..to be slightly concerned at my pension pot age 30?!

[Zara87]

I have just checked and I have a grand total of £3790 in my pension.
I'm 30.
This is really bad isn't it
How does this compare to the rest of you?

With my childcare bills at £1600 a month for the next 18 months, and 2 very young dc, there is no way I can pay any more than I already am!

Im 34, until 6 years ago I lived overseas where it's mandatory for employers to provide a pension to all staff, even their 14 year old weekend staff. So I have about the equivalent of £45k over there and about the same here in sterling. Now that we are mortgage free, will increase my AVCs once I'm finished maternity leave in Jan next year. Aiming to retire early though!

I'm hoping to up my pension contributions by a bit soon. Spent a long time working part time but luckily in the public sector. Still seething that we had to change to career average from a final salary pension.

As an aside, I got a state pension forecast recently. I have another five years of NI contributions to make the full contributions. What happens after that? Do you stop paying NI?

I was motivated to pay/overpay into my pension by my grandparents spending every winter in the Canary Islands!
Any free money/match that's available, please prioritise it over other savings (eg for the kids), and try and catch up with those later if you can.

At the very least, this thread as made me get in touch with the NHS pension people and ask for a forecast. It won't be much and I've been a SAHM for 4 years but retraining to get back into work next year. It's hard with kids but ours are growing up so we should have more to plough in. We do have a mortgage on our house, so once that's paid off we will have somewhere to live (while we can manage to live on our own, of course!).

I think there is a real sense of complacency in this country that the state will look after people when they get old
I’m not complacent. There’s just nothing I can do about it.

When I was working I needed a house more than I needed a pension, house prices are so high and saving the deposit ate up my money, I didn’t have any left to pay into a pension. Now I’m a SAHM and can’t afford to work because childcare would exceed my salary. So again I’m unable to pay into a pension. When I eventually return to work I expect I’ll earn so little that I won’t have any spare and will only be able to afford the minimum pension contributions that I’m legally forced to make.

I’d love to pay into a pension and have some security but I don’t have that option so there’s no point worrying about it. I’m hoping to inherit my gran’s bungalow, move in there and sell my house, and stretch the money out £1k per month until I die. It’s a very precarious plan but it’s my only option.

My estimated state pension is £155 per week, due to receive at 68. I started a private pension in my 20's so glad I started early !

If you work you pay NI, you don't stop paying once you have paid the max amount to receive your state pension

I really am so glad I posted about this.
I have been far too complacent, putting my money elsewhere and saving it into Isa's or my kids accounts, and overpaying my mortgage whilst not considering my own future!
I will be increasing it as much as I can as soon as I can.
I genuinely do feel like there was little education about this for my generation. I've never really been spoken to about pensions by anyone!

The younger you are when you're concerned about your pension pot, the better off you'll be when you retire

I don't have a pension and am self employed, but I am hoping to have paid off the mortgage on a buy to let that will give me an income of around £1000 a month when I retire. Am hoping that will get me through. Will it?

My last statement said £63 a year pension.....

putting my money elsewhere and saving it into Isa's or my kids accounts, and overpaying my mortgage whilst not considering my own future!

These are all very good things for your future!!

A "pension" is just another way to save.

The reason why "pensions" have traditionally been a very good way to save is because of the tax advantages (you don't pay tax on the money you put in or the interest you earn on it) and when it used to be a guaranteed income (final salary schemes) they were exceptional value. They are still a very good way to save. But not the only way to save for the future and the other things you are doing are also very good for your retirement. One of the negatives about pension is your money is tied up in the pension and you can't take it out before I think it's 65 and even after that the capital it still effectively tied up unless you pay lots of tax.

For example, ISAs are good because you don't pay tax on the interest. But you do pay tax on the money going in.

I find pensions information in this country impenetrable and I'm an educated professional in a sort of related field. As said, I'm from Australia and it is SO MUCH EASIER to understand over there. I recently got my pension statement from my UK fund and I could not understand it at all.

My recommendation would be to see what your employer offers (or are you a SAHM can't remember?) and go with that. 30 definitely not too late.

@ffs thanks, that does make me feel better.
I'm employed but on mat leave till spring
My employer match my (rubbish) 3% contribution however whilst on mat leave this has obviously dropped because they're now paying 3% of not a lot!
Is this wrong then?

Can anyone explain in a really simply if I'm supposed to do anything with pensions from different jobs??

Since uni I've worker three longish term jobs so:

Job 1 - 7 years
Job 2 - 8 years
Current job - 18 months and counting

Help

And yes to pension info being impenetrable.

My own mum works in a pensions department at a very large international company and still is unable to understand enough about UK pensions to advise me

Wouldn’t you just be gutted if you died at 65 though.

In Australia its compulsory for employers to put in at least 12% ( I think it is now - used to be less). I think the rough rule of thumb is half of your age. So you should be trying to put in 15%. You should be able to put that much in regardless of what your employer puts in.

Theoretically you could shop around and find another pension. But the system is SO IMPENETRABLE it's probably easiest and safest to stick with whatever fund your work has chosen. I'm trying to research funds at the moment and it is hideous.

Your employer hopefully will also put in the National Insurance that they don't have to pay because you are putting it into the pension.

Ask HR explicitly what they do for pension payments while on Mat leave? I'm not sure what the normal approach is in that case.

If your a low income earner I think the government does something good where they top up your contributions??

Women always get fucked over with pensions though.

My own approach has been to put in as much as my employer will match but also invest in property because I don't want to put all my eggs in the pension basket.

If you want to inspire yourself play around with a compound interest calculator. Assume 5% as a realistic return for a low/medium risk pension fund (which is what your work fund almost certainly is) and then see what a difference your contributions can make. And don't forget that its before tax so you make a great return as soon as you put it in because you don't have to pay tax on that money.

If you start now by 40 you will be quite pleasantly surprised - and then when compounding takes off waahay!!

So if you have £300k in your pot, what does that MEAN?

Do they divide £300k by say 20 years and pay it out like that?

www.thecalculatorsite.com/finance/calculators/compoundinterestcalculator.php

compound interest calculator

www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/pension-information-guide-to-the-basic-facts

I lost the will to live after one sentence.

IMPENETRABLE

montecarla

You can access and use your pension pot in any way you wish from age 55.

You can:

Take your whole pension pot as a lump sum in one go. A quarter (25%) will be tax free and the rest will be subject to Income Tax and taxed in the usual way. Bear in mind that a large lump sum could tip you into a higher tax bracket for the year.
Take lump sums as and when you need them. A quarter of each lump sum will be tax free and the rest will be subject to Income Tax and taxed in the usual way. Bear in mind that a large lump sum could tip you into a higher tax bracket for the year.
Take a quarter of your pension pot (or of the amount you allocate for drawdown) as a tax-free lump sum, then use the rest to provide a regular taxable income.
Take a quarter of your pot as a tax-free lump sum and then convert some or all of the rest into a taxable retirement income (known as an annuity).

I will be honest don't really care too much about my pension I've got money going into it., might be irresponsible but hey.

I doubt I'll live much past retirement age and life expectancy is falling. I'd prefer to enjoy my money now, plus I'm paying money off my mortgage which will give me better return than a pension ever will.

Not everyone can access their pension at 55. I get a full payout at 68, but I can take it 10 years earlier ar a reduced rate (so at 58).

I'm an Aussie too and was told my pension from when I was 15 - 18 working at a large retail store (think John Lewis) was nothing as the fees had eaten it up 😡 - I've been in the UK for most of my adult life but the pension habit was there and once I started work, I put away 10% Ee contribution. Faffed around as a SAHM for a few years then got my shit together again mid 30's, I read this thread earlier and on the back of it increased my pension contribution again, I work for a tight arse company though and they only contribute the legal minimum on the taxable income not all my pay 😠. However I have no child care costs and work 9-3 so do all the school runs - swings and roundabouts.

I'm 31 and currently my superannuation is sitting on about $103k (AUD though so equiv. £57k) but I'm in Australia and we have a mandtory superannuation system so depending on where I'm working the mandatory percentage my employer pays on top of my salary can vary from 9.5% (the national average) up to 18.5% - I think currently my employer is paying 15.4%

I also used to work in this area for a few years so I'm a bit more 'switched' on to this and have made sure I don't have multiple accounts floating around and I actively chose an aggressive investment option, because even if we have another GFC I know I've still got another 40 years working ahead of me given the current climate and projected retirement age so I'm not too phased.