Those in your 40s + what pension do you currently have?

[Grrrrrsnarl]

Sorry to be nosey
Just been chatting to a girlfriend about pensions

I am 48, single, self employed and have £79,000 in pension savings

Is this good, bad or average?
I think I'm going to be well short of the £300,000 recommended!!

I’ve got £4000 so far but just started paying in £100 pm and will be doing so for the next 25 years plus I have a large inheritance coming so banking on that really.

Sweet FA. But I have a plan :)

I’ve no clue. Maybe I should find out. Mine is a public sector pension.

(Irish) Civil service pension (no lump sum) but I'm a bit heartened reading the other thread, we contribute 3.4% not 2.8% and pension is calculated on final salary not average over career, but I suppose we'll end up doing it the UK way (if it saves govt money).

Nhs

The one where I retire at 156 on about £42 a year.

(I have a local government pension that is crap)

CS pension should be about £25k a year.

8 years of CS pension from my time in the service (which will come to about £8K a year when I reach retirement age).

Otherwise, two defined contribution schemes into which I and my employers have dutifully paid for 13 years, and I think total savings are about £100K.

So in short, not enough. I'm 45 so have some time. But I won't have any inheritance to soften things: it's up to me to provide for my retirement. On the positive side, I don't really want to retire as I'm in the fortunate position of loving my job: I want to go part-time eventually but otherwise I'm keen to keep working as long as I can.

I'm 42. I had a defined benefit scheme in my 20s that's ended up in the Pension Protection Fund, so am not counting on seeing any of it, though in theory it should pay me around £3,300 a year. I went self-employed at 31 and haven't contributed to a pension scheme since, but I do have two houses I rent out as holiday lets. DH has a Forces pension, a defined benefit scheme (now closed) and a defined contribution scheme, so between the two of us we should be okay, I hope.

I think at 60 as a rule of thumb, you need about £100,000 in the pot for each £5,000 of annual pension; or £4,000 if it's index linked.

If it's a defined benefit scheme these figures are purely hypothetical though as you don't have "a pot" but a guaranteed income for life.

I'm 40 and I don't know. It's almost certainly less than £50k, maybe not even £20k, but paying for childcare and stuff has left gaps in it. We should have 10+ years of working when our mortgage is paid off (and it may be paid off earlier), so might massively put up contributions in that period, although IIRC they generally pull out of investing it for safety's sake as you approach retirement age. I may be getting a promotion this summer which could allow me to put more in.

We do have a fairly valuable property (London), but frankly if there's any sense in the world it's value's not going to go up forever and may go down, though it's also occurred to me that if that happens, one retirement strategy might be to convert it into flats, live downstairs and rent out the upstairs for income.

Age 47. £281k saved in pension pot and topping up by £1700 every month (employer contribution plus a big tax free chunk from my salary).

Still not convinced it will be enough to live off when the time comes.

Wow that's healthy

Where does £300k recommended come from? To get that, paying in 15% of your salary over 40 years, you'd have to have had a steady income of at least £40k (and even then, healthy growth in your pension plan).

I'm 44 and my pot is around £80k. I had a few years not paying when I was out of work but I'm happy with where it's at so far.

Dh and I were talking about this yesterday. I have a defined benefit LGPS pension which will come in at £7k per year and another I'm currently paying into which is an investment pension pot. I've only been paying into it for 18 months or so but am not yet 40. Clearly though the plan is to be mortgage free by then too. Between us we think we'll have around £40-50k per year if we continue paying in at similar levels.

Ive no idea whats in my pot. My scheme is integrated so i will get state pension + cs pension
Im mortgage free with a small salary and im managing so i dont worry. Too much.

Mine is not enough but large compared to some figures quoted here. Currently about £365k. That should give me a pension of about £13k if I retire at 65 (I'm 44).

I’m older - 54. I’ve 12k from cs pension at 60 and have been saving like mad (and enjoying the tax benefits) into my current pension - which is at around 240k at the mo. I’ve also a chunk of capital from an inheritance which I’ll use to pay off my mortgage. I’m intending to retire around 57 when DD finishes uni but am going down to 4 days in a couple of months as I now don’t need to save so much to the pension. Feel v fortunate as only 10 years ago I got divorced and struggled financially

Early 50s, approx £400k in pension pot, £350k rental house plus own home, mortgage paid off.

I think DH has about £100k in his pension and he has some property investments worth about another £100k.

It sounds fairly decent but I guess it depends how many years it has to last for.

I'm 45 and have approximately £135K. Didn't start paying in until I was 24 (but then paid in 15% and employer about the same). I've been part-time since I was 30 though (and many years less than 50%) and dropped my contribution down to 7% then too so the bulk of it is down to what I did in the six years I was FT.

DH is 48 - started paying in at 18 and is now well over the LTA - the main reason for that is how the money invested when he was in his twenties has performed.

Age 51 in a firm where carrying on past 55 is unusual. So in context, (semi-involuntary) retirement might be coming up quite soon. I have around £700k in funds, plus an investment property.

I thought quite hard before posting the above in case of flaming, but in my defence I am probably one of the oldest on the thread and therefore likely to have saved most. Plus I discovered that I am a bit rubbish at saving, so I stuck money in my pension in preference to other forms of saving so I couldn’t get at it.

I've got three investment properties in south London that have risen hugely so worth about 1.3m and will be paid off in 13 more years. The rent is covering the mortgages and making a small profit at the moment.

Oh and I own my own home (4 bed detached seven oaks) and will have paid off the mortgage by the time I'm 50.

nothing. I am on carers allowance of £62/week and cannot afford to put money aside a pension (would be peanuts only anyways). but should get the full state pension. We are already rekatively poor so being poor in retirement won't require a readjustment of my life style. silver linings and all that

I work in the private sector and my pension fund is tiny so far. I am a lone parent so have had to prioritise keeping a roof over our head! It's scary. I am hoping I will stay healthy and can keep on working for a long time.