Mac,

Switched on folk realised that Icelandic products were to be avoided early on this year and everyone laughed at those absurd statements by Icelandic officials in its banking system's twilight weeks.

The Irish g'ment decision was certainly the biggest instance of "beggar my EU neighbour" yet and Nigel Farage could be heard laughing miles away as his next General Election campaign was handed to him on a platter, but you only have to see how funds migrated from the UK to Ireland to see what (in hindsight) a shrewd short term move it was. I agree though - Ireland does seem to be over exposed in too many of the important areas and the OECD survey makes for interesting reading.

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/38/12/40448199.pdf

If thats your kind of thing. :8

Personally I would remember that there's no such thing as a free lunch. Investing in some 'too good to be true' Bank Of Toytown might work for a short while, but in the long term it will probably turn to $hit.....

I still view much of the City as those awful little creeps with red braces and 911s who were the children of Thatcher-greed in the 1980s until the Great Storm prevented many of them getting to work on Friday 16th October 1987 - so with positions left open all over the weekend they were too late to survive a 10% FTSE crash on Monday.....

Ah well. The portfolio made £1804 today. I wish it'd do that every day! Plus the ISA/PEP made another £2912 - which is nice! The Dow Jones closed about 4.7% up, so hopefully..........:hmm:

Mac,

With regards as to why many public bodies kept so much cash in Iceland, one can only speculate as to the advice they were offered and I haven't made any judgements about them. I have some sympthy though, with those councils who say that they had their hands tied by central g'ment and needed to make as much money as possible because of increasing funding shortfalls. In effect, they were compromised from the outset because they HAD to take needless risks. That need to take risk tainted perspective and I sympathise with them to an extent. I am glad its not me who is having to justify giving that advice though!

Finally, I haven't given out any investment advice on here - just offered general information about planning ahead and diversifying etc which are all bog standard measures and available in any public domain.

Mac,

THIS is advice.

Cheers.

Oi leave me out of it! I earn whatever I get, rather than just pinching it from the rest of the country whenever I have an election I need to win or a Russian oligarch I need to pay off.

Anyway, back to the original point about the pensions calculator, I too have had problems getting a straight answer from the calculator and Glasgow; my request for a pension forecast and my number crunching on the calculator give 2 different figures, with a difference of 1.5K per annum at current rates. So it's hardly surprising that people come on here and ask for advice.

With regard to the current local difficulties - remember that you haven't lost any money until you actually cash things in. Not that that is much help if you're close to retirement and don't have the luxury of being able to re-invest.

However, if you're after a quick buck so to speak, the only one way I can think of at the moment which will give you a better rate than the stock market etc is currency trading. When I left theatre last month, the Govt Accounting Rate was $2.04 / £1; and given the way sterling is going at the moment in comparison to the dollar (I think the Post Office will give you $1.85ish / £1) you could make a few hundred on it if you are able to cash a cheque to the value of your monthly salary. As I said, the only flaw is that you have to be in theatre or have access to dollars at the Govt rate.

Currency seems like a good bet but will the $ go back to 2 or as predicted before the whole financial farrago down to 1.5?

Phone a friend, or 50:50?

Typical with the GAR. I spent a whole tour in Germany benefiting from the tardiness of the government accounting system. At one point we were getting close to 5DM/£ when reality was closer to 3.

Baaaaah

Dragging the thread back towards the subject in the title ;)

Having grown tired of speaking with the untrained chimps on the helpline :ugh:, and unable to locate the answer in the 'glossy' mag, can anyone please answer the following question for me? (preferably with a Reference).

What are the rules regarding time spent in acting paid rank, or less than 2 years in substantive rank when retiring? I seem to remember there was a rule about 1/3 of the difference for each completed year

Thank you in anticipation

AIDU. To save you the bother of posting some drivel about commissioned officers using this forum for pay/pension advice, let's just cut straight to my retort "go play on the runway". :p

IIRC

If you were on acting rank, you accrued additional pension at one third for each year in the acting rank. Thus after 3 years acting, you got the full pension for that rank for your years of service. However, if you had been substantive for two years you got the full rate. (it didnt happen often as you invariably had to waive/defer an option when promoted if you had less than 3 years to do in the new rankl).

Health warning - this was several years ago!!!

F.O.D

If you get offered promotion with 3 or 4 years left to you 38/16 point what is the catch in terms of ROS/loss of option etc?

DDW,
When you are offered promotion you will have a ROS of 3 years; if the 3 years' ROS extended beyond your 38/16 point then your option would be deferred to the 3 year point.
:O

If you complete a minimum of 16 years from age 21 (officers) or 22 years from age 18 (noncommissioned service), you will be entitled to an immediately payable pension. This pension sum will be fixed until you reach the age of 55. At this point it will be increased to take account of the total rise in the cost of living since your service ended and will continue to increase in line with annual movements in the Retail Price Index.

MyMilitaryYears - Military communication Service, communication with friends and family, military messages, military news

Ace, thanks, confirms what I had heard :ok:

Nimrodhasbeen and drugsdontwork

That was the case with me; when I got promoted at age 37 (yeh, I know I should have worked harder!!) I got a new option point at 41 plus the normal one at my 44 point.

Hi Guys,

Regards promotion and ROS, the AP states:

"An officer may be promoted on the understanding that their date of retirement will be deferred until they have completed the prescribed minimum period of service. The period is 3 years for officers up to and including the rank of Air Cdre. Where an individual is within 3 years of their NRD, a 2 year expectation of service will apply. "

It doesn't say it's a ROS, it says that it is an "expectation of service". It only states that it may affect your retirement date. For me a ROS concerns reimbursing training costs only, not reimbursing rank?!

Does anyone know if you can subsequently PVR and get out before 2/3 years? Can they really enforce a 2 year PVR waiting time? I'm still waiting for guidance from my Stn Admin staff, but they seem clueless. Short of asking my deskie directly, thus showing my hand, there is precious little neutral advice to be had.

Any ideas?

They always get their pound of flesh!!

Cheers for the advice, changes things slightly as extending is not for me!

Moggi,
From what I understand there is no reason why you cannot PVR; however, to qualify for the Sqn Ldr pension you need to have accrued 2 years in the substantive rank.

@moggi

Sorry you are wrong. When you accept substantive promotion you have to either have 3 years left to serve to your IRD or agree to 'pay back' 3 years service if you don't (of course you can pvr but you will lose 10% (if you are an officer)). If you don't accept this you don't get substantive promotion. Trust me - I got an email from an SAC offering me promotion which I politely refused but had to write to a 2* "I have the honour to request....". Bovvered? Nope. I have the pension anyways ;)

BTW, I would be extremely surprised if your deskie knew (mine didn't!!)

Flying Pay
 

So for all those who put in their notice to PVR, (after 16 years for Officers) do they half your flying pay?

Or is that a rumour? Any idea how long between handing in notice and them letting you go?

Triple, on PVR flying pay is reduced by 50%. In some part, flying pay is a retention pay, the rates increase the more valuable you become. At the point you decide to leave, the retention payment is deducted. I stand corrected, but not too long ago individuals dropped one level on PVR, it wasn’t too bad dropping from enhanced to top level.

I'm AAC and in the current climate of full manning, Glasgow are holding PVRs for a full year! :*

1 year - ouch, I thought the old 1 month (minimum) argument (how we are paid) still held water.

As for flying pay I had heard that before pension point it is halved but post it stays the same.

Thanks for the reply