Latest Moan From You and Me 2024

Tesco profits up 160% , that is some growth! Or is it greed, oh if we could only avoid eating. I'm sure you can find another supermarket out there with similar greed stamped on their shop window "2 for the price of 3"

 

Created by screwing farmers and customers alike.

 

We've already seen state pension age rise, and it probably will again. We've also seen pension accounts 'disappear', presumably into someone's pocket, and I don't believe they're safe as houses any more.
Mind you, I'll have enough to live like a king for a fortnight before my pension's gone.

 

State pension rise just means you pay more tax on your personal pension, if you have one, I've only got a small one but I sometimes wonder if it was worth paying as it will never rise and tax and inflation is already eating into it.
If they don't raise the tax threshold next time pensioners get a rise they could well end up taxing State pensions.

 

I suppose it depends on how you look at it, would we use the word greed if they only used percentage to announce their profits.

Last year Tesco made an underlying profit of £2.83 billion on sales of £61.5 billion before VAT or fuel, which relates to 4.6% profit margin. So if they have had an increase of 160% in profit, then their profit by percentage must of only been around the 2% mark for the previous year, if that.

For the 2007 year, Tesco had an underlying profit of £2.85 billion on sales of £51.8 billion before VAT and fuel. which relates to 5.5% profit margin, less revenue of nearly £10 billion but made an extra £200 million in profit compared to 2023.

Say my business had a revenue of £1 million last year and I made a profit £46,000, same percentage as Tesco , which was an increase of 160% from the previous year, would my profit be deemed as, greed?

 

The pension market now is a lot more open than it used to be.

Quite honestly, I really feel for some older folks who had less choice over their pensions than we do now. Some of them were absolutely, completely shafted. I'd go so far as to say they had their savings stolen. I can't name names of course, because I the eyes of the law the theft was legal.

Regardless of the very worst examples, there is also the fact that so many were pushed down the annuity route. I get that annuities provide a guaranteed income for as long as you live, but the companies that sell annuities aren't daft, they'll take all of your savings, then work out how much to pay you such that you'll probably die before your pension is spent, and in any case they'll take a cut as insurance.

I'm not a legal expert by the way, so please nobody take my disdain for the annuity scheme as anything other than the personal opinion of a random stranger on a forum.

Nowadays though we have much greater control of our pensions, both in terms of who looks after it before retirement, and what we do with it when we retire. We're no longer forced into whatever scheme the employer happens to have. Mine for example sits in two companies. My current workplace pension sits with a reputable independent company that my employer uses as it's default. Everything I accumulated before I started this job is now in a SIPP, with another independent reputable company. I leave the workplace pension pretty much alone, but I manage the SIPP, choosing which funds to invest in. I think we're lucky today compared to how it used to be. From what I gather, it used to be the case that you worked for an employer, they decided your pension terms,they decided where your savings were invested and what happens to your pot when you retire.

 

For years the employer I worked for didn't provide a pension scheme, I was put in the Building and civil engineering scheme that also paid your holiday pay.

It also provided a lump sum on retirement, which the government, at the time, classed as a pension scheme, and it was also law at the time that you couldn't have two pension schemes.

So to pay into a private pension you had to duck out of the company B&CE scheme which they classed as "free". BTW the lump sum on my retirement came out at £11000, not a lot for 30 yrs plus at that company.

Later they brought in a company scheme and I was allowed to pay into an AVC, but that all had to stop when the company closed and I got a job at a small company, the boss there wouldn't have a company scheme.

I'll not go on as it gets more complicated, but the odds were always stacked against you even having a pension scheme in the early years, unyet that first company had all its salaryed "staff" on a pension scheme from day one, it was only us Hourly paid "operatives" that were not offered to join.

 

£2.83 billion over 882 million, yes greed. And if you earned 46,000 (figures look wrong, but can't be bothered to check) on the backs of people, yes greed. Fortunately we don't have to eat compost.

 

Wow, if everyone had that kind of attitude about their buisnesses figures there would be far more filing for bankruptcy than succeeding.

 

The trouble is with pensions, that people like me are clueless about them. I'm not daft, but I wouldn't even know where to start, all I know is that I have next to nothing in mine, because of what I've paid in (through employers) and that I'll likely starve to death before I'm 72.

 

Which media outlet reported those figures, it would explain why you have deemed the profits to be, greed.

Sky news and the retail index are reporting that Tesco's profits increased by 12.7% (300 million) compared to 2022.

Tesco profits and revenues increase with inflation 'lessened substantially'.

Tesco reports £2.86bn sales increase with Booker up 5.4%

 

You should at least get statements, either through the post or online if you are paying money, the last scheme I was in was one where what you paid in was matched by the employer, things are much better in that respect these days.

 

Tesco
Nice to see they're price increases are minimal, but seeing as they doubled the price on many standard foods last year and the year before, I'd happily call that greed.
Tesco profits surge as inflation falls ‘substantially’

 

I haven't had one for years from my old one - I don't even know who they are now, and with the current one I got an email which I had to log into some work related app or something, and I failed, and then I totally forgot about it.