jobs) and no pension provision through employer or private scheme. As I approach 40 I do worry about these things. My advice to anyone is to get saving before you are 25 to build up the kind of fund Peter is talking about.
However my personal view is that private pension schemes do not offer good value for money. My own preference is to invest what I can afford using tax-efficient savings vehicles. Clearly this is insufficient but what can we do? I don't expect anyone is suddenly going to leap out of the woodwork and say 'there there, poor archaeologists, never mind we will make sure you are OK in retirement, have #163;800,000 to invest!'.
We do need to make sure that the new generation of archaeologists (those now in their 20s) does not suffer the same way that we did.