Please tell me I am not the only oldish person without a pension plan

[QuentinLettsisAbitofAtool]

Not a TAAT well it is a bit but sod it

I'm having a bit of a panic attack brought on by the MN survey about pensions. I don't have one, have a big mortgage, not due any parental inheritances and am in my 50s.

Please tell me I'm not alone as that might make me feel less dumb!

Oh and I put "oldish" in the thread title because I mean old in terms of a pension. Twenty somethings who don't have a pension don't fit my criteria!

A bit younger and have a pension but my current salary prediction is around 4K a year! My plan is start putting some more money once I turn 50

I’m in my 60s and haven’t got one. Scared what I’m going to do as no pension TIL 67 and I’m alone

Some years ago I was made redundant and went to sign on. I was told I wasn't eligible as I hadn't worked enough years. Turns out the DSS had lost an entire year of NI contributions. I luckily had my P60 so could prove it but it didn't do much for my faith in the system but now you can check up your contributions on line

Neither of my parents lived to draw theirs. I have several which will hopefully help me make ends meet. I'm early forties.

Oh FFS!

I've just checked my NI contributions.

Full contributions = 24 years
Not paid enough = 16 years !!!!!
Years left = 11

How could I not have twigged that all those years when I was earning even fewer peanuts than I am now - that I was not paying enough NI. I'm going to change my name to IamAtool.

You still have time to make it up. Also it’s a bit of a red herring as if you don’t have enough qualifiying years for the full state pension, you can claim pension credit on top. So essentially whether you pay those extra years or not, you will get the same money.

Thanks, Storm. I've just done the forecast thingy and it says if I carry on contributing, I'll get £164 per week and even if I don't, I'll get £125 per week. So not complete doom and gloom!

Have a look at this:
www.gov.uk/pension-credit/what-youll-get
It says it will “top up” to £163, so you should get the full amount regardless. We’ll start a new thread in 15-20 years. Money saving tips for those of us without fancy pensions! Hamble can come on and gloat! If she’s not too busy off travelling the world

OP, no you are not alone. I am disabled but was SAHM when I fell ill so no benefits and if I push myself to work outside the home, my immune system is so weak, I jeopardize my life.

I am annoyed that I have no money spending bad habits to stop, or that I enjoyed, while not saving anything. our generation (end of baby boomers, which is like the last clown in a circus parade behind the elephants) has been in an odd economic cycle. I wish that I had been foolish instead of unlucky bc at least I could have memories.
I am working like crazy to create income from home. Best wishes. I hope someone here can give you more than empathy.

Not that many people are getting annuities nowadays but a guarantee period can be built in, and it's not that expensive.

I started a pension when I started working at 16 (I worked for LEA and my dad said I should, so I did!) I then stopped paying into my pension when I was 25. I received a few pension statements for a few years and realised that I was going to have to move till about 95 to get back what I'd paid in (I do understand that these statements were only a forecast and that money could have gone up or down by the time I retired but I wasn't sure I really wanted to risk it tbh). I started putting money away in a high interest account and now regularly move it around accounts or ISAS depending on where the best rate it. My husband also doesn't have a pension. We are planning on buying a house next year to rent out. We have about £70,000 in savings so that's a huge deposit and we will use rental income and some of our income to pay the mortgage off as quickly as possible. If that goes well we would think about getting another property and doing the same again. That would hopefully be a decent regular income for when we retire....fingers crossed x

• live not move!!!!!

Sorry Wordthe, but I think you're being pathetic. The interest rate is just over 3%, they're totally upfront about it, and you decide if it's acceptable or not. That's how financing works - except for other loans, ie. mortgages, you don't get the longterm certainty.

There are very few of us able to go through life without taking loans of some sort, and we have to do so in the knowledge that a company will be making a level of profit from us.

Absolutely 100% spot on AJandJJmum. The attitude of some on here is so predictable from the People's Socialist Republic of Mumsnet.

Of course ER firms have to turn a profit. They are a business. But they don't have to apologise for that. It's perfectly possible for any company supplying anything to make money and give the customer a decent deal. That's the way to long term survival. The big financial institutions have been around hundreds of years. They've always made a profit, but have generations of satisfied customers too.

3% compound is a fair rate. The ER firm are making well above normal investment rates, for little or no risk, and the person gets a cash injection and gets to live comfortably with plenty of cash in the home they love, until they die.

I suspect much of the animosity comes from over entitled children, themselves in their 50s, who think they deserve 100% of their parents house to bail them out of their own fecklessness.

I've always gone by the general rule of half your age as a % Eg age 20 you'd save 10%, age 30 you'd save 15% and so on... But life tends to get in the way of that for many, I find! My workplace pays 3%, then matches our payments up to 4.5%, therefore in total I'm getting 12% and a half defined benefit scheme (effectively 25% of my final year salary). As stands, with state pension on top, I'll be better off than I am now! BUT they are planning to change it, take away the defined benefit and just increase their payment slightly. I understand the reasoning, but it'll completely screw me over and I can't afford to put more away!

I've always gone by the general rule of half your age as a % Eg age 20 you'd save 10%, age 30 you'd save 15% and so on..

It used to be half your starting age. So if you take out a pension plan at 20, you pay 10% of salary for the rest your working life. If you start at 50, you'd pay 25%.

But low interest rates have killed that. Still ok for young starters with 45 years of growth but starting at 50, you'll need to pay a lot more in than 25% with investment returns on the floor.

Thanks for the link to the Pension Advisory Service MuttsNutts. I had heard of them but forgot them. I do need advice about the 3 small pensions I have and as come up to mid 50s now it's about time I get some advice on it.

I have just checked too and DH and I will both qualify for the new 164 per week pension when we are 67. Mind you that is 15-18 years away so who knows what we will get by then.

I must say I think that seems ok. Why was this new pension brought in. Was it to make up for women having to work longer?

I'm a pathetic member of the people's socialist Republic of Mumsnet!
Gosh😮🤭

I'm actually flattered you must think a lot of me to give me such a title 😁👍

I’m 54. Own my house outright. No pension. Partner was dx with dementia at 57 and over the last 4 years we’ve had to use our savings to live off as he was unable to work and I had to stop working to look after him. He’s now in a care home which day s esting inti anything that we had left. My house can’t be touched but everything else is fair game for the government. Not how I thought our twilight years were going to pan out. I’ll just have to work til I drop when I get back into work.

Belindabelle - do married couples get £143 each or £248 per couple?

catsinthecupboard - sorry about your health problems but you did make me laugh with this comment end of baby boomers, which is like the last clown in a circus parade behind the elephants
Very true

Storm - the pension credit is reassuring, thanks.

Craft - calm down for God's sake.

kazlau

Kazlau, so sorry for your situations . It's shameful that there is no estate support for cases like yours.

As far as I can work out we get 164 each under the New State Pension.

I was employed for just under 2 years when I was made redundant, you can't leave your pension in place if it's less than 2 years. As it happened I actually stayed with the the company and moved sideways into another job. I restarted my pension and paid into it for 6 years before I had to take permanent ill health retirement when I was 36. I now receive a pension of £400 a month and also live on my disability payment. I have no money to potentially come my way via inheritance or the like.

DH is self employed as has no pension as he doesn't earn enough to be able to live on and save as well, he will also not receive any kind of inheritance.