Voluntary Seperation Packages!

[Michael Alexander]

Well this was the week that the mine announced their Voluntary separation packages to quite a number of their employees who applied for it...... However without mentioning all the names..... quite a number of people were upset when they had expected to be getting it....and had started to pack and make plans  only to find out that they had been turned down...... even quite a few really "old" Oranjemunders were turned down...I even heard of one chap that was upset because he got the package after after applying for it..... but now wants to change his mind...his argument being that when the packages were first offered, the moral on the mine was low...rumours abound with the closing of the place...but then the new young and dynamic GM turned up, turned the fortunes and moral of an unsure workforce around..... now the individual is fighting to have his VS retracted.....

[Florrie van Zyl (Muir)]

Thats a crap position to be in. The worst is that the money sounds a lot but disappears so quickly and then you have nothing, no job and no money. I have heard of this happening to quite a few people. Sometimes they start their own business with the money and end up going bankrupt because of the economic climate or bad decisions. Better the devil you know.

[Dalene Steenkamp (Coetzee)]

I can write books about this topic!  So many people fall into the pit of opting for this voluntary packages, but never do the full calculation of the impact it may have on their finances and retirement capital position.  Like Florrie says, they 'purchase' co-membership into small business entities or even set up a small business themselves, but do not do the homework regarding capital inset, market segmentation, profit margins within a certain period etc, then end up with nothing within a year or two.    I see this so many times over and try to warn clients about problems that may arrise from the choise, but ....   I can never force a client into something, so ......

[Leon Sumter]

inflation is the silent insidious killer that erodes the value of the severance package. I say stick with your present job through thick and thin unless of course you are retrenched. Hang in there and build up that pension amount. What sounds like a fortune today is worth 50% less in about 4 years from now. A new car costs R200k so in no time at all the new car, the overseas trip, buy in to say a small business, etc  have 'chowed' into that payout and there you are unemployed and no one prepared emply a middle aged white male albeit with years of solid work experience, wisdom and savvy.
My tuppence worth...........leon

[Clive Symes]

Leon's right, just look at the price of bread milk & petrol, see how that changed in the four years since I left.
Pension increases, if given do not catch up with inflation.
Keep yourself working at one job or another for as long as you can ( unless you win the lotto)