Anyone else with virtually no pension?

[Yogapoga123]

Cheery post for the weekend

I’m 49, and have pretty much zero in my pension pot. Wonderingly if it’s now really too late to start - there seems little point at my age unless you can afford to squirrel away £400+ a moth. Which I can’t!

I’ve never earned enough to put anything significant away. Anyone else in a similar boat?

Happygogoat is right. But perhaps phrasing her point differently might be kinder.

No, what would have been kinder is not posting at all.

Joining a thread on which the OP talks about her worry at not having a pension in place aged 49 to boast that you started a pension as soon as you started work because your dad told you to is really insensitive. How does that help the OP? She can’t turn back time.

I’d take a similar view of somebody who joined a thread where the OP said, eg, “I need to lose six stone and I need support” to contribute that they themselves had never overeaten and were a perfect BMI. Being the correct weight is “right”, but what does it add to the discussion?

Or somebody who joined a thread where the OP was trying to give up smoking and was worried about her health to offer that she herself had never smoked and was a picture of health.

I'm so glad I saw this thread today, I'm another one for whom the 3am pension fear is real! I have a small pension from teaching before I had the kids, rules have changed so when I go back it's a new scheme. But, to make it meaningful, I'd have to teach full time fir the next 22 years and I'm not sure how realistic that is. I'm thinking about other career options, but I'm going back fit a pension and the teaching one is still one of the better ones. However, I do have a plan B which is to win the lottery so there's always that.......

I'm 40 and I've only ever been a stay at home mum or worked min wage jobs. So no.

@lesquigh LGPS is a great pension. It's a 'defined benefit' pension, so the ~£800 it's going up per year will refer to the pension you are paid annually in retirement, rather than £800 being added to the whole pot, if that makes sense?

PS: @lesquigh if you google 'lgps modeller' you can use the calculator on their website to get an idea of what you'll get. I'm also in LGPS as you can probably guess!

@greenspacesoverthere I was told £250,000 but a neighbour who works for a big pension company is aiming for £150,000 so I think there is some flexibility/freedom around the amount.

I think having a plan for housing is a big part of retirement planning.

Then trying to buddy up with someone to share costs (partner, friend, etc) might be a good idea.

My last suggestion had been mentioned before but to have some sort of income generator that you are happy and capable of doing as you get older.

My Dad is moving abroad and is going to offer conversational English classes. He will be in demand and can charge around £30 per hour. So even doing around 5 of those a week would help.

That won't work for everyone obviously but it's that sort of idea that's needed.

Thank you for this thread. I'm a similar age, 51, and have been on a couple of pension threads recently that have made me feel very inadequate. I do have (or rather I hope that I will have) the full State pension and, like others, several very small pension pots scattered here and there. I worked overseas for 10 years, in my twenties/thirties so too late to pay NI back. I have very low outgoings though and could live easily on the £760 per month plus savings backup. This has given me a good kick to speak to someone about maybe amalgamating the small pots, as my previous head in the sand approach isn't helpful.

@Lobsterquadrille2, it probably is a good idea to amalgamate several pension pots, if for no better reason you would cease to pay admin charges on them all, and just pay once for the single pot, keeping more of your money in hand.

@HotChoc10 thanks for your replies, I’ll look into that. If my pension goes up at the same rate for the next 25 ish years I am looking at about £22k a year, so quite a drop. I’ll have to look into AVCs. I privately rent and can’t see that ever changing so I’m really going to need my private pension.

I use the Aviva Pension Planner tool. It tells you what your pension will be worth and you can play around with the monthly amount and retirement age. I wish I had understood how it worked when I was younger.

The LGPS is a defined benefit CARE scheme. The amount you and your employer contribute is irrelevant as the pension benefits are based on your pensionable earnings, and currently the accrual rate of 1/49th.
Your employer will not contribute towards any AVCS.
Alternatively you can purchase an APC which is where you purchase additional pension by form of either a contract or a lump sum.
The LGPS member website is a very good website.
I work for a LGPS fund

@Ifailed thank you, good point. I have dug out what I hope is most of the documentation. Now I need to figure out which to use as the main pension. I'm in a work scheme - I pay 12% and so does my employer - so I suppose that, but I'm on a contract and so won't be there forever.

The only transfer I have ever made was an overseas pension back to the UK and that cost several hundred pounds to move.

And I too (like a PP) was told in a tax lecture when I was 21 to start a pension then, but retirement age seemed too far in the future and I was living in London with high expenses so I didn't.

As C S Lewis said, you can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.

For those of you waking in the night worrying about pensions please take a positive step towards dealing with the problem today. It will begin to feel more manageable once you start dealing with things.

Start by going to gov.uk and signing up for a government gateway id so you can check your state pension entitlement. Really easy and you can see if you have full contributions or whether paying extra would help.

Register with the pensions advisory service so you can get some help and advice.

If you are employed ask your employer about their pension scheme and how to join. This is normally the most efficient way to save for your retirement and many companies will match your contributions too.

If you aren't employed look at getting a stakeholder pension of your own.

Don't worry if you can't put much in right now, put something in. It will start to build up. You can look at how to afford to increase your contributions in due course.

For those overpaying their mortgage it would be really sensible to spread the risk. Pay your minimum mortgage payment for a while and use the extra to start a pension, or split the extra you can afford between pension and mortgage.

For those who may have had pensions in the past start gathering up the paperwork, get the details together so you can get advice on them. If you don't have a current pension you can probably restart contributions to one of these.