45% of working age people not saving toward a pension at all

Yes this.

I see your point and I thank you for explaining that your financial choices stem from childhood.
I would describe it as a fear.
I am the same, priority of mortgage and bills so much so that I made every effort I could to pay the mortgage off early.
I do think though that attitudes have changed over the decades, and I blame government policy for the state the country is in. Especially Blair and Brown.

The average size of a DC pension pot taken as cash in one go is under £50k, I don’t know of any figures that state whether it’s a person’s only pot.

She was the carer. I'm a tax payer - I have no problem having that grace. I'm retired btw and won't get my state pension for another 5 years. Still pay tax.

On the third of people with DB pensions taking the full amount as soon as they can... Does this include people who had this type of pension for a few years in a particular job, so decide to take the few grand as cash rather than £1.27 a month for the rest of their life?

Oh, look, it's Dudley Do Right...😆

It’s interesting how many people take for granted that the state pension and welfare benefits will always be there. Chances are that they will be, but it’s not a certainty, particularly given the way that the UK economy is on a strong downward trajectory.

The state pension is only just over 100 years old. That’s no time at all from a historical perspective. Before that, people without savings were dependent on charity, family members, or worked until they dropped. In many countries today, that’s still the case. It’s not inconceivable that we could be heading back there. When the state pension was created, we had an empire and were one of the strongest economies in the world.

Let me guess, with all your posts on here you are mortgage paid off and so very out of touch with the world that the younger generation are having to cope with.

But for the grace of carers, AND the State + tax payers. Actually.

I disagree. There but for the grace...

It doesn’t surprise me. I started an apprenticeship in my early 20s with a big company, generous pension you contribute 5% and the company contributes 10%. I was in a group of 5 locally who started at the same time, I was the only one who didn’t opt out of the pension.

We will all be turning 30ish now and I wonder if they have started contributing, I imagine it’s much harder to start as well all have more responsibilities now became home owners/ started having kids etc.

I actually upped my contributions to 10% a couple of years ago, if we get a pay rise next year I will look to up it by that percentage again.

Pragmatic.

A third??? Are you sure? Because this would be utterly insane. Are people really this dumb?

Thank you, @DrRylandGrace for explaining how investment returns and compounding works.

8% per year growth with a hands-off, no financial knowledge required, global share price tracker is the historical average over decades. Factor in compound growth and inflation and contributing less than £50 per month results in a nominal sum at 68 (even if you work in a minimum wage job for your entire working life) of £1.5-1.7m, per my earlier post (including the tax relief and employer contribution - so this is making just the standard 5% employee contribution on minimum wage over working life) because of the compounding. In real-terms (adjusted for inflation) this is likely to result in a pension fund of £350k-400k in “today’s money” which buys a 68 year old an annuity of £25-27k per year index linked (so uprated for inflation over their lifetime).

Clearly a £200 per month contribution (4 times as much) would be expected to result in a pension fund 4 times this size by the time the person retires.

And apparently not save £100 a month for a holiday with your children but put it into your pension pot instead.

Some posters assumed ive saved £100 a month for decades for holidays amd blasted me for wanting to take my kids away. Nope, this is the first year I have been able to put money aside for a holiday.

But yeah, I wont take them on holiday, il put £100 into my pension pot for 12 months instead.

Like honestly wtf?!

Oh and the £25 a month i put into their birthday and christmas funds.....apparently £300 on a birthday/christmas (split) is too much money and that should go into my pension too?!

So no Christmas or birthdays for them?

I love rich people telling poor people how to spend their money 🙄

👏

Most people live day to day, there's no way of funding a pension.

This is the problem. The UK is not an especially rich country, not anymore. We are around number 25 and falling fast. I read somewhere that Poland is expected to overtake us by the end of the decade. People will need to revise their expectations on what the welfare state can provide.

It is if you can afford it. Many can't.

It isn't. It's fabulous.

Apparently a third of those with DC pensions take the whole amount as soon as they are able,while still working, probably paying 40% tax on a big chunk of it, that needs to be stopped, although the Goverment won’t mind all that nice extra ‘stupidity’ tax.
The problem with most people is that they want jam today and HM Govt aren’t helping by destroying trust.

I was planning on building an index linked Gilt ladder within my pension to start paying out in a decade but I’m not entirely convinced I’ll actually be paid back, even though they have never defaulted. That’s what lack of trust in your Government does.

Trust is a big issue tbh.

Completely agree, and it's an area where this government have been really weak. Allowing rumours to circulate about removal of the tax free amount, trying to tinker with how pensions are invested via mandatory investment in private assets, changes to the allowances...it's been an absolute disaster for investor confidence. It's clear that Labour sees pensions as being a potential cash cow, either through changing the tax rules or through attempting to drive growth (and hence tax receipts) by requiring particular kinds of investments. But this is the opposite of what's needed to encourage people to put money into their pensions.

If we want growth and investment then we need to stop behaving like a basket case economy, changing leaders every 5 minutes and creating barriers to trade. Trying to use people's pensions to plug the gap will just mean fewer people want to pay into a pension.

The only ways a pension would be worthless after 50 years of investing with tax relief on top is if the world as we know it ceases to exist, in which case a pension would be the least of your problems,
or if you invest stupidly. Anyone investing in a low cost Global tracker will have an average 8% growth per year over that half century. Of course it’s not linear and you get peaks and troughs but drip feeding in smooths it out and as long as you de-risk slowly over the decade before retirement, you would have a decent amount.
£125 a month, contributions increasing by 2.5% a year , would give £800,000 after 45 years at 8% growth, probably half of what you’d need for a 25 year retirement at current SP rate when adjusted for inflation.

So heartless!

How are you getting that sort of return? I can figure out your rough working.