[speaker001:] at the introduction stage. Anyway can I welcome you on behalf of the Notts County Council to the the Nottinghamshire pre-retirement. You'll see my name's on here Bernard. And there's always the informality about these course, we're all addressed on christian name terms, all speakers prefer it that way and of course we like to address you christian name terms when we know you. And when I saw Bob 's name on there I thought well I know one face at least. almost on the point of saying, Well I there was one friendly face. but that is asking the impression that all the others are unfriendly which isn't. nevertheless it was nice nice to know that there's someone. Er right so as I say it's a lighthearted approach and on christian name terms and with that in mind would you detach one of these and just stick your name on so that at least if you don't know then at some stage during the course you stand a good chance of getting to know each other because again the essence of this course is informality and talking. As you know as as teachers this is the way that information. Right I shan't er be able to remember all your names but er nevertheless if you know each other then er Er you may have wondered what the Nottinghamshire Pre-retirement Council is well we are a charity. Started off giving er sort of talks at er no charge at all to who couldn't afford it and have now expanded into giving talks on a commercial basis to various companies. Er usually spend a lot a lot of time in the north of the county talking to power stations and people like that industrial rather than commercial or educational but er there we are. Er we're financed by grants from various authorities and by payments of course from the bodies who ask us to put on these talks. And er over the years we've built up a reputation I know is is a genuine one say that because I know that you're going to appreciate this course and I use the term very very particularly you will enjoy it. Again one of the essential elements picking up information is that if you enjoy you will then learn more. I find it so. Right some of our speakers are retires I I've been retired quite a number of years, as you'll have noticed I give the talk on income tax and I'm a retired tax inspector. And so we bring er a special sort of er expertise I suppose to the talks but also the experience of retirement which we think is is really good by someone who has already retired enjoying retirement to be able come to talk to people. We often meet people who are in in their forties and fifties on er early retirement and little bit difficult to get over the message they don't they don't see it as retirement and yet surprisingly very few of the people who got redundancy at forty and forty five and fifty seem to be bothered about taking up other work at all that. obviously you'll say the size of their pensions and lump sums. That doesn't seem to be so at some stages it is a little difficult getting it over as a as a a retired person talking to someone who is facing redundancy about retirement. Particularly when some of our speakers talk about er getting the state retirement pension at sixty five talking to I'm only forty five. so there is this mixture of er of the older element and the younger element which we've got to sort of marry during this course. So if you feel at some stage that er this isn't for me then one of the things that we regularly hear is I wish I'd done this course ten years ago. So in see things that you can do in future let me know. Particularly with the with the finance er s speaker. Right where are we up to? But all our speakers are chosen by the Pre-retirement Council and by your employers by the way who over a period of time have selected the Oh well we don't want him again or that firm again. so they've all we've all been vetted over over a number of years. So we've all speakers chosen for their integrity and confidence. The aim of the course is to provide advice and information but as I said at the beginning to get you talking about it. Because only then can you learn things. I often say jokingly that you make a comment to somebody and you find you're talking to the world export on expert on whatever it is. It is surprising how often your questions are answered by a casual comment from somebody. You've been bothered by something for ages and just happen to mention it somebody as you're walking by, Oh yes. And this I I find is one of the helpful things and when you get together not during the actual talking the actual session but er.... I mentioned the age related thing about the difficulty of talking about. Excuse me could you speak up just a little bit?
[speaker002:] Yes yes er
[speaker001:] Thank you.
[speaker002:] Any problems like that don't hesitate just join in and jumping ahead on the question of questions all our speakers like you to ask them as they occur to you. So don't feel that that you should wait until the end although we do leave a a little bit at the end just for questions and you may have noticed that there's either a tea break or a meal break after each talk. Which if you've got anything personal particularly on income tax for example the you buttonhole the speaker during the tea or coffee break. And they don't mind at all. So don't hesitate. Right... One of the things that er we try to pass on is that you'll pick up a lot of information which may not be relevant to you but may be relevant to members of your family or friends. But pass it on. Now I I mentioned some of the things on income tax where i know it doesn't er apply to the people in the group but may well do to relatives of them. But don't hesitate tell people about it. Pass on your information. Well the as you'll have noticed the course is designed around a series of talks but they are by no means lectures. There is very much a joining in element participation is welcome by all the speakers. feel free to question intelligent participation that er brings out as you well know the best in in all. And we try to show that retirement can be a rewarding and fulfilling I find it so anyway so I can sell things in that er sense having an experience rather a young person talking to older people how er fulfilling it wis is in retirement. Well I know it is and er I hope it comes over in a genuine way. But er in effect we're trying to show you how fulfilling and rewarding er you can make retirement. Rewarding in a financial sense I think you'll find once you've heard. Some of the subjects are a bit heavier than others. This is the fault of of er behind the fact er we have to ask speakers when they can come to give their talk. And they have to fit it into their diary. Sometimes we get a particularly heavy day though er I apologize for that that in advance but er don't lose your concentration you'll certainly miss something.... We've got a folder for each of you. Please help yourself it contains quite a lot of er information leaflets and whatnot. And some of our speakers will bring their own leaflets er make noes by all means but you may find that er you'll get er good handouts from some of the speakers not every not all of them. I don't know whether the er our er legal speaker will will will bring any er information but er... this is the sort of thing that some of the er solicitors bring retir Pre-retirement Course Legal Aspects of Retirement and if er if we you don't get a handout like this from er mister I've not met met mister before. This is available if anyone wants to look at it during the course. I'll keep it out of his way whilst he's talking or he'll think, Hello there's a competitor in the wings. I think you've got a green folder with a questionnaire in it haven't you? If you'll complete that during the course, towards the ends of the course when you've Ah well I've got a little note that questionnaires should be in green folder. Well I've got a supply of of questionnaires so er I'm sorry if you so I'll Come in.
[speaker001:] This is the pre-retirement course?
[speaker002:] Pre-retirement yes
[speaker001:] Thank you.
[speaker002:] yes. Hello...... Are you the gentleman with car trouble?
[speaker001:] I am thank you.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER]
[speaker001:] No longer I hope.
[speaker002:] Anyway welcome. I was just saying that during the course of today I hope you'll complete a questionnaire. Feel free to be er complementary or critical as you wish. Bear in mind of course that er most of speakers are volunteers so.
[speaker001:] You mean you want us to be kind to them.
[speaker002:] Not really I just say that because one er person who completed a questionnaire was quite er was quite nasty in their comments and er it isn't really appropriate when people are volunteers. It's different if you're paid to come here to give a talk and you put up a poor show but if you've volunteered then er I think er you know you you really ought to have a different approach to. But criticize by all means. I thought I ought to tell you that. Right and also comments and suggestions although we've been in the business for a number of years, er comments and suggestions are always er welcomed and and and considered very carefully. Right I've mentioned questions... you'll notice that we've got money and retirement mister John from now most of you may have seen the name in various erm very good speaker John you'll a you'll appreciate can't really say enjoy his talk because he really goes on and gives you a lot of information you'll appreciate it rather than enjoy it. But I need to say something about the investment advisors because they're in a slightly different er they come here in a slightly different capacity to other speakers. And the spea all these firms' speakers will be talking in a very way about finance. They're not giving the talk aimed at telling you how best to invest your money. It's merely the the perils and pitfalls of investment. How best to but during that talk and this is where we need to concentrate he'll be dropping snippets of information. And why I mention that is that the purpose of these people coming they are commercial they are coming here on a commercial basis. Er there won't be any hard sell quite quite clear about this. You will not know that he is really er here in a commercial way. This is deliberate because he's come here on that basis. He will talk to you generally about investment advice and during the break you'll be able to talk to him you'll be able to ask questions. him out by all means on any investment but this is the difference at the end of his talk he will be hoping that you will complete an application form for them to advise you individually. Which will be a form of contract between you and them. You don't have to do. But I would advise you to do so. Because at one of our talks er before the financial advisor spoken to a chap that happened to be sitting near him when I moved out of this desk and he got rather a ler lu large investment and yet m and and he was quite happy with his investment yet much to my astonishment he completed this application form for the investment advisor to advise him on his investment. I said, I wouldn't have you would have bothered. well he says he'll tell me what he suggests and if it agrees with what I've got I'm a happy man aren't I. If it doesn't I can consider changing. But he said I probably won't taking any notice of it at all. So there are two things er you will John will hope you will a apply to the the his firm to advise you individually. You needn't do so you needn't complete it at all there's no hard sell. You can then complete it and then he will make an appointment with you to come to your house and he'll spend quite a lot of time they really do ascertaining your personal circumstances. Any dependants, what your investment policies are, what your need for money will be over the short term and the long term. Because they are required by law to give you the best investment advice, and unless they find out your personal details they can't do that. And if they fail to find all your information and recommend something and then you say, Well er invalid son or parents and I need that money then he's at fault and you can then er take them to court for failing to give you best advice. So they really do go to town in finding out your personal existing investments. And then they will he will send you a written report on how best you should invest your money. Lump sums or existing investments. And at that stage you can say no thank you and our advice is take the report and then go to another investment advisor and they will do precisely the same. And you can compare the two and still say no thank you. And at that point it is absolutely free the service is completely Hello. Come in.
[speaker001:] retirement course?
[speaker002:] Pre-retirement yes.
[speaker001:] We've been in the building for hours actually.
[speaker002:] Ah.
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER]
[speaker002:] We're talking about the financial speaker and the way they and I I'm afraid I sh we shan't have time to go back and er tell you what I'm saying but er I hope you can pick it up. So you've got the you've got the three things the the the financial speaker is really coming here in a commercial way but with no hard sell in the hope that you will become er one of their clients for individual investment advice but you needn't do so. If you do and they complete a report and give you their best advice you can still say no thank you I'm going to put it in the building society. If you then say, yes I think that's very good I'll do as you say you do not repeat no give them your money, or let them handle your money. They will say invest in whatever it is say Global Investment no it won't be because that's tied to the Halifax Building Society but just say Global Investments as a name. If they say er, We think you should put all your money into Global Investments then you send your cheque to Global Investments. You never send your money through any of these investment advisors. If you do go to a second investment advisor and John may well advise to do so. They sometimes do say, Go somewhere else before you take our advice. Erm and they say, Will you please let me have your cheque for investment. walk out. Because you should never deal with these people in a cash basis. It's only an advisory basis. And John will make this crystal clear. So really you're you can't lose they come they give you the best advice, they give it in a written form. Hello.
[speaker001:] Hello I'm sorry I'm late.
[speaker002:] That's alright. And then if it's up to you to to take it or leave it. And you'll say well there must be a catch in it somewhere they obviously aren't doing it for free. And they're not of course because what happens is if you follow their advice and put ten pounds into Global Investment for example then Global Investments will at that stage will pay them. If if you don't they won't have any commission at all. So up to that point and if if none of you take advantage of their offer then they won't be paid at all. And you might say well I'll not take their advice I'll invest it directly with Global and you'll find that cos Global'll keep it for themselves. So if you it's a no no win situation in that sense. but the point I'm making is that up to the end of giving you advice it is perfectly free there is no charge on you whatsoever. So I hope I've not complicated that I I always find it's helpful to say this about this speaker this because no other speaker no speaker is here with a. Any questions on the. I certainly advise you to keep asking questions throughout because as I say although they're speaking in a very very general way the often slip up and give you a particular that you can take advantage and if you lead them on then the more information is available to you. Do are you aware of the difference between erm an advisor who is tied and one who is perfectly free. You do find advisors are tied I mentioned Global Investments they're tied to the Halifax Building Society. So that if our speaker for example had been John from the Halifax Building Society he would only be talking about Global Investments. And I've no criticism of Global investments they may well be the best for you. But it's such a limited range whereas the the and other bodies that come on these courses have got the whole the whole investment field so er you do get the the advantages there. And all those er independent advisors are members of FIMBRA I'm sure John will mention it. Financial investment managers etcetera etcetera.
[speaker001:] Is it also true to say that their guess is often no better than your own?
[speaker002:] I I wouldn't dispute that at all they they are really guessing except that er they are more likely to be right.
[speaker001:] So often in the financial press you see shares
[speaker002:] Yes.
[speaker001:] and the various advisors are saying Buy Buy Buy. If one of them is saying Mm sell that one. You think well
[speaker002:] Who is right?
[speaker001:] who is Right?
[speaker002:] I think they're probably making educated guesses aren't they whereas we're making stabs in the dark. FIMBRA anyway is the independent advisor and the other one's are members of LAUTRO. But I'm sure John will go into a lot of detail I only needed to mention. Now onto the solicitor one er although he is er... he is in the commercial world he's he's not here under in the same way as John from. And legal speaker tends to talk only about wills making wills. Er I don't know how many of you made wills but er draw him out on other things if you've got any problems I mean we we had quite an interesting session at one of the power station talks on a er tenant er tenancy agreement that a chap had been bothered about for some years. A member of the group had been bothered hadn't been given the right advice for some years. So er it does tend to be as I say solely about wills well draw it out if you've got anything else you may not have. legal er situation at all then you know just ask questions here you get free legal advice which can't be bad. You've got an hour's free legal advice. Okay.... I think that's all I need say by this time the next our next speaker is usually arriving so to sort of develop and not that there's a real need for it nor am I capable of doing so. But what we do find helpful at this stage is to consider the pluses and minuses getting you to contribute what you think are the pluses and minuses or retirement and then during the conclusion stage we sort of look at these again and wonder whether we've changed our view We hop you will because obviously this is the purpose of the of these talks. So I wonder if er I'll make a note of them I wonder if someone will start me off on on a list of what you think are the pluses and minuses of retirement. then as I say we'll discuss it towards the end. If we get the time. anybody like to start what what are the minuses of retirement, or a minus of retirement as you would see it?
[speaker001:] Be poorer we'll be poorer.
[speaker002:] Poorer. Not necessarily so but er generally poorer. I er I nearly fell through the floor a little while ago I was British Gas people and one of them living with this lady and I want to give her half of my lump sum, how can I do to avoid er to effect her income tax or inheritance tax thinking in terms of the inheritance tax limit of a hundred and fifty thousand I said, Well would you mind telling me about how much it will be? Oh yes he says a hundred and eighty thousand.
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER]
[speaker002:] and that was a half of his lump sum. So it really is astonishing The way some some people are top brass of British Gas but er it really is astonishing so when you say that we shall all we shall poorer generally so and yet er. That's very much a by the way just to make you feel a little bit Okay poorer, but we hope that er after the er 's talk that er that there's a real hope. Anything else.
[speaker001:] Stepping out of the system.
[speaker002:] Yes yes.... Which has a sort of I'll compare it them with er some of the things that have been
[speaker001:] Lea leading on from that, the day by day constant contact with a lot of people.
[speaker002:] This is one that always comes up lot's of of working relations I just noticed I was reading one of these er incidentally I mentioned about British Gas er this is the one that they give all their. You know they do But anyway the point I was making was that they call it distant intimacy.
[speaker001:] Yeah right.
[speaker002:] Distant intimacy a novel way of putting it but er there we are. that feeling of of average.
[speaker001:] I don't know whether that's supposed to be a plus or a minus. [LAUGHTER] Well said that man. [LAUGHTER]
[speaker002:] Okay now anything on the minuses apart from this suggestion that that could be both. What about any pluses. I agree with you but erm but it can be tiresome can't if you if you're working with people who are a little bit er over the top or pushy people
[speaker001:] Well one of the obvious pluses is that I'll have a chance to do what I want to do when I want to do it. for the first time five years of ed Yeah yeah true. Whether it's a plus or a minus it could be a loss of responsibility. Although I enjoy responsibility. Yeah. That that could be a minus depending Minus.
[speaker002:] Could be a plus but it could be If you're the person who can ride with responsibility it it is a loss. But if you're the one who's struggling
[speaker001:] Making decisions and that sort of thing miss.
[speaker002:] You would miss yeah. So one of the one of the suggestions would be then that er you should try to get a similar sort of relationship in retirement. In a voluntary way a voluntary capacity working I mean in in this sense in my there is a sense of responsibility and I find that good and challenging which is perhaps one of the reasons why I like doing these courses because you you er a certain amount of stress and responsibility is is. It's when it goes beyond the point of. But yes I think that would be plus or a minus depending on your on your point of view.... Right any more? I will yeah. I hadn't but yes thank you. Any really positive ones. Well we've had one do what I like is
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER]
[speaker002:] a real positive one.
[speaker001:] You can do your hobbies better.
[speaker002:] Yeah more time for hobbies.
[speaker001:] A better quality of hobby. Instead of doing loads of things
[speaker002:] Yeah. Better yeah. Quality.... Right.
[speaker001:] Cheaper holidays. totally absolutely completely ready you guilty. And not feel guilty. Exactly. [LAUGHTER] [LAUGHTER]
[speaker002:] Not met that before [LAUGHTER] yeah good one.
[speaker001:] Cheaper holidays.
[speaker002:] Yes very good very good yeah.
[speaker001:] More importantly off season holidays when there are no children around. [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] We've got a got a minute or two some some friends of ours were saying the other day they've booked a holiday at er very near the Por Portagil Portuguese Spanish border on the South Do you know it?
[speaker001:] It's rough. [LAUGHTER]
[speaker002:] Now this is what I was saying about tal sitting next to the world expert in.
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER]
[speaker002:] Because these friends
[speaker001:] It's the wrong end of the Algarve
[speaker002:] they booked a six week holiday coming back on the first week on boxing day they've got free car hire for the whole six weeks, not the insurance. They're getting transport free from Man from home at erm to Manchester Airport. For four hundred and ninety five pounds and we said straight away well what's the catch?
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER] [LAUGHTER]
[speaker002:] Well except if people are interested yes you know like
[speaker001:] by the sea packs of mangy dogs drifting up and down.
[speaker002:] Ah.
[speaker001:] Oh. [LAUGHTER]
[speaker002:] So really they the benefit of this to those of you is that that this end of Portugal is like that is it. It's the eastern end of Portugal like that
[speaker001:] That bit. You said
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] that's what I'm talking about.
[speaker002:] It's just where you go up into Spain
[speaker001:] Erm River.
[speaker002:] And you go from Portugal up the river and into Spain don't you. Know we got lost with the time zone there because Portugal is an hour
[speaker001:] I mean charming people, lovely food
[speaker002:] So we've learnt something already [LAUGHTER] Well I better not tell them because it will completely spoil their holiday but erm it's h it's interesting because we've been mentioning it to other people I'm sure they've never. Anyway cheaper holidays yes but er not at [LAUGHTER] [].
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER]
[speaker002:] Right. [recording ends]