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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To ask what pension plans you have in place

123 replies

Toystory4 · 10/01/2016 08:51

I have around £40k in a pension pot and save around £100 per month and the company pays similar I am 48.

I went to see the company's pension adviser and he said I really need to be paying a lot more if I want a decent income in retirement. He worked out the figures and said somewhere in the region of £600 extra a month would get me back on track and help me have the pension I want in retirement. I was shocked that it would take this much and that my own savings were on track to give me as little as £80-100 a week in retirement.

Anyone else in the same boat and worried about it? I am single so have to look after myself.

OP posts:
MistyMeena · 10/01/2016 08:54

None whatsoever Confused

ThroughThickAndThin01 · 10/01/2016 08:59

I've been paying £95 for about 20 years now and really need to address it., my pension pot is tiny and I'm a bit older than you. We have a large property so will be able to downsize at some point, and we have various savings accounts. But the pension side has started to worry us as we are hurtling towards retirement; our plan is to throw everything at it once we stop school fees for our youngest in 3 years time.

Could you increase your payments at all, if not by the recommended amount?

ArmchairTraveller · 10/01/2016 09:00

I'd start from the opposite point, when I retire, what essential expenses will I have? What am I managing now that I won't have to deal with when I'm in my late 60s?
What do you think is a decent net income? Will you be prepared to work part-time to top it up?

Original poster
Toystory4 · 10/01/2016 09:02

Yes I can a bit but it's always at some cost or other isn't it.

I can't downsize really as my house isn't worth a great deal and not very big. The mortgage is paid off in about 7 years though so I could put that in.

I don't really like the way these plans work though with the ups and downs in value as not really a big risk taker. He has just moved me into something a bit safer.

I wish they were a bit easier to understand!!

OP posts:
DyslexicScientist · 10/01/2016 09:05

I have a very low 6 figure amount in a pension. I'm early 30s and unemployed at the moment.

I wish I hadn't of paid into it, its obvious anyone with a small pension will be fucked over. Doubt I'll qualify for bus pass or state pension because of it.

Im not doing it anymore.

FlatOnTheHill · 10/01/2016 09:07

Dyslexic
You must have over £100,000 in pension pot then? Sounds good to me

Birdsgottafly · 10/01/2016 09:12

There's nothing in mine, because I can't pay enough in to make it worthwhile.

I've seen loads of people, as DC says 'fucked over', because a PP took them just over the threshold for State help.

This includes Home Help etc.

WhoTheFuckIsSimon · 10/01/2016 09:13

I pay 9% of my salary and employer contributes as well. If I left now when I reached pension age I would have £2600 a year. That's after 6.5 years of contributions. I also have another pension from a previous job which will be 2k a year.

I reckon I can at least double my current pension by working another seven years. So the two pensions together will be about 7k a year. Plus state pension. It's not great, but it's not terrible.

Savagebeauty · 10/01/2016 09:14

I have a small work one.
But I have some of my ex's pension pot, which is a large six figure sum. Means in two years time I can finish work.

dalmatianmad · 10/01/2016 09:15

I have been paying a good amount into my NHS pension for the last 21 years but couldn't tell you how that will work when I'm due to retire.....
Feel quite clueless about it all Confused

megletthesecond · 10/01/2016 09:19

This is something else I need to organise. Since I've had dc's I've only paid £10 a month into my private pension. Then there's a tiny local Gov pension and one with my current employer. My mortgage is paid off by 60 though so I have optimistic plans to save loads for a pension from then on.

DyslexicScientist · 10/01/2016 09:20

Yes just a bit over that. But Ive recently given up work and doubt I will contribute to it again.

My 120k won't be worth very much in the 35+ years when I can touch it and I doubt I'll be entitled to any pensioner benefits.

Savagebeauty · 10/01/2016 09:25

dalmationmad I was in the dark till I got a financial advisor who talked me through it.
I can't wait till I can start drawing down in 2 years.

Amummyatlast · 10/01/2016 09:28

A financial advisor I know says that the % of your salary that you and your employer combined put into the pension should be half your age. So at 48 you/your employer should be putting in 24%. But obviously it depends on circumstances, what you have saved so far, etc. Mine is no longer half my age as I'm the sole earner, and need to keep a bit back, but I might up it now the student loan has been paid off.

motherinferior · 10/01/2016 09:30

Up till now I've been putting £350 a month into a mix of pensions and savings. I recently appointed a financial advisor and will be increasing this. I am freelance and 52.

DyslexicScientist · 10/01/2016 09:30

Realistically you should b doing double that.

In 20s give 20%, 40s 40% etc. Because life is so cheap these days and house prices are so reasonable im sure most can do this Hmm

futureme · 10/01/2016 09:31

Nothing :(

maggiethemagpie · 10/01/2016 09:40

I have a company pension but must admit to messing around in my youth and not having one, so I only started in my mid 30s around 5 years ago.
I'm hoping we will inherit property (DH's parents have a four story town house in central london that they bought for bugger all in the 70s, worth about 2 million today plus a country cottage), I know there are no guarantees with inheriting though.
I'm also hoping to work until I'm quite old, thinking of retraining as a therapist when I'm older so I can choose to work part time and basically downsize my career whilst still having an income.
All this health permitting of course.

Peevedquitter · 10/01/2016 09:41

We both have defined benefits pensions plus decent savings and investments. I started paying in to a pension at 21.

OublietteBravo · 10/01/2016 09:44

My workplace pension is in 2 bits: a defined benefit bit and an investing plan bit.

I'm not sure what the value of the defined benefit bit is at the moment - I think it worked out at a little over £2k a year last time I got a statement. I have around £15k in the investing plan. I'm 40, so I will be working for a long time yet.

I pay 7% into the defined benefit plan (the amount my employer pays is about 12% I think - but this scheme only applies to a portion of my salary) plus 8% into the investing plan (2% of which is matched by my employer).

I also save in other ways. Each month I pay £300 into an ISA, buy £50 of premium bonds, and I also invest in the share scheme at work (£150 per month - comes out of my pre-tax pay).

Even after all this I'm not sure I'll have a terribly comfortable retirement. It is much harder for my generation to achieve this than it was for my parents generation.

OublietteBravo · 10/01/2016 09:47

Oh - I also have a final salary pension from a previous employer. I only worked there for 3.5 years, so it isn't worth much - current prediction is around £400 a year.

Pollyputhtekettleon · 10/01/2016 09:47

DH has property. That's our pension. Both are self employed.

fluffiphlox · 10/01/2016 09:48

I'm 58 and have always paid into a pension, about £300 per month currently. There is a government site where you can check what sort of annuity you could buy with your pot. As I understand it, as interest rates are so feeble currently, it's not a great time to purchase your annuity. I'm hoping the interest rates go up substantially over the next few years. The situation is fairly galling as interest rates were pushing 15% for some of the time we were paying the mortgage.

insancerre · 10/01/2016 10:06

I have only just started to pay into a workplace pension
But at £10 a month it's just about going to cover a slap up meal once a year when I retire
But I've been married nearly 30 years and dh has a good pension and very good life insurance.

Turquoisetamborine · 10/01/2016 10:07

I've been in the civil service pension scheme for 18 years and at my last pension forecast I was on course to get around 12k a year in today's money.

I don't know if it's worth me buying added value contributions. No idea. With my 12k a year plus H should get around 15k plus I hope we will get a state pension we should be ok.

I know nothing is guaranteed with inheritance but my dad owns and rents out 18 properties as well which will be shared between me and my brother unless he needs to go into residential care of course. Plus we should inherit from my mother and stepdad, other stepdad and H's divorced parents too. All own quite pricey properties for the area we live in.

The mortgage should be paid off by the time I'm 55. The civil service at present off a partial retirement scheme where you take a portion of your lump sum, and a portion of your monthly pension to top up your wages. You then reduce your hours at work and get the rest of your lump sum and pension at normal pension age which is 68 for me.

Hoping I will be made redundant from the civil service before then though. All will have to change then.