How much do you have in your pension at late 30s?

[oneflewoverthe]

I'm 39 and I just checked my pension. I have just under 19k in total. Pitiful! How does it compare to others of a similar age? I'm sure I will regret asking this question as most will be much higher. Tempted to get a lower paid public sector job just for the pension. Currently on 40k. I've upped additional payments of £300 per month and my work pays in the minimum amount required by the government.

I actually think for many women their pensions pots are small due to time out of workplace / employment / lower paying work and so on

I think many women are similar to you - if you can increase it, do so

@rubyslippers I've worked since I was a teenager apart from 1 maternity leave and wouldn't say 40k was low but I didn't start paying until a pension until 2017 and it was the minimum government amount for a while. I already add in £300 of my own per month and not sure if I'll be able to increase it much at the moment.

I will try and increase but need to balance it out with mortgage/loving life I guess

Living life*

£52k at 37, I was late starting too.

I’ve just upped contributions so total will be £850 between me and employer.

Just over £100k at 38. I now pay in £750 a month.

I'm 35 and I have £25k. Until a few years ago I was working 3 days a week, now 4 days, so it's been slow to accumulate and I have worked for charities so the contributions are not high.

From January I will be increasing my own contributions.

Wouldn’t be surprised if I had less than you at 37 too. I don’t actually know how much I have 🙈 Again, what I would consider a decently paid job but with kids, renovating houses, living and enjoying life, I’m not sure where the extra money is supposed to come from. In all honesty, as long as I’m mortgage free, I fully expect to work in some capacity for a very long time and I’m ok with that.

It’s just that you started paying in so late, I started mine at 21. When you can afford to could you make additional contributions. Your pay is over average, I would wonder if public sector pensions will remain the same.

I’m 37 and have just over £400k but I am a high earner and have always put in at least 20% of my salary and have maxed out the 40k over multiple years.

I would say do whatever you can to increase your contributions now as the earlier you do it the longer it has to grow! That’s what my dad drilled into me 😄

I have £183,000 so far but have really saved as much as possible. On similar wage as you. Husband has £407,284 at same age...galling!

I have about £1000. That's not a typo. I'm 37. 😱

I'm 38 and have £15k. Awful. Worked for charities my whole life and only started making contributions about 8 years ago. Big mistake. I have a lot of catching up to do now.

I have about £3000. Not a typo I'm 35

Not much as min wage job
8k in an old work one, and no idea what is in my current work one

How do you check? I know I'm ridiculous but I've genuinely no idea.

£15k 😭
low paid jobs, then self employed and barely breaking even at first.
I’m now paying £350 a month where I can and hoping to top that up as and when - I set up my own nest pension and whenever I have extra cash I’m whacking it in there. Hoping to boost it a lot in the next couple of years but it depends on how business goes - Covid nearly broke me!

About £90k at 30. But I work in the pensions industry so it was kinda drilled into me as soon as I graduated that I should pay into a pension.

I don't even know how to check

@FuckoffeeBeforeCoffee @Imamumgetmeoutofhere You should get annual statements either by email or in the post (mine go to my "updates" folder).

I've heard there's also something called PensionBee that can track down old pensions, I keep meaning to look into it as I think I might have a tiny bit more from a supermarket job many years ago.

I checked mine by going to the website of any workplace pension scheme that I know about from previous jobs, eg NEST and Royal London, and it tells you how much you have.

Thanks for the replies so far everyone. I guess it's low as I started paying in so late. Stupidly never thought about it before the government set it up. Plus lots of debt in my youth and no one encouraged me to set up a pension early. Will be teaching and helping DS from a young age! Envious of some of the pots but ask a relief to know I'm not the only one trying to catch up.

You need to think about what kind of standard of living you want though. I know I'll never be a mega high earner with hundreds of thousands in a pension pot. If my mortgage is paid off and I have enough to live on and go a couple of modest holidays each year I'll be happy enough.

I'm 45 but if I think back to my late 30s I had very little in my DC pot although I scraped into a final salary scheme when I started work at 23 (left that job at 34). That alone is worth about £200k (£9k a year salary).

I probably had similar to you in my DC pot after maternity leaves and focusing on other things but in recent years I have whacked the contributions up. It's now around £130k and seems to have risen quite nicely. Thats based on actual contributions of £85k since 2012.

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