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'm 37 and have £12k. I'm self employed now so will look to increase contributions some months.

I had c£15 k in my early thirties.
Got a job in public sector and now, a decade later , my pot is worth about £200k (and that's with maternity leaves and part time working for some of it)

The headline salary looks lower but the pension makes it a good package overall

Oh I get that, but to be able to put in 35% I'm guessing it's not a 25k salary and has someone to share the bills with

Zero

I'm nhs, 42. I've currently got £6k per year in my pension, with a £10k lumpsum. Another 20 years of contributions will take me to £17k per year which is my current salary.

I'm disabled so if I was to retire early on ill health grounds I'd have access to this which is a relief, it's keep the wolf from the door at least!

I’m 38k and have approx 20k spread across 3 pensions, I actually thought I was doing pretty well but feel a bit nervous having read all these replies. The bulk of it is in a work pension from my first job out of uni, I wasn’t paying into it for all that long but it’s done pretty well over the years and has about £12k of my total in it. The other two are workplace pensions, I’m actually meeting with an advisor in the new year to get me and my husband sorted out.

Husband is 39 and he only has about 5k so we really need to get things in hand.

I have a defined benefit pension, so no pot as such. It's supposedly a massive perk of my job, but I think I worked out that in reality it will pay about 12k a year if I retire from my stressful, cerebrally challenging job at 68. So I'm fucked basically.

I would say though that my parents had massive pensions when they retired like a lot of people their age, but they didn't really need them. Having paid off the house and ensuring that large house maintenance projects like a new roof were done while they were still working was more beneficial.

After 70 they just sat in their chairs in front of the tv accumulating money in their bank accounts with nothing to spend it on except the odd passing scammer.

I think you should secure your housing and then live your life while you can because getting old is shit.

A definite benefit pension is a massive perk of your job. Look into what it means and how it differs from defined contribution.

I think with state pension and if you paid off your house and any money from a partner you will fine! Better off than me at the moment I expect. Yes I do agree that life is also for living now. I think it depends on mindset for sure. My DH has an aunt and uncle who retired in their 50's. Plenty of money. 15 or so years on all they do is bicker and moan about health issues despite being healthier than me! Acting like they are 90.

Think I've got 20k in one and about 2k in my newest one. I'm 33 and probably never going to earn loads because I don't really want to go up in the world. I'm a mum of 2 and work 3 days/week.

I never really thought much about my pension until getting into (addicted) to mumsnet...now when I see people saying they put hundred in a month I'm like wth!?

I think our plan is to hopefully overpay the mortgage and get that paid off earlier, then work on building our pensions up.

Honestly OP I wouldn't worry too much because you're still young and I'm sure you can really build it up in the next 10/15 years now you've acknowledged it!

@TheLostGloves I get that it's supposed to be a perk, but I don't think it's quite the perk it once was. If the forecasts are right I'll be retiring at 68 on approx 20% of my current salary. I won't be able to do my job at 68, so I won't be getting the full pension. There's no scope for me to get more out of the pension because the contribution cap is below my salary level already. I can pay in to a defined contribution pension to top it up, which is what I am doing and will continue to do. It will still be pretty measly in the end though.

It's definitely not the good-plated final salary pensions of the past. I think a lot of people in the private sector think our public sector pensions are better than they are tbh.

Can someone explain to me the NI contributions thing for the state pension?
So I've logged into my personal tax account and it says I've contributed 15 years so far, and something about 34 years. So do I have to work another 34 years to receive the state pension?
That would make me late 60s! I was hoping to retire in my 50's but maybe not!

Would you be OK posting the screen shot (minus anything identifying)? The standard answer is that you have to have 35 years of full contributions for the full new state pension but in reality it's more complicated than that because it depends what you already had in 2016 before the current system was brought in.

@mia85 this is mine. I'm also a bit confused.

I think it's saying that you have 34 years left in which to make your full 35 years of contributions - I'm guessing roundabout 34 years from now you'll be mid- to late-60s and will therefore hit state pension age?

The 29 years in the screenshot is the number of tax years left until you reach state retirement age (unless it changes...) so those are the years in which you can still contribute. BUT you don't have to contribute in each of those years to get the full state pension. As you have 23 years already it's likely that you need 12 more i.e. you need to make full contributions 12 of those 29 years to get the full pension. There should be another page with green bars on it that tells you how many years you still have to contribute to get the full amount.

Of course all of this can change if the rules change but you look to be in a decent position with many more years available than you need.

@Mia85 that makes sense. Yes I'll be 68 in 2052. 12 years will be doable but who knows retirement age and the goalposts may change! Can't see any other options on my record to go further into it but it makes sense. Thanks!

Only 52k at 38. I haven't been able to put anything in atall for 3 years as i'm a SAHM. I won't be putting anything in for the next 2 years either. Husband is the same age, earns over 100k and has exactly zero, always opted out, only has 12 years NI contributions too .... so it could be worse.

Im late 40’s and have around 35k

I'm 33 with £130k in my work pension, I pay 10% of my gross salary in and this is matched by employer. I also have another £30k in investments I've specifically earmarked as funds for retiring before I qualify for my work pension, if I want to do this, and add to this sporadically.

I'm happy with where I'm at and don't mean to add to the list of people in this situation who inadvertently make others feel bad, but I think this is such an important conversation to have to try level the playing field with those who have been financially educated and those who haven't.

It was drilled into me since a young age by my dad who worked in finance, how important saving for retirement is. When I got my first job after uni the first thing I did was sign up to the pension scheme with a contribution that maxed out the matched company support, then cut my cloth in terms of lifestyle around what was left. Whenever I've had a pay incease I've always prioritised upping my contribution % over anything else.

I think so many people (women especially) aren't equipped with a good level of long-term financial awareness and suffer as a result.

£3k a year teachers pension.
£1.8 k a year LGPS.
I had a few years part-time, then term-time only as a TA before going into teaching, now working FT for another Public Sector organisation 6.5 % my contribution 19% employer contribution.

I opened a SIPP (Self Invested Personal Pension) for DD when she was 10 and put £1000 a year in it instead of giving her pocket money. She agreed to this and uses birthday and Christmas money for her general spends. I like the fact that the money invest for her now will help her out when she's 60 when I may/may not be around.

@Singleandproud what a great thing to do! I might do this for DS in a few years. What age can you start from?

@Singleandproud which one did you open for your dd?

From newborn I think. I have hers with AJ Bell but there are others like Vanguard which are highly recommended. I don't invest in individual businesses as they incur additional costs and I don't really understand it but I invest in the market in general with the assumption that over the next 50+ years the value will increase naturally and, well if it doesn't I ve invested less than the cost of a second hand car so far and DD likes watching the graph and the value go up and down.

Why isn't he making pension contributions to at least bring him down to £100k? He is effectively paying 60% tax on the slice between £100k and c£125k so it seems madness not to.

Even if you are not earning as a SAHM you can still make £2880 a year which gets grossed up to £3600.

Sounds as if it between you you could put quite a bit in at relatively low cost to you.