Aibu to ask about your pension pot

[Wrongwayup]

Following on from the savings and mortgage threads can I ask how much people have in their defined contribution pensions and age. I am 48 and have a pot valued at £225,000. Hoping to get it up to £400,000 by 60

I think mine is around 355 k but I’m in my 50s and planning to take it before I’m 60

Last time I looked mine was about £450K I think. But I am 56 and hoping to retire in next 2 - 3 years.

Mines OK but not as good as my husbands but together we’ll be not too badly off.

Mines about 5k I'm 40ish.

Mines about £125,000 - i'm 46

£0 and I'm 28.

Starting one next payday but it won't be much. Single mum, can't afford to save much. Tis life.

Mine add up to about £400’000, I’m 45.

Around £400, in my mid-30s. It depresses and worries me all the time.

Mines about 7k but I stopped paying into it 5 years ago as I have a final salary pension now

£320,000 but I have put some money into property and shares and ISAs as well. Am 61 and holding off taking my 25% tax free until I really need it.

I have a (closed) final salary pension and an (open) career average pension. Last time I got an estimated it was for a yearly pension of £16k per year plus a tax free lump sum of about £50k. This can be adjusted by taking a lower lump sum for a higher pension (or vice versa). DH also has a career average pension. Not too sure what his estimation is but it's likely to be higher than mine as I'm part time and he is full time.

I have a really good pot - £200,000 and I'm 38. I got this through years of being a teacher. HOWEVER - the teachers' pension scheme, while being generous, is inflexible - you're either in or out. So I've been paying a much higher percentage of my salary into the pot than my friends in other jobs. As a consequence, I have a higher pension pot than them, but have had fewer holidays etc and have lower levels of savings in the bank and lower equity in my flat than my friends who earn a similar amount.

I’m 29 and have a career average pension. Howrever the benefits decrease significantly if drawn before state pension age which for me will be at least 68, so I have a stocks and shares ISA which I pay into monthly and hope that the growth on this over the next 30 years will allow me to plug the gap to retire at 60

I am 51 and have a pension thimble.

I have no idea. It gets taken out of my wage. I didn't even know this was a thing 🤦🏼‍♀️

More than £700k

I'm nearly 35 and have about £21k in a defined contribution pension. I've worked at some companies that didnt offer a pension (prior to the workplace pension scheme being rolled out) or that paid a lower contribution.

My current company pays 5% and I pay 5%. The £21k includes any previous pensions, consolidated into the one pot. It's forecasting to pay out about £14k per month (I guess on the assumption that I will continue to contribute the same level until I retire) however I will increase my contributions each year when I get pay rises and, once we clear our mortgage, from overpaying, will increase my contributions even more.

I have no idea. It gets taken out of my wage. I didn't even know this was a thing

Why would you pay for something you have no idea about? 

At the moment about 4k, however I only had a small contribution the past couple of years. Now at 25 I have a better job matching 8%, so I have about £575 going in each month so should build quickly.

Projections are about 240k total at 60 ignoring inflation, payrise etc. Should give more than enough combined with my husbands as he will retire before me.

If I remember rightly, I think you need £600,000 in the pot to get £20,000 pension p.a. index linked. That puts our pots in perspective...

@TC07 well obviously I know it's for my pension but I don't know what my 'pot' is. How do you find this out?

Not sure in the pot as it's a salaries pension (used to be final salary but no more). I have a small nhs pension that I think will be worth about £3000 a year and my current pension is projected to be about £18,000 per year. My DH will have slightly higher pensions as well.

I’ve got a hybrid final salary/career average pension (rather than a standard pot). I’m 38 and it’s currently at just under £7000 a year apparently. Who knows what’ll happen to the scheme in the next 30 years though.

We don't have them, couldn't imagine losing all the hundreds of k mentioned above, so never had one.
That might be because I've seen so many people lose everything.
I simply don't trust them, the risk is too great.

We have an income from properties so we just keep using this for a pension. They are protected in a Ltd Company, currently managed by ds1

So much money talk today!
This one stresses me out a bit - I'm 32 and had a teachers pension for 6 and a half years, some of it part time work, so that's a few thousand. Then was out of work living overseas for 2 years so no contributions.

I now work in private education so pension is good but not teachers - I've only been at the school 18mo have 3k in there but contributions have recently got big as went back full time. So I'm working on this one.

So really fuck all but i try not to think about it and just keep paying in. There is so much to think about financially: paying the mortgage, overpaying the mortgage, emergency funds, saving for dc future, day to day life, running a car, trying to have some quality of life that includes a holiday and some days out. There just doesn't seem to be enough money even with a good combined family income so thinking hard about my pension pushes me over the worry edge.