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 work very part time. I'm in my work pension scheme (local government) so put in £20 ish (and they add 60 ish) and put £18+20% a month into my Vanguard SIPP. This is not very much at all but I've had a bog standard employee pension since I was 18 so I've built up a small pot which when combined with the state pension will see me ok. Yes I know it's not perfect, and I plan to significantly increase contributions when my kids are older.

If you are at the life stage where you have small children and high childcare expenses then it's ok to wind down contributions a bit. You've got a pension started that the hard bit. I would certainly increase your contributions to whatever your companies match is because it's free money you're not getting.

I second looking at how contributions will affect your universal credit if you are on them.

Listen to the Meaningful Money podcasts about pensions. You might want to consider fees, what funds the pension company uses as you might be on a default medium risk fund but at 30 probably need a high risk fund, and where to move the pot when you leave.

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I'm 38 and pay in £180 a month and my employer pays in £400 a month. It's about £7000 a year.

£22 is very very low - under auto enrolment laws the minimum employee contribution is 3% so make sure that's being calculated correctly.

OP if your pension is with Nest then it’s really easy to make additional contributions via their website. You can set up a regular extra monthly payment or make one offs.

Take a look at the website, it’s really easy to navigate and has lots of useful info on there.

It's sad that this stuff isn't taught early on, but once you've realised that you lack knowledge about something important, it then becomes a choice to stay that way.

If we don't know, we need to learn.

It’s around £1300 a month but a proportion of that is paid by my employer and I also add some or all of my annual bonus to it so aim for the max limit of £40k per year. I am 47. I wish I’d been more focused on it when younger and added more to it.

You are paying a very low amount and I’d increase as much as you can. Historically I’ve paid in around £200-£300 a month in this job and my previous. Employer will match it so the more the merrier!

Nothing, I've never contributed. But my employer pays circa 10%.

NHS doctor - 13.5% of my gross.

I was a SaHm for a long time - started working again 4 years ago with no pension - I put everything I earn into my pension, up to £40k a year. For my age my pension pot is low but it will be ok by the time I retire.

Supposing you don’t live to retirement age and you’ve gone without during your 30s/40s/50s for this retirement goal.

I pay about £500 but I'm NHS and it's defined benefit not contribution. I can't choose how much I pay either, I'm either in or out. I pay £300 in student loan still. People think I earn loads but after that extra £800 of deductions after tax and NI already being taken off, it's not anywhere near as much in the bank as you'd think from my gross. And I've got a toddler, so spend the best part of a grand in childcare atm.

If you have to opt out , set up a SIPP so you can pay what you want in and get some tax relief . You will miss employer match though

This is such a depressing thread for me. I'm a carer to my children, so on carers allowance. I can't work as I have 2 children to care for. I have to rely on my dh. I'll be pension poor. Carers allowance does not allow me to save for a pension sadly.

A reasonable rule of thumb is to take half your age at the time you start contributing as a percentage. So half 30 is 15 - between you, you and your employer should be contributing 15% of your gross salary.

It will be inherited - as a pension, outside of the inheritance tax rules as I understand it. It's not like paying into an insurance scheme if that what you were thinking.

I pay 12% of salary and employer pays 7.5%

LGPC - I contribute 6% of my salary and my employer contributes ~8%. I pay a further £300 pm in APCs. My employer doesn’t match that. I also have a work pension from my previous employment which is static (well, tanking due to investment losses) but had been 3% my contributions and 6% employer - I doubled my contributions there for a few years but stopped that when I returned part time after maternity leave.

I hope I live long enough to spend it all.

I know you're not in a position to do so at the moment but you can buy additional amounts of the NHS pension. Here the link if anyone's interested www.nhsbsa.nhs.uk/member-hub/increasing-your-pension/additional-pension

In Australia so slightly different but I contribute $500 a month. Work contributes 10.5 % as required. I also just received a contribution from the government as I am a regular contributor to my super.

At 30 I had no pension OP. We focused on buying a house first (and getting out of a significant amount of debt before that!). I am now playing catch up but have no regrets. My pension contributions are similar to the difference between our mortgage and the cost of renting a similar house.

I pay 10% which is £400 nhs so my employer matches it. At the moment that goves me £17,000 a year plus a lump sum of £45,000 and i can take it now at 55. I wont be.

You will maybe be on a company pension scheme and can pay in as much as you like via salary sacrifice, you should ask for a meeting to run you through options.

Your employer won't be able to advise how much, but they can explain how it works for you.

I put £300 every 4 weeks

Unless you actively end your own life, the odds of that are very, very low. Very few people drop dead suddenly during their working life; much more likely any pre-65 health problems would force/encourage an early retirement. So you're even further up shit creek.

Is your DH saving for a pension? If his salary is the only significant family income because you have to be a carer for his child, he should be making pension contributions on your behalf as well as to his own fund.