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?

And if you do?!? As is 95%+ likely!

Nope! Not for anybody joining in recent years.

Nope! Not for anybody joining in recent years.

It's still a defined benefit scheme with the sort of equivalent of 27% being paid in. It's still very good, even if not what it used to be.

I know, the ability to work and save is a privilege many of us do not have. And one if we do have, we cannot count on continuing until retirement age.

A silver lining is that you will still get the full state pension as carers allowance includes auto NI credits.

Your DH should open a private pension in your name or set things up so you inherit his pension if he passes before you.

It's unfunded... the contributions just go into general taxation on a promise of later payments from general taxation at that point. The "employer contributions" are meaningless because that is the employer (the government) paying money to itself. Not into a fund. Same for teachers. Local authority fund is actually a proper scheme (although underfunded but at least the money is invested and exists). Good luck to anybody trusting Government promises not to be changed later. Same for state pensions.

State pensions in the UK are effectively a giant ponzi scheme. And with our ageing population and ailing economy, in the coming decades it will reach tipping point as all ponzi scheme do.

My dh is doing the absolute best he can for me and our dcs.

Best thing you do is get a pension review from an independant financial advisor.

At 30 you still have plenty of time, but if you get clear understanding and plan in place now, you'll be much better off later in life.

Oh I'm sorry if the tone of my post cane across wrong: not suggesting he isn't! It's sounds like you're in an incredibly hard situation. Just that if he is contributing to a scheme for himself it would be worth considering him splitting that contribution so that some goes into a scheme for you. Unless that would mean losing some employer matching contributions in his scheme. It just might make you feel more secure to have a fund of your own even if it's built up slowly.

I pay in £250

No it fine, it's just threads like this realise the future can look quite bleak. I try not to look to far into the future, so much to focus on getting through the day! My dh works so hard, so do I, but unpaid. Sorry for the thread derail.

You can get free, unbiased info and advice from the government service - 'money helper' now includes what used to be the Pensions and Advisory service. DH and I have both had chats with their advisers about various things - we found them very helpful and knowledgeable about the rules.

www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement

I put in 5% and my employer matches. This is from my part time paye job. Think this works out about 2k per year in total.

I also work SE and put in 4K per year through my limited company.

Last year I opened a lifetime ISA (you need to be under 40 to open it). I pay in the maximum of 4K per year and the government tops it up by 1k per year. You can only pay into this scheme until you're 50 and then can't take it out until you're 60. I'm not a financial advisor but I'd recommend this scheme for anyone not employed (SAHP), you can pay in as little as you want.

@SorenLorensonIsInvisible hence my wording of "sort of equivalent" I couldn't be arsed to explain, but the percentage (which is shown on our payslips) is a good way of demonstrating how much better a pension it is, even if that's not what technically is happening.

On a defined benefit scheme so I about 6.8% (I think) comes out of my salary to buy that.

Also have done AVCs for 4 years and pay 100 pm into it. Can't afford more right now.

Zero, very unMN I bet on still being married and DH being alive. Happy with decision so far.

Our contributions are 12.5 per cent. It's a big chunk of my part time wage. But my employer pays 20 per cent so it would be nuts not to do it.

I pay 8.6% and my employer 23.68%. These are the terms of the teachers’ pension, the only good thing left in teaching! 😉

I do pay a larger percentage than most myself (it will go up to 9.6 on my next increment), but I would have to be actually homeless to consider not contributing as the employer contributions are so fantastic.

But if I was earning minimum wage, as you are, I would not be able to afford 9-10%. There’s no point comparing yourself with someone whose pension contributions are larger than your entire take home pay. Ultimately, you are used to surviving on not a lot of money.

I really really hope that as a country we continue to look after those pensioners who have not been able to make huge provision for retirement. Finger wagging from those on ten times your salary isn’t going to magic up the spare money.

£318 goes into mine. Can't remember how much from each but some of that is paid by me, some from my employer. Pot is worth nearly 20k. I'm 32.

Don't apologise. You are coping with a huge amount. I hope somehow things get easier for you. The future is scary for people in much better situations so I can't imagine how hard it is.

Do you'r get nothing if he dies? If so that is very precarious.

I don't think anyone has been "finger wagging". People have been answering the OP's question about what is a sensible contribution level for a manageable retirement income, given numerical context e.g. what she could expect as an annual income relative to the value of money today for each chunk of pension money, and said it's wise to contribute as much as she can afford. What part of that do you disagree with?

Well yes. But it's only "good" if those promises are kept.

By a different Government several decades later. They can't even keep the promises they made last week. I think you are very trusting if you believe those promises will be kept.

I put in 10% of my salary, my employer puts 12%. I pay another £150 on top as AVCs.
I'm mid 50s, I've never contributed so much to my company pension. I wish I had when I was younger rather than pissing every penny away.

@SorenLorensonIsInvisible can you explain what you mean by that?