To ask how much you save in your pension?

[pimlicopubber]

I'm in my 30s and have been contributing the a minimum amount, that my employer matches. However, at my current speed of saving, it doesn't seem nearly enough to retire comfortably. I'm aware of how compounding works - the earlier I contribute, the better!

How much do you put away as a % of your salary and do you plan to increase or decrease the contributions in time?
At what age do you hope to retire?

It is usual to be in that position at your life stage. For most people it is when you start getting pay increases that start to exceed your outgoings that you can start to build it up.

Every time you get a payrise put a chunk of it into your pension every time you can manage to do so. I am mid 50s and just cleared mortgage so now putting all the payments I used to make into that into my pension which will help catch up a bit.

I moved from an NHS role (DB pension) to a private role (DC pension), and my current contribution is 25% between my employer and I. This is relatively high though, although I'd still like to increase it.

This is a really good resource OP:

ukpersonal.finance/flowchart/

Low at the moment. Just the basic from my pay. I’m prioritising paying my mortgage off first (nearly there) then will up my pension. 50.

I’m much older than you, and contribute 12% on top of my employer contributions. I now increase my contributions by 1% whenever I get a payrise. I wish I’d got into that habit when I was younger!

Im mid 30s and never paid much into a pension (I had been working part time, had time off for children or was self employed on a low wage).

Im not earning well and so trying to catch up by putting £2000 per month (about 25% of wage) in for now to boost it up.

I'm 35.. 8% I put in plus the employers which I think is 4%. Too low tbh but have young child and a mortgage. Upped it when I had payed my student loan off. When mortgage is paid off in 15 years I'll put all I can into it then.. I don't see myself ever really retiring however and I've made peace with that.

I put in 5% my employer puts in 10%. I work 4 days and was previously 3 days, so it's not going to be enough.

Early 50’s here & I put 20% in & due to my long service my employer puts 15% in.

me 6.5% employer 19% cracking amount but my salary is piss poor so not as good as it looks!

At your age you are still young enough for anything you put in to really benefit from investment growth and compounding returns over the years so it is worth putting in as much as you can afford

Total 20% of my salary. Am 41 and according to all the trackers it's not enough to have the life I'd like on retirement.
Putting in more than 20% would mean I wouldn't be able to have the life I like now so it's swings and roundabouts really.

Employer pays 10% and I pay 5%. I'm 41 and my current pension pot is appalling (only about £15k) so I have a lot of catching up to do.

For the first couple of decades I just paid the standard contribution but when I reached my 40's things got financially easier (mortgage paid off etc) so I started paying AVC's (DB pension so not possible to increase payments directly), done at source and I think it was about 10% of my salary.
When I reached 50 I knew I was on the home straight (it had always been my plan to retire at 60). Soon after this my DB pension was frozen and replaced with DC which enabled me to make overpayments so I switched from AVC's and increased my contributions by 10% over standard (worthwhile as up to a certain level, my employer matched increased contributions). Each year I increased my contributions until I was eventually paying 45%.
Low fees as these were almost entirely covered by my employer.

Took early retirement at 57.
Started my DB pension immediately with my AVC's boosting my TFLS.
2yrs later I have just started to draw down my DC pension and taken the TFLS out of that, the pot is expected to last into my late 70's.
SP at 67.

Have more disposable income now than I have had for many years.
With me able to cover all expenses, my OH (3-years younger than me) is now working PT (2-days a week) and putting 100% into pension & savings and plans to retire fully in a couple of years.

You’re not earning well but you pay £2000 per month which is 25% of your income. So your income is £8k per month? That’s earning well

Have a look at Rebel Finance School. If you are in your 30s you can if you wish invest pension funds in less bonds. It's more volatile in short term but returns could be greater. I've moved my ex employer pensions which are around 50k into global index trackers which have averaged 10% returns - obvs past performance does not predict future performance!

They say put in half % wise of your age when you start. So if you started aged 32 then save 16% of gross salary into pension.

£0, I don't have a pension, not does DH.

I'm always quite interested in how obsessed/stressed people on here get about their pensions and it's just not something people from my background have.

I pay the £60k max every year which includes employer contribution of around £10k. This equates to about 30% of base salary or just under 25% of total reward package.

I used to pay way less than that for the first 20 years or so of my working life as I didn’t earn anywhere near the same salary as I do now.

What is it in your background that means you don't plan for your retirement future?

I'm interested that so many people are so relaxed about their lack of planning for retirement.

I’m 39

25% me

15% employee

upped it last year from 15/15

partly to reduce tax as well but I’ll be out at 58! 🎉

I said we don't do traditional pensions, not that we don't plan for our future. I'm a gypsy.

I’m 39, I pay in 6% of my salary and my employer contributes another 20%. In monetary terms, it’s about £1k a month of total contributions being paid in.
My student loan is due to be paid off within the next 6 months so I’ll also whack the £130 I currently pay for that each month into my pension.
My pot is about £90k currently, at the moment my plan is to work til 65, take 25% of my pot as a lump sum and use it to plug the shortfall in income until I also get my state pension at 68.

What kind of alternative future planning do you do instead?

I put in 5.5% and employer puts in about three times that

the pension is a big plus of the job , because even though I only work part time it should hopefully make up for it a bit .

i do worry that I won’t live to spend it 🤷‍♂️

so long as the mortgage is paid off and we get some state pension 🫣 as well , we should be fine…….

Aged 36