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?

I think I pay in nearly 7% and my employer pays in around 20% it's a big perk of the job.

I am not sure I will live to be old though, so I don't really obsess over retirement and focus on trying to live a good life now.

Aren’t you better focussing on the pension now? Wouldn’t that give it more time to compound?

I pay 7.5% and employer pays 29% which is massive but can’t get until I’m 68 which is why I don’t pay any additional contributions as 68 is quite late. I have a teacher’s pension that I can take at 60 which is a 20K lump sum and 15k per year. So I’ll need to have enough in savings to top up the 15K for 8 years until I get to 68 or I could keep working after 60.

Age 30 and private sector. 10% contribution from me and 5% from my employer. Any bonuses or payrises I get in the next few years will be channelled straight to my pension in order to keep my net adjusted income below 100k and keep eligibility for tax free childcare and funded childcare hours.

We have a mix of DB and DC pensions, DH has been chucking in an extra 30k PA for the last couple of years.

@Nourishinghandcream what's avc and boosting sp before sdu kicks in??

Blimey some of you have generous employer contributions - something I need to prioritise in my next job move. Total 10% - me 6% employer 4% but low salary so sub £3k pa. My pension pot is a pretty meagre £60k so as soon as the mortgage is paid off in 5 years I will put more into my pension and we will downsize / move to release some equity.

13% from me, 6% from employer. I’ve increased it in recent years as my mortgage has become more affordable when my salary has gone up. Late 40’s.

Early 50s. I work half time because of a mix of my own health issues and having a SN child. I put half of that salary into a pension which puts me at the max allowed. So if I worked more I would save less into the actual pension account.

I pay in 8% and my employer matches it. It works out as around £10k a year going in altogether. I’m in my 30s and I don’t think it’ll be enough, I’ll up it once out of the expensive nursery years.

I pay 8% employer pays 28% I’m 48

The amount or percentage you put in is entirely dependent on what you want to live on and for how many years. Comparing to other people is overly generic.

But how are you not earning well if you're putting in £2000 to a pension account? That makes no sense.

AVC's are Additional Voluntary Contributions.
Where you can't pay more into the actual pension scheme (usually DB), you make additional payments into a standalone scheme which attracts the same benefits (no tax & NI paid on contributions) and when you retire, the fund is incorporated into your pension calculations.
*Note. This may be an over simplification or worded incorrectly but it is how it worked for me.

SP is State Pension.
TFLS is Tax Free Lump Sum.
No idea where you got SDU from or any reference to boosting the SP?

I pay 6%, employer 12% but high earner so this is £1k per month, early 30s. Still climbing career ladder so expected a few more payrises in the next 5 years.

Just paid off student loan but put the spare money into mortgage overpayments as we took out a hefty mortgage 2 years ago, 95% as we kept my other house to rent out to a family member so have a target to pay it down to a specific LTV before the end of the fixed term in order to get a better rate next time (definitely not banking on house price rises).

We’re happy with our mortgage overpayments and happy with disposable income so any additional income from here will probably be pension!

Grateful that we’re both career focussed and child free- it works for us and definitely makes these kind of life choices easier!

Wow some of the employer contributions on this thread are mental.

My employer contributes 5%, I contribute 10% to my DC occupational pension, and have a separate private pension, where I pay another 10% approx. I've tried to keep contribution % at half my age since I was about 30. My pension is at an ok level, DH's is much bigger than mine, so we're hoping to retire at 60 (only 10 years away!!).

The usual suggestion is to take the age you started paying into a pension, halve that and thats the percentage you should pay on average across your life.

its better to pay more, earlier so it compounds. So instead of prioritising mortgage and paying pension later, its actually better the other way round.

What are all the jobs with employer contributions over 10%?! I’ve never experienced anything over 3% and had no idea there were so many careers / industries that had such incredible pension schemes?!

I find this so interesting- I earn well- but life is expensive, I’m our main earner, and having seen a lot of friends be so sick and worse this last year it’s really made me reconsider the balance between living for now and living for later- I put in 7% & employer 12%, but whereas I was going to take to 10% I realised I’d rather have that now- whilst my kids are with me - I can cope with lean as a pensioner and would assume well downsize at some point too, but as the ‘have it all’ generation who was well and truly spent on student loans, high childcare and high housing costs, pensions just feel like something which has to wait!!!

Oh my goodness, if only you knew what a poor retirement you are likely to have, please look into getting a pension sorted asap.

I've never had an employer and have saved in fits and starts, managed to get around £100k so far and now probably adding £1k / month

Most people save into a pension but have no idea what they are invested in so please go and check! Just paying contributions is fine but will hold you back if you are too conservatively invested for your age. Get those returns working for you.

Public sector largely I imagine

I was thinking the same!!

Employers paying 29+% makes me jealous. Everywhere I've worked it's only been 3%.

I think it a typo - now earning well, not not 😀