To wonder if I’m completely fucked for retirement?

Off topic but the fact that five years at a quango can provide a risk-free pension worth north of £150k shows just how spectacularly generous public sector pensions are

Does your ex husband have a pension? Do you have a pension sharing order?

I have £0 pension. You’ll be fine

If I understand correctly, you've got a DB pension that'll give you £800 a month in today's money. You ae contributing £700 a month a month into pensions (does that include the tax relief?), which again in today's money and assuming no growth is the best part of £180k in 20 years (including the £13k you already have), conservatively giving another £7k a year/ £600 a month in income. And I assume you will also be entitled to the state pension of just under £1k a month.

So you are likely to have an income of around £30k a year / £2.5k a month before tax, and a mortgage free home. Not a life of luxury, but nowhere near completely fucked, IMO

I find the thread title a bit disingenuous tbh.
OP must know she’s not completely fucked for retirement🤔

You are in a better position than lots of us, OP. I have no occupational pensions as I was a SAHM & never worked anywhere long enough before or after that to accrue anything, I have a small SIPP (less than £60k in the pot), maximum state pension, and other invested funds from the sale of property. I live on slightly over the personal tax threshold of £12,570 (or so) pa. No husband, no mortgage, no car, no longer in London but somewhere cheaper, so I bought my house outright.

Guess what? I manage fine. I don't feel poor. But I do have an IFA who probably worries more about my finances than I do!

If you're planning on retiring at or near to state pension age and you plan to keep banging £700 per month into your DC pensions between now and then you'll be absolutely fine. 20 years is ample time to build up a very decent pot on top of what you've already got. Re your DC pensions the usual advice applies: find out what your investment options are, get out of the default fund and if you can then put it all in a global equity tracker with low fees.

Pay as much into your pensions as you can to receive the tax allowance. If you receive a bonus overpay your mortgage that month. Lots of little things add up. By the way, I don't think you're tucked at all but it does depend on what kind of retirement you want. There are also YouTube videos to watch on how to make the most of your money.

Sounds fine to me.

I'm struggling to understand why you'd think you are 'completely fucked'.

You've already got a substantial top up above your state pension plus another 20 years to increase your pension provision so by the time you reach retirement age, even if you don't continue to work full time until then, you'll have a very decent income and own an expensive house outright that will almost certainly give you the option to downsize to release equity.

You also say you 'don't do foreign holidays, fancy cars or ‘things’ now so wouldn’t want that in retirement' so it's not as if you'll need a huge income.

That seems a very healthy position to be in to me.

At the moment you are at 2k a month - not quite enough but not a huge shortfall You have plenty of time left to build upma good pension
If I were you I would throw every penny I could into it - and sacrifice other things such as eating out expensive ho9lidays etc

When you consider whether to leave employment for self employment entirely do consider how you will manage if you become ill and unable to work. That might be an insurance product or a savings pot. I'm not sure if I am right that you are working in the public sector but if you are (after a while) you are usually entitled to 6 months full pay, 6 months half pay if you are sick I believe.

There is also I think 3 x salary for death in service from your public sector pension. If you don't have that (or even if you do) consider life insurance if you have a family.

Genuinely not a snipey comment but presumably you'll pay off the mortgage and have an expensive family home under your belt at some point which, in time, you might wish to sell to buy something smaller and free up some cash.

And this might then tie in to how your plan around the Inheritance Tax Threshold now that you will have a single person limit rather than the married allowance.

I’m not sure the point of this. Quite clearly you’re not fucked, particularly as you have another 20 years to work.

So with the state pension and your DB pension you'll have £1.8k per month? (This will rise with inflation) and a mortgage free house. Not rolling in it, but not fucked by any means.

I assume your £13k is in a DC pot. I mean the likelyhood of getting that to a point where you could buy a decent annuity is small (as an idea you nees a DC pot of about £300k to buy a pension the equivilent of the state pension).

I would keep saving in both DC pension pots though for the tax breaks and free employer money from your workplace one. I would consider getting some financial advice. It may be worth using some of the DC pot to pay off the remainder of your mortgage once you hit 57 allowing you to focus your last 10 years of emoyment on the more risky but higher paid self employment.

Not sure why you work PT, I would go FT if possible. I went PT at 55 and it affected my state pension, I had to top up. Despite being in work for 44 years!

I was expecting a lot worse....

Its not too bad you'll have a house in full and 1k pm or so on top of state pension.

Given its a house you could take in a lodger and monetise that too....

I'm younger i'm paying into a pension like nobody's business and expect 2.5k pm upon retirement

That’s not a bad place to be and you have a good few years of saving ahead of you and your next decade was when my pension finally came together

edit to add / don’t just save for the pension / think about now too

OP you are in a better position than 90% of people your age. Including the state pension you’ll have a minimum income of £24k (in today’s money) in retirement with a house paid off. And likely a lot more if you continue contributing to your workplace pension. You’ll be just fine. I wish you all the good health to enjoy it.

I'm a bit baffled that you think this is fucked.

You will have a paid of house. And already (with 20 years work to go) have a reasonable pension cushion. And how big is the house? Presumably you could downsize if needed?

Could be a lot worse. You’ve got 20 more years to add to the pots, which are already better than many. Sure you could have more, couldn’t we all, but it’s hardly fucked territory.

I think you will be fine too. You won’t be able to retire early but if youre going to be working (and contributing to your pension) for 20 more years then you’ll be fine