Anyone looking for a "doer-upper"?

[Dave Liquorice]

But you then have to be in a "state approved" care home not the one one might choose to be in.

That depends on how long you intend to live... Care is not cheap, say £1000/week, 200k, 4 years...

An "old dear" probably has no other income than the state pension. It's only in fairly recent times that everyone has be told that making their own pension arrangements would be a very "Good Idea". In fact anybody who isn't making as much provision as they can afford to some form of pension arrangement is going to find their later life very tough. This applies even more so to the "youngsters", ie those below 30ish. Retirement when you are twenty something may seem a very long way off but £10 salted away and allowed to grow for 50 years of "working life" will be worth a lot more than £10 invested in the last

10 years...

[Adrian]

Umm, not quite. EVERY care home has to be "state approved" and regulated, just to open its bloody doors. If there's a space in a home, then the local authority will pay a certain amount towards it.

A grand a week is SERIOUSLY top-end money.

The MiL was in a small (

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Interesting prog on R4 the other day about fees charged to manage an individual pension plan. Seems like the UK leads the world in this. To the benefit of the fund management, obviously.

And of course those charges are creamed off the top regardless of interest rates.

Some other countries operate a pool system so the charges are spread over many rather than each paying individually.

[whisky-dave]

It can go both ways a friend of mine is selling his house we thought he'd get arount 380K and would go down to maybe 365k, in thre end two couples went for it ended up at about 475K. Then a week laster the losing couple came back and offered 1/2 million for it.

[Dave Liquorice]

I very carefully avoided the use of "pension" or "pension plan" prefering "salted away". B-) I also now realise that I should have used "£10/month salted away" rather than a single lonely tenner. B-)

London has not risen to be one of the top financial centers of the world by not charging fees...

How do the now compulsory, unless you have your own private arrangements, employee pension schemes operate? Not being an employee I've not paid that much attention.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'm not quite sure. I didn't pay that much attention either as I'm lucky enough to be in a company pension scheme. Only good thing about being older. ;-)

[mike]

The SOLD sign has gone up today.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

42 Roper Avenue sounds like an address of a serial killer.

[The Other Mike]

Must be a good way to increase the value of a house

20/10/2000 Property Sold For £105,000 06/07/2006 Property Sold For £202,000

[Dave Liquorice]

employee

So am I and a final salary based one, unfortunately I only paid into it for 12 or so years. I could have paid another 3 years but I didn't join until I had to at 21, I reckon that has knocked a couple of thousand of the (small) pension when I get it. No one took me aside and explained why I should join and the consequences of not doing so. B-(

Hence having a bit of a bee in my bonnet about telling youngsters to start paying into some form of "long term savings" as soon as they start earning. What's £25 these days? A few pints and a curry...

[Dave Liquorice]

AIUI not of the resident has any savings or assets, they have to disappear first. One reason why people with paid for homes and grown up kids really ought to look at the ways one can shift the ownership (and thus capital) of the home to the kids and remove it from being effectively forceably sold sold and the money used for care home fees.

Fair enough, I pulled a figure from the air, but half that and you are only at 10 years ish.

[dennis]

Yet another lot that want to sponge off the state and not spend their own money. Its another tax the rich want where the poor pay more tax so that the rich can keep their wealth and pass it on to the kids.

Anyway they can't forceably sell the home, they can put a charge on the home that has to be paid when it is sold. Currently they can be left with £22k5 (and that is going up to £125k in a couple of years) before they have to pay (with a £75k cap).

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Just remembered another thing they stated. The Netherlands uses this pool system for 'private' pensions, and like for like a pensioner there will get 50% more than in the UK. Down to management fees here.

[Huge]

Err, no. I would say that £1K/wk is somewhere around the 70th percentile.

You'll be lucky to find anywhere you actually want to live for £500/wk.

[The Natural Philosopher]

last place I rented was £600 pm.

[Dave Liquorice]

But was it a care home?

[The Natural Philosopher]

no, it was a three bedroom cottage.

[Gefreiter Krueger]

The problem is the money you've saved up that you thought you were going to leave in your will has gone.

[Gefreiter Krueger]

Or they're planning on doing it all themselves for very little.

[Dave Liquorice]

That's why everyone should take steps to reduce their estate by removing the house from it to the kids by legal and tax effcient means. Like wise cash, investments etc. Why should the shareholders of the care home companies benefit and not the children/grand children of the people who actually worked for those assets? Is not a parents responsibilty to support and give a leg up to their offspring?