Is anyone going to be living just on state pension when they retire?

[Shinyseas]

It looks like I will be. Never really earned enough to put money aside for a pension, married someone who was terrible with money and at the age of 51, have youngish DC so even though I’m earning better money now, I’ve got to get them through teenage years, then off to Uni. All feels too late to save anything decent. I’ll be early 60s before my youngest leaves home.

When I checked this week, my private pension is set to give me 1.5k a year 🙁

People do survive on the state pension I know - but it must be very very tight.

I don't think anyone is saying save all your money into a pension, private or what not. It's just some people don't even have 1 pension scheme! The power of compounding is something to take advantage of via a pension scheme.

Of course you should save money elsewhere to is possible in isa etc. Or if your in the age bracket set up a LISA.

End of the day the point is, that if you want a decent retirement beyond just paying the bills then you need to do more than rely on the state pension.

Some of the examples previously breaking down a 200pcm on bills shows that not true and that bills are more thna £200pcm. Doesn't even leave much for food, clothes and misc things. I mean if your happy to basically live in your house and not go anywhere aka my neighbour, sleep all day in bed when its too cold to turn on the heating or find somewhere to spend the whole day that is warm..I mean really is that the kinda of life after working all those years you want?

She gets Housing Benefit

No but final salary schemes generally increase with inflation (often capped) so there is no need.

Problems with final salary schemes are that the annuity rates are horrendous (calculations assume u will live to 90+) and they don't allow any flexibility to withdraw more in a crisis like defined contributions do.

Very few, if any, organisations still have final salary schemes. The any that do still exist are closed to new staff.

The final salary schemes were open to abuse too, promotion and big pay rise 12 months before retirement to bump the final salary and therefore the pension that followed in the hope that someone would do the same for the promoter when it came to their turn.

The vast majority are now money purchase schemes, Or contributions based pension.

I imagine I'll be getting a lodger (I'm a home owner and hopefully will have paid off my mortgage by then) as I have no private pension (always had low value jobs with no pension attached).
Or live with my DS/DD if they can't get on the housing ladder and they can have my house in exchange of me living there until I need to move into a care home.

It's not much of a plan, but the women in my family die young(ish) so I might be ok and not have to deal with the problem for too long.

A lodger’s a very good call - the money’s tax free up to £7.5k as well.

Sadly in that case your home would be taken for care fees.

Sadly in that case your home would be taken for care fees

If you need residential care, that’s going to happen whatever you do. It’s the price of being a homeowner but, given there are currently 400,000 old people in care homes, it’s rarer than most people think.

I will be op. I work freelance and barely cover my expenses let alone have anything for pension contributions.

If you focus on raising a family you need to make plans for retirement same as anyone else. I would love to stay home and have 3 kids and not work - not gonna happen because it wouldn’t be an option financially. Why should you get 15 years out of work and get the same pension as somebody who has worked their entire adult life?

What do you mean by "it's rarer than you think" ?

If it is cancer or a medical condition then you will get free care. If it is dementia type then you won't.

Depends what medical condition…..and the needs….CHC is getting harder and harder to get these days

I mean what I said. Far fewer people need residential care than is commonly believed. I’m kind of assuming I will as my mum’s family nearly all got dementia and also were very long lived, it’s unlikely my bloke will because there’s no dementia in his family and they tend to die in their early to mid 70s. 🤷‍♀️

Not bad for a girl kicked out of home at 15, few qualifications, no chance of going to Uni and living in a squat in Briston at 17. I'm pretty proud of myself tbh.

I have a fantastic life. I don't enjoy my job. Check out Mumsnet, there's lots of people not privileged enough to follow their calling, but instead choose to pay the bills or provide for their pension, children etc. I guess you're just very lucky with your job that you live it.

Who said anything about retiring at 70? I'll be out of corporate at 55 (15 years of it, in out out). Then I will have funded my pension and will go back to something more altruistic 🙂

@Blossomtoes out of 6 in laws /parents it was 5 who needed it in my family - 2 cancers, 2 dementia and 1various. Maybe we were unlucky.

Very unlucky. Surely cancer is covered by the NHS?

If you look closely you will find them but you need to actually look at the people who serve you.

Not being able to guess somebody's age at a glance doesn't mean you pay no attention to the people serving you, but you do seem to enjoy occupying the moral high ground.

I wasn't referring to defined benefit schemes. I was talking about private pensions that people think are a waste of time

Cancer yes but dementia no.

That’s why I didn’t say dementia 🙄

Don’t get excited about CHC funding. It only covers end of life usually. Much cheaper to stay at home. Figures are that 1/3 of us have no care in old age. 1/3 have care at home and 1/3 go into a care home. As usual length of stay is quite short it won’t necessarily use up much of the value of your house.