How much do you put in your work pension each month?

[Chloefairydust]

So here I was thinking I was being sensible paying £22 into my nest work pension every month, but after talking to my brother, I find out he’s putting £300 away each month into his (and your work has to double that so I think he’s making £600 a month in his pension! ) , and he seemed worried that I wasn’t putting enough away.

Im now panicking that I’m going to be really poor when I’m old😭…. For context I’m 30 years old and I think I have about £2000 in the pension pot. So how screwed am I?? 😱

Im on minimum wage so can’t afford £300, the most I could put away would probably be £100 at a push.

Is everyone else paying loads into their work pension pots too?

I am a few years older than you and I pay 15% currently. My employer pays 10%. It's really tough as I'm a lone parent and could really use that money!! But it's so important to provide for your old age otherwise decades of misery and poverty await. You can't even be sure the state pension will exist by then, so make sure you have prioritised your future self.

Sorry I thought you said you had £6000. If you only have £2000 saved that would equate to a returement income of £100 per year.

If money is super tight now with young kids etc (believe me I get it, and will be increasing my contributions later!!) so bear in mind that if you backload like that (i.e. saving more later in life) because you'll benefit less from compounding, you'll meed to budget to pay in an even higher percentage of salary in those later years.

That sounds very unusual. Unless it's a defined benefit scheme?

5% per month.

when I started working full time in 93, my work pension was non-contributory for many years. Then i too a 3 year career break and I started contributing in 2012.

we also own 2 other properties so that is a pension to us.

If you are earning minimum wage then £100 is a lot. (I pay about £100 each month and sometimes think my need is greater now whilst I have children compared to in retirement.)

Its different if you have a higher income, definitely worth putting money away for a more comfortable retirement.

If you are surviving on low income I think it makes little odds long term - small private pension or pension credit - but a significant hit to put away £100 a month now.

There won't necessarily be pensions credit. You can't rely on that. This can change on a whim (as our tax system and PM does weekly it seems). There is a ticking time bomb for pensions and UK state pensions are unfunded! All paid from current taxation. A disaster. If the country continues to get poorer with an ever ageing population as seems very likely then many will not get anything like they think they will from the state as it will not be possible to fund. Look online at your HMRC tax account, it's very clear that despite contributions there's no guarantee what will be paid. I'd also be very worried if i was part of any unfunded public sector scheme like teachers, more downgrading will happen.

We must all put away whatever we can to protect ourselves (as I said earlier as a lone parent I know it's not easy! But there's no other viable option!)

The Government really needs to be doing so much more to incentivise pension saving, when the generations now working have access to nothing like the pension schemes of the past. If they want to make it so that people can self-support in retirement they should implement mandatory employer to any % the employee puts in and increase the tax relief from 100% of tax to 110-120%.

They won't though, because they do not care about the long-term mess they are creating.

I have to pay 8.5% of my gross salary into my work scheme which is LGPS.

The reality is that to receive even the current meagre state pension of around £750 per month would mean having a pension pot of around £200,000 per person. This needs to be explained widely. Expect the state pension age to be pushed back more aggressively

I'd speak to a pension adviser I'd you can, you might have access to one via your work or their pension provider.

My experience is that I had rubbish contributions at your age, didn't really have a pension until late 20's due to training positions with rubbish wages and job changes etc. I started paying 5% and currently pay 10% of my salary along with a 5% contribution from my work. I increase the percentage of my contribution every time I get a pay rise so I don't notice the money going out; even just by half a point makes a difference. My aim is to keep doing that every time to increase my pot. DH has paid in steadily since he graduated and I'm way behind him but I figure that my expenses will reduce later in life (mortgage payments/childcare etc. although God knows what will happen with the cost of everything else...) and i'll be able to increase the payments even more at that point.

I pay 5% of my salary, my employer pays another 3% so 8% of 51k salary is £4080, divided by 12 is £340 per month

I'm 59. Single mum, still got a little bit of mortgage to go

With the employers contribution and tax relief about £3k a month. BUT, I’m wrong side of 50, kids have left and we’ve no mortgage so it’s all a final cram for the last few years.

the reality is, have been in in since 19 and my contribution was around 7% for much of it.

You put £22 a month in. That’s about £260 a year.

Say you’re lucky and your pension pot triples in value. That’s about £30k.

That £30k then has to last you circa 20 years. Its about £30 a week. Does that sound like enough?

I pay the highest tier of NHS contributions (was 14.5%, now 13.5%) about

£1500 pcm

I pay in about £280 and my employer does £420 on top of that. I maximised my contribution up to what my employer would increase theirs to.

If I put in 8% they do 12% but if I put in 7% they do 11% so I wanted to get the max money from them as it’s free money long term (obviously I have to be able to manage without my contribution short term though)

I think my total pot is around £30k although I haven’t checked up on it super recently and it’s not all in one place which I should probably sort out at some point. I’m 31 for reference

You should be allowed to put in more and it will be boosted by your employer's contribution and tax relief. If you can afford to put in more, you should, and you should make it at least equal priority to other spending, ie don't be in a position where you are spending money on non essentials and saving little or nothing for retirement, you will likely regret that when you're older.

You are also free to set up a separate pension by way of a SIPP if you can afford to save more than the maximum your employer's scheme allows. Your employer won't contribute, but you will get tax relief on your contributions.

7.7%, not able to change this. Employer pays double that.

I'm 53 and started paying into a pension at 20, so glad I did! There have been some very tough times over the years where I really needed the money and again now I am single again. However, I realise the importance of a good pension when I look at my parents, who did the same and have a great life.

I pay 6% of my salary plus an extra £280 per month. Employer pays about 20%,. I'm not on a high salary though, about £27,000 and I'm in my fifties with mortgage paid off. Also put £550 per month into a savings account

I had a massive pension gap, and started aggressively paying in voluntary payments from mid-thirties onwards once I realised. I live relatively modestly to do so right now (late thirties), but think that whatever I put in now, will have a longer time in the stock markets to increase in value.

I also bought in additional national insurance payment years, as I did not think I would get the full 35 years otherwise to get full state pension.

It is good you realise and are now on it! But please don't get freaked out by some of the 'I am 30 and have a 100k pot' posts. Just see what you can do within the circumstances you are in.

Workplaces do not have to double what an employee puts in over a certain amount, there is a limit and it is up to the company after that what they put in. Just because OPs brother is putting £300 in it doesn't necessarily mean it will be doubled, there is generally a limit of say 10% or 15% employer contributions

You need about £400k in a pension pot to get a reasonable retirement income for someone on fairly average earnings

I'm early 30's and I have just increased my contributions to £260 a month. My employer puts in the bare minimum.

My pension is tiny as I've worked in private sector roles which didn't include any mandatory pension until relatively recently.

My tiny pension does concern me. You can look at calculators and things to work out what sort of an income you will have in retirement depending on what you're contributions are.

We aren't planning any more children or house moves. The priority for me now is to significantly increase my pension contributions and to make overpayments on my mortgage.

I put in 3% and employer puts in 8% (so 11% total). I am 32. DH puts in 16% total, I don’t know the breaks, he’s 39. Neither of us put in enough tbh, but with maternity leave and cost of living we can’t afford more right now.