Calum and John Laurie, both of West Lothian, are a perfect example of the way retirement expectations are in decline. Calum, a 57-year-old retired police officer who still consults for the force, has an index-linked pension of two thirds of his salary, which he has been receiving since age 49. John has no pension at all so far, even though at 33 he is just 16 years younger than the age at which his father retired. He expects to have to work until he is 69 at least, and will not receive any state pension until a year earlier.
Father and son's different experiences of finance reflect the changing face of our society. "Things were so much simpler when I was a young man," said Calum. "Credit was so much harder to get and when I joined the police you were simply enrolled into the scheme with no opt out, so there was no question of not having a pension."
Retirement planning is less straightforward for John, a father of two who runs his own outdoor fitness business. John has seen the credit binge of a decade ago catch up with him, and has little spare cash to pay into a pension. With credit cards, student debts and car finance loans compounded into a £23,000 second charge on top of his £130,000 mortgage, he is struggling to find the cash to contribute into a pension.
He has done well out of getting on the property ladder early a decade ago, although his current home, which cost £230,000 two years ago, is now worth £205,000. He would like a retirement income of £20,000 in today's terms, yet to achieve that he is going to have to save more than £350 a month in a pension, assuming he receives a state pension of £7,000 a year. If he delays starting to save by five years, the amount he will need to save will rise to £456 a month.
John said: "Financial products are more complicated now than when my father was a young man. These days you have to make your own choices, whereas in his day it was all done for you. For many years I was not offered a pension because I was not senior enough, and, for those periods when I have been, I have thought I would not be around with this employer long enough to make it worth it.
"The other big difference from my father's generation is that credit was easy when I was in my teens and early twenties. Everything was supposed to be OK because the equity in your house was supposed to pay for it all. I had a fantastic time on credit cards and there was no warning that you needed to rein it in. Then the credit crunch came. The monthly mortgage payments are really biting now and the idea of forking out even more on a pension will leave us really stretched."
But John accepts that the longer he leaves it, the harder saving for a decent retirement will be. "For years I thought I could rely on property for my long-term future. I now accept that a pension may be what I need to do," he said.
Man Group surprises with new finance director - The Guardian
FOREX-Euro hits 1-month high on Greek relief - Reuters UK
* Fear of Greece's immediate exit from euro recedes
* Focus on how euro zone bonds will react to Greek elections
* Aussie hits 1-month high vs USD
* Dollar undermined by Fed easing speculation
* Euro net short positions remain high
TOKYO, June 18 (Reuters) - The euro briefly hit a one-month high against the U.S. dollar on Monday after Greek parties supporting a bailout won a slim parliamentary majority, allaying fear of an immediate break-up of the currency bloc.
While there is scepticism in the market over the euro zone's ability to take effective steps to deal with the debt crisis that is now threatening Spain and Italy, massive speculative bets built against the currency could mean a good chance of further short-covering.
"This election results should keep hopes alive that Greece will stay in the euro," said Taisuke Tanaka, chief FX strategist at Deutsche Securities.
"There are massive short positions on the euro. Market players now need to consider whether the euro has more downside or upside, ahead of euro zone policy makers' meetings in coming days. I think risk currencies could recover some of their lost grounds," he added.
The euro rose to as high as $1.2748, near a 38.2 percent retracement of its decline from its February high of $1.34869 to two-year low of $1.2288 hit on June 1.
It later gave up part of the gains on profit-taking but stayed about 0.4 percent above its late U.S. levels last week, last trading at $1.2706.
Some traders think the euro could eventually test resistance levels such as $1.2904, a 61.3 percent retracement of its decline from May, ahead of European finance ministers meeting on Friday and EU summit at the end of this month.
Data from a U.S. financial watchdog showed speculators in Chicago still held massive net short positions of 195,187 contracts last week, even after having trimmed them from previous week's record high of 214,148 contracts.
The huge bearish positions had been made on worries that Greece could leave the currency bloc if the leftists opposing the bailout had won the election.
Greece's two pro-bailout parties begin forging a government on Monday, after having won a total of 162 seats in the 300-seat parliament, beating the radical leftists who rejected austerity measures.
But analysts say any coalition could be short lived, and many market watchers believe a new government cannot hope to deliver on further austerity measures with the economy already into a fifth year of deep recession.
"The euro now has a good technical outlook and bad fundamental outlook," said a trader at a Japanese bank.
SPAIN NEXT FOCUS
One immediate focus is whether the Greek election results will help drive Spanish and Italian bond yields lower, some traders said.
"I think the essential problem facing markets right now has to do with Spain's financial institutions, and steps have already been taken to address that," Akira Hoshino, chief manager for Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ's foreign exchange trading department.
"The euro could test the upside this week, such as levels around $1.28 to $1.30, especially with the FOMC coming up," Hoshino said, adding that the dollar could see some weakness and the euro may find support ahead of the Fed's policy decision on Wednesday.
Many market players expect the Fed could extend its long-term bond buying through the Operation Twist by a few months from the current deadline of June, after a series of disappointing data.
In fact, the euro's recovery from its two-year nadir hit on June 1 has been driven not so much by its own strength as weakness in the U.S. dollar based on speculation about more easing from the Federal Reserve.
The dollar index hit one-month low of 81.188 , before paring part of losses to stand at 81.35.
The Australian dollar also hit one-month high of $1.0135 , and last stood at $1.0110.
"There's a chance the Fed could adopt more of an easing bias at its policy meeting on Wednesday and that should cap the dollar for now," Peter Dragicevich, an FX economist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
Broad recovery in risk sentiment helped to push the yen lower from Friday's one-week high against the dollar, with the dollar trading at 79.19 yen, up 0.5 percent.
But some market players think a rally in the euro and risk assets could be fleeting, citing uncertainty over the shape of a new government in Athens and how Spanish banks will be rescued from the damage from burst in real estate bubble.
"For sustained gains in EUR in the days ahead, further 'encouraging' headlines will likely be needed from this week's G20 meeting and the later EU summit," said analysts at CitiFX in Singapore.
"We are sceptical that this marks the beginning of a new uptrend," they added. (Additional reporting by Wayne Cole in Sydney, Naomi Tajitsu in Wellington, Masayuki Kitano in Singapore and Antoni Slodkowski in Tokyo; Editing by Kim Coghill and Ramya Venugopal)
Trade Forex as Sterling Falls Following BoE Announcement - Yahoo Finance
LONDON, June 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --
On Friday, June 15, the pound fell against the US dollar following the Bank of England's announcement of an emergency liquidity package the day before. But how will you profit from this fall?
In the guide below, we show you how you can profit from the depreciating sterling through a spot forex trading account from City Index.
BoE Announces Emergency Liquidity Package
On Thursday evening last week (14 June), Governor Mervyn King suggested more quantative easing (QE) could be on its way as the Bank of England announced an emergency liquidity package to support the British banking system.
In his keynote speech, King said that the BoE would also be providing cheap long-term funding to encourage lending to businesses and consumers.
Pound Depreciates against Dollar
Whilst many investors in the marketplace said the measures planned by King would support the UK economy; further suggestions of monetary easing prompted investors to sell-off sterling in early London trade on Friday (15 June).
How to Trade Forex
With a City Index forex trading account you can take a position on the future price movement of 37 currency pairs within the foreign exchange market.
As a global currency market - trading 24-hours a day from Sunday evening to Friday night - forex offers traders multiple opportunities to potentially profit from fast-moving major, minor and exotic currency pairs.
Unlike in traditional equity markets, trading forex with City Index allows you to profit from market movements - regardless of whether they are rising or falling.
With this in mind, using the example above whereby the pound depreciates against the US dollar - traders have the potential to 'go short' and sell the pound with the aim of potentially profiting from every pip that it depreciates further.
In addition, as a leveraged product - forex trading requires only a small percentage of the underlying market's total value as an initial deposit.
This enables traders to control a relatively large exposure for only a small amount, gain greater access to the global currency markets and possibly magnify gains.
It is important to remember, however, that as a leverage product, you also run the risk of losing more than your initial deposit. A forex risk management strategy should be used in order to limit potential losses.
Start Trading Forex
To start trading forex across a range of trading platforms - including mobile - you can apply for a forex trading account with City Index through their website: http:http://www.cityindex.co.uk
Read More Forex Trading Tips
If you found this article helpful, you may want to read more just like this. You can access a range of free forex trading tips, guides and articles through the City Index website also.
About City Index:
Today more and more individual traders are discovering the benefits of derivatives, and many of them are discovering them through a City Index trading platform.
As a group, we transact in excess of 1.5 million trades every month in over 50 countries. We provide access to a wide range of instruments including margined foreign exchange, CFDs and, in the UK, financial spread betting.
We constantly look to improve the performance of our platforms and expand our range of services. The result is our customers benefit from innovative trading tools with transparent pricing, competitive spreads, and a high standard of customer support. Visit http://www.cityindex.co.uk/ for details.
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Finance Director leaves abruptly at Man - Life Style Extra
Jonathan Sorrell, currently Man's Head of Strategy and Corporate Finance, is taking over as Finance Director with immediate effect.
Hayes, who joined Man Group as chief number cruncher in 2007, is leaving the group to pursue "other professional and personal interests," according to the company statement.
Sorrell is a former Goldman Sachs man, where he worked in the Investment Management, Securities and Investment Banking Divisions, latterly leading investments in a broad range of hedge fund firms.
The value of Man's shares has declined by two-thirds over the last year.
JH
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