Husband hasn’t been paying into a pension

[Mercier1]

Recently when we drilled down into our finances to get a new mortgage for a house move my husband realised that he hasn’t been paying into his pension. He’s 48 and earns about 29K and the employer contributions to the pension are a pittance, like £25 a week to live on when he retires. He’s quite a bit older than me and we have 2 babies. I’m really anxious about this.

What should he/we do? I am in the Teachers pension scheme myself. Should he start one now or should we take another approach. We are pretty clueless and he is burrying his head in the sand which is extremely frustrating. Any advice?

[OKhitmewithit]

He can pay I to his work pension

[OKhitmewithit]

in to

[EvaHarknessRose]

He will have to work until state retirement age and then he will have state pension. If you own your home by then that will help minimise your outgoings. I do think he should contribute to a pension now, it's just that I don't imagine if you're anything like most of us, that you can afford him to put a big monthly contribution aside.

[TulipsInbloom1]

If your home is paid off by retirement, could you both manage on your teacher pension? If so, could he use the extra he would put into a pension off the mortgage?

[JudgeRindersMinder]

You really need to speak to a qualified IFA, there will be so many variables

[NeverTwerkNaked]

How did he manage to ‘not realise’? We get an annual statement.

His options are really: start overpaying, put money aside somewhere else, or just accept retirement will be very tight. He may have to do what many people do and work well beyond state pension age?

[cloudtree]

The TPS is an incredibly good pension so you'll probably be fine anyway. but he should up his contributions into his employer scheme now. He should be putting about 20% in at his age.

[happytoday73]

a full time teachers pension is a level many can only dream of. if he works till state pension age and you have paid off the house could you cope on it?
anything saved now by him would be good and tax free. however private pension wise a pot of £300k.... or to put it simpler saving £1k a month from aged 40 to 65 only gives you about £800 a month if in good health. obviously he would need to catch up.

[EvaHarknessRose]

OP might not have full years in the TPS or have had some part time years

[MsAwesomeDragon]

My DH doesn't have much of a pension either. I'm in the teacher pension scheme. He's planning on working til I retire even though he's 10 years older than me. He then thinks he might not make it to that age as by that time he'd be older than any of his make relatives have lived to.

[WhatWouldTheDoctorDo]

Has his employer been paying into his pension? Or is he just not a member of the scheme?

[mintbiscuit]

1. He needs to start paying into his workplace scheme ASAP
   
2. He needs to understand the employer contribution and any employer matching he may be eligible for. He needs to take full advantage of any employer matching
   
3. He should think about paying in anything else he can afford from his salary (remember he will get 20% tax relief)
   
4. He should look at paying any annual bonus related payments in to his workplace pension (by salary sacrifice if his employer facilitates this)
   
5. If he is prepared to not touch his pension until state retirement age he should look at the risk level of his fund. If working for 20 more years he can afford to up his risk level.
   

Unless he has some other types of assets and ifa is likely to advise the above.

In summary, he needs to chuck as much money into his pension now and take as much risk as he is comfortable with.

[Mercier1]

I don’t know how he didn’t realise. But there we are. I am a part time teacher and therefor although it’s a great scheme I don’t have loads in it. I’ve only paid in since 2014 and I’m mid 30s now.
I don’t know if I will always be in this career either.

We should own our home by his retirement age. But I wouldn’t want to sell up because kids will still be young enough. Prob living here etc. Sounds like we should seek IFA help? How much does that cost?

[Mercier1]

His employer has paid in but it’s less than 5% and his salary is less than 30K I think.

[JoJoSM2]

Not sure how much an IFA will cost but it does make sense to just pay into his workplace pension. It’s a tax efficient way of doing it. Better late then never. He’ll probably work for another 20 years so there’s quite a bit of money to be saved to top up the state pension.

[CJ357119]

An ifa wont be cheap for that type of advice. Most wont get out of bed for less than £500 but for this type of planning it could be a lot more which most people don’t have.

How much has he got in now?

Does he have access to his company scheme as they will pay in too.

The new Flexible access rules mean that pensions aren”t as bad as they were and this £25 a week you quote might just be an annuity illustration which are often nonsense

[Arnoldthecat]

He also needs to understand what his workplace pension is,what company manages it, what they invest in etc etc..as it might be not that good albeit his employer is also paying in.

[AdoraBell]

Agree he should find out more about his employers pension scheme. Speaking to a IFA sounds like the best option.

Could you increase your hours or go full time to improve your pension?