To ask how much is in your pension pot and your contribution %

We opened up pensions for our kids, to get them started early and we can give them money tax free. Worth doing if you have spare cash. The decision between saving for a deposit/paying the mortgage versus paying into a pension is a hard one. Has anyone done any analysis or received any advice on what is best to prioritise and to what extent.

I'm 36, my pot is £38k. I pay in 4%, employer pays 5%. I really need to increase it asap but it does feel like it's growing as in recent years I've had about a 40% pay rise (promotions) which is making a difference.

I don't know what it's currently the pot size total is at the moment if I stopped paying it tomorrow then it would be 12k a year for my main one. I'm 37 my contribution is near 36% but 27.9% of that is employer (public sector). But its linked to state pension age so will need to pay into another pot to retire before 70!
My private on is sat around 40k total in stocks and shares pension.

I worry hugely about this, but have no spare cash to boost my pension pot beyond the tiny contributions i currently manage. I'm 43, and have a few different pensions from where I've moved around jobs and not combined them all. I think they have £2k, £5k and £7k in them, so quite a piddly pension pot of maybe £14k in total. I'm a single parent to 2 kids, have no help from kids' dad and work part time (~£20K pa). I pay 6% through salary sacrifice which is matched by my employer.

I am maxed out on a mortgage which I extended the term of so that I can afford the repayments so will be paying that off until I'm 68, and for now that takes priority.

When my kids are a bit older I hope to go back up to full time hours and hope to throw as much in my pension as I possibly can at that point, but right now, I feel like the only thing I can do is worry.

@Poachedeggavocado was there a website you used to find your pensions? I know my previous 2 x employers ones but I think I might have some other small ones but no how I'd get the info! Thanks

Zero
Zero

Been unable to work for over a decade and before that, didn't understand it all/earned a pittance and couldn't afford to save a pension.

I’m not in the UK

Not for another 25 years

To qualify for the pension, I would have to have worked for 40 years. I moved to a different country and couldn’t work for several years so I’ll reach 40 years worked when I’m 75. Considering I’m currently a cancer patient, I’m pretty sure I will die before I can retire.

Currently about 130k but I've been a SAHM for years and didn't bother before that so have built up in last few years. I'm 48, going all in for the pension in the next few years to retire at 60 hopefully. I'm ignoring the annuity amount as I expect I'll do drawdown (partly because 25% is tax free and partly because this will allow me to stagger payments at time I need the most - I also think annuities are a bit of a rip off).

What would people gain by lying? That doesn't make any sense whatsoever. I have a fairly large pension pot, I have the app on my phone and can see the value on a daily basis (Hargreaves Lansdown), currently it is sitting at £654619.58, and at the current contributions will be valued at about £850k when I retire at 60 (i am 53 now).

I forgot to check for your reply, sorry. That's 22 years then so you're not quite there yet. If you've checked online it gives you more of a forecast that's assumes you get to 35 years.

41 and I earn 30k and I only have my workplace pension contributions so that's only about 12 years worth. Also not on the property ladder yet - Doing that this year as I've received some very kind inheritance from an Aunt who passed away a few years back and we've only just managed to sell her property. So no early pay off of mortgage for me at my age. I'm going to be poor in my retirement more than likely.

Thanks @Singlespies, I'll take a look.

https://www.aviva.co.uk/retirement/pension-annuity/annuity-vs-drawdown/#:~:text=Choosing%20between%20a%20pension%20annuity,and%20access%20to%20lump%20sums.

Cos you can get a lot more money! But you have to make some sensible decisions because you have to make the money last.

So, if I retire early, I will take bigger chunks of money before my state pension kicks in, and when I am active and want to travel.

@Singlespies why would you use drawdown Vs annuity?

Teachers are automatically enrolled onto the Teacher's pension scheme when starting work. The only reason you wouldn’t get it is if you decide to opt out, which would be complete madness. The Teacher’s Pension scheme is excellent.

Don't look at annuities - income draw down is the way forward! E.g. you can actually use your pot of money by taking chunks out as opposed to buying an annuity.

She must have started paying NI at 5yo 😁

Age 46. Have £175k in DC pension and a DB pension which will give me a £9.5k salary from age 60 (which means it's worth around £225k)
I started really upping the payments a year ago while I can (£30k a year) but I am planning to repay the mortgage age 57 with the tax free lump sum.
DH (also 46) has about £140k in DC pensions and is putting in a lot less than me (£10k a year) as his scheme isn't great.

If we can keep going at this rate we could retire comfortably at 62. But about to start paying school fees so it's all a juggle.

No pot as such as it is a defined benefits / final salary pension. About 25% combined I think

Are teachers not automatically enrolled?

Those of you saying it isn't enough ( a lot of those seem to have hundreds of thousands in the pot) what is it not enough for?

Maintaining a standard of living into retirement when used to earning more. We want our pensions to comfortably cover :

A couple of holidays a year
Travel around the uk to visit friends/family
Gifts at christmas for kids/grandkids
Easily affording higher heating bills etc as we age
Helping the DC out financially - property in our area is extremely expensive
Care when we eventually come to need it

Waitingforgeorge

You only have the teachers pension if you sign up and contribute to it.