Job Discussion Forums

[Zero]

[Smallbore]

When I worked in Thailand I thought I might like to retire there - lovely people, good climate, and you get plus points for being old, which is not the case where I come from these days. However, you are always going to be very very foreign, and though I have known a few teachers (all males, I should add) who became fluent in Thai, married Thai women or even became Buddhist monks, they were a tiny minority. The other retirees I met were basically bar owners, often ex-army, drinking themselves to death in congenial surroundings. For me it was the foreignness and the language barrier that put me off, plus I married an Australian, not a Thai. We're in the Gulf now and the long-term plan is to move to Australia when the children are ready for high school.

[kazachka]

[norwalkesl]

[scot47]

For those who are subjects of Her Britannic Majesty, it is worth investigating the National Insurance system.

If I make it to 2012 I will get 100 pounds a week. OK if you are on a beach in Thailand but below poverty in the Yookay !

[kazachka]

[PattyFlipper]

[scot47]

Means-tested benefit in UK for single over-60 is currently 130 pounds a week plus Housing Costs. Capital Limit is 6000 pounds in Savings.

My plan is to keep going until 65 and then get my National Insurance Retirement Pension of just over 100 pounds a week. That is higher than the average salary in Bulgaria, where I plan to spend my dotage.

I would rather do myself in than go and live in Siam. The refernce to " a beach in Thailand" was shorthand for somewhere far from Western Europe. Not to be taken literally.

My recent visits to my native Scotia tell me that is not the place for me.

So - to my apartment in provincial Bulgaria, where at least I will be near my daughters !

[littleoldlady]

Scot
What about Nova Scotia? Lovely crisp weather, friendly people, all wild and woolly ( not the people).
Anyway, I thought all you guys were loaded and could stick two fingers up at Mr. Gorgeous Brown.

[scot47]

2 failed marriages and a 30-year career as a sot have ensured that all I have is my gratuity from my current job and the promise from HM Treasury of 100 pounds a week from the National Insurance Fund.

I will make it in my Balkan redoubt. Teetotal, non-smoker. I have modest tastes and have given up philandering.

Gordon Brown was a near contemporary of mine in school but I cannot say he is a big pal !

[scot47]

Just encouraged in my plans by reading the government in Sofia have announced minimum wage in Bulgaria for 2010 is 120 Euros a month for a 40 hour week.

I'll be okay.

"If you run your engine right, you'll get there just in time."

[runthegauntlet]

[Justin Trullinger]

That is always assuming, of course, that:

A) the current taxation to the fund does not change. A very slight restructuring of SS contributions could keep it 100% solvent (able to make 100% payments) for as long as you like.

And B) Minimal economic growth. Economists are doomsayers- If you look at the stats that gave you the 2037 figure, I'll bet you'll find that the projection for economic growth used to arrive at that figure is very modest. If the economy grows even slightly more or faster than the figure used, even the modest contribution restructuring referred to in A won't be necessary, or at least not nearly so soon.



Social security solvency is one of the invented bugaboos of our time. There are numerous relatively painless ways it can be fixed.

Best,
Justin

[Nabby Adams]

I agree. The idea that there will be hordes of aged homeless is never going to happen.

And remember that the grey vote will decide elections too. What party is going to run on a "we'll be ending ss ticket"?

These are scare tactics. Ask yourself, who benefits from their distribution?

[kazachka]