LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Vodafone is planning to close its 755 million pounds final salary pension scheme to around 4,000 of it’s employees, the Financial Times reported in its Thursday editions.
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LONDON (Reuters) – Britain’s Vodafone is planning to close its 755 million pounds final salary pension scheme to around 4,000 of it’s employees, the Financial Times reported in its Thursday editions.
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — Are you going to be ready for retirement?.
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TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan Airlines Corp asked retirees and employees on Monday to accept an average 40 percent cut to their pension payouts and warned the struggling airline could face bankruptcy if an agreement could not be reached.
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COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The three major credit ratings agencies gave mortgage-backed securities unjustifiably high ratings in return for lucrative fees, losing at least $457 million for five Ohio public employee pension and retirement funds, the state’s attorney general alleged in a lawsuit filed Friday.
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Some of West Virginia’s largest cities can soon freeze and gradually pay down their daunting pension funding shortfalls, after the House of Delegates sent Gov. Joe Manchin his special session relief proposal Thursday.
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MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The agency that manages Wisconsin’s pension fund has tightened its travel policy to discourage employees from taking expensive business-class flights, a practice that had become routine in recent years.
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia school boards worried about paying for retiree benefits may go without temporary relief from the Legislature, after the Senate Finance Committee voted Wednesday to reject Gov. Joe Manchin’s special session proposal.
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TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jerseyans are paying $1.3 million in pensions to 62 retirees who work for private groups at a time when the state’s pension system is on the financial brink.
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Retirement savings nudges out home ownership as a financial priority (50% to 47%), according to a poll of 1,231 conducted by Ipsos Reid for RBC. Third at 41% is making regular payments to reduce or eliminate debt.
Saving for a rainy day was cited by 38% while 33% say they are "just trying to keep their head above water." Almost a quarter are saving for a large "self-rewarding purchase" such as a vacation. Home renovation was cited by 17%, with the same percentage citing building a [non-registered] investment portfolio. Children or grandchildren's education was tops for 20% while 7% felt supporting aging parents was the most important financial priority. The same number cite purchasing a recreational or investment property as most important.
However, not everyone puts their money where their priorities are. Of those citing home ownership as a priority, almost half don't put money towards it while 40% of those citing retirement aren't doing anything about it. However, 80% of those that made debt reduction the priority are acting on it.
It's hard to stay focused with so many complex and competing financial priorities, admits RBC head of Retirement Strategies Lee Anne Davies [pictured], "That's the main driver behind half of Canadians saying they need financial planning help."
Boomers' priorities have changed since the crash
But the priorities of baby boomers aged 55 or over have changed in the past year. a year ago (October 2008), an RBC RRSP poll found only 20% of the country's boomers made home ownership a priority; today it's cited by 44%. Younger Canadians aged 35 to 54 are also making home-buying a priority, with the percentage citing it as a priority rising from 30% to 44%.
More boomers than you'd think are struggling to balance home ownership with retirement savings, Davies says. Major life events like job loss, marriage or divorce, or even retirement are likely to have a bigger emotional than financial impact for 58% of those polled. The poll included people as young as 18.
Here's the press release issued this morning.
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