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!

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 10% or 20% of nothing is still nothing

No pension and no house. In spite of working all my life.

I have next to no pension. I have a tiny one from 2 years work in academia and should be eligible for whatever state pension is still around by then. My husband has a good pension but that won’t help me if I outlive him. It’s a big worry tbh. I’m only 36 though so hoping I can sort something before then (though I am a carer so who knows)

My husband has a good pension but that won’t help me if I outlive him
If its a DB pension then you should get the 50% widows pension.
If its a DC pension you inherit what is left of the lump sum.
Check which.

My mum worked abroad or as a sahm and ended up not qualifying for a full state pension. She returned to the UK aged 48 or so and realised she was fucked if she didn't do something about it.

She spent the last 15 years of her working life working as a full time teacher, plus as a personal care assistant for elderly people at evenings, weekends and school holidays.

She also carried on working until she (in the plan) turned 67. She had a heart attack at work 2 days before her retirement date.

Fortunately she survived and has been retired for 10 years now. Because of her story, I am completely paranoid about pensions and have a relatively decent plan myself.

Sorry op, pensions, insurance and investments up to our eyeballs.
Know that’s of no help to you but having both worked our arses off all our lives want a bit of financial comfort in the years to come

I've got f.a. as well, and as well due to 'unemployability' over the years. I've got mental health issues... in clinical terms I'm a bit of a head case. I'm 52 now, but I suppose no matter what your age you can start to make the best of a situation & do something about it? Not me though. I still can't afford to save & I've also got myself a much younger boyfriend who earns less than me (and as a nurse I don't earn much).

My plan is; that I'll pay off my mortgage (tiny flat, £50K still oweing) and carry on working 2 shifts (24hrs) a week. Forever. But if I get ill and am unable to work, I'm stuffed. I refuse to look on the black side though! After all, I might get run over by a bus tomorrow and then all that time spent worrying will have been for nothing!

nb/ When I say "ill" I mean physically ill. ie. unable to walk.

I didn't realise not paying into a pension was an option. Ever since starting work, the pension has just been a deduction on my wage slip.

Lovingbenidorm erm ….. ok

Kaniel - unless you've only recently started work under the auto enrolment scheme, then you'd have to be working for a company that actually had a pension scheme. In either case you would have had to sign into it.

Dh is 55 and only started paying into a pension a couple of years ago and it's worth bugger all.

I'm 15 years younger than him so I think his plan is that I will keep working to support him in retirement! Yay! By the time I'm retiring he will probably be dead.

Thankfully I have a pension which should be ok. Maybe 12k a year. Plus any state pension but I would imagine by the time I retire they will means test the state pension and then I won't get anything from that!

And I've always been enrolled in company pension schemes even 20+ years ago when I was working for a private firm. It was definetely opt out rather than opt in.

Is it worth paying into a pension scheme at 53? would you be better off putting the money into other savings/investments? I know there are tax benefits and employer contributions but is there time for growth?

Age 40. Pension- very little. Why? Because after paying for childcare, pension deductions would mean it was costing me to work. Dh was paying for everything out of his wage. Finally now that we are not paying childcare I am due to resume paying into a pension from January. I am slightly worried.

Is it worth paying into a pension scheme at 53? would you be better off putting the money into other savings/investments?

Obviously everyone's financial circumstances are different but I have an IFA and for us it would be better tax wise to add extra income to our pensions but for other reasons (want the flexibility of accessing the money immediately at any age plus not all eggs in same basket) we have chosen other investments. If we didn't have a pension already I would have just opened one instead as that would have been a better option with the tax relief.

I believe that this is the purpose of the LISA. They will start freezing its growth, then reducing it to zero as those in the 18-40 bracket reach retirement. You can't access the money until retirement age, unlike private/work pensions.

Is it worth paying into a pension scheme at 53? would you be better off putting the money into other savings/investments? I know there are tax benefits and employer contributions but is there time for growth?

The tax benefits and employer contribution on their own represent far more growth than you'll ever achieve elsewhere.

Ignoring the employer contribution, you pay in £100, you get £20 tax back, so you have £100 in your pot for an £80 payment. That's 25% growth on day one. You'll be lucky to get 1.5% on any other savings plan over a year!

If you're working, isn't a pension always better than other types of saving because the company puts in some and the government tops up with whatever tax rate you pay?

kazlau, that is awful for you.

Those eyeing their parents' assets hopefully should beware. The pil have gone through over £500K (ie all) of their assets, including house, as they both developed severe dementia. People can live a very long time with dementia, and even the pil's modest care home (in fact the only one that would take a doubly incontinent, aggressive mil) the fees are £36K per person per annum.

Quentin bear in mind that any money you put into a pension will be invested by the administrators into similar funds as any stocks and shares ISA or similar investments would be. So you get the tax advantages when you put the money in, and the same growth, then the 25% tax free when you reach retirement age.

A couple more plus points for pension plans.

1. If you can pay in via salary sacrifice to a work pension then you get the 12% NI back so a £100 contribution for a basic rate tax payer only costs £68 in take home pay.

2. Should you need to access means tested benefits before retirement pension savings are excluded from means testing.

BTW the effect of the tax break relative to an ISA is even greater because future investment growth is on the £100 invested after tax rather than the £80 you put in - so at 5% you get £5 rather than £4 and that difference continues to compound. (If you save the NI saving in an ISA you get even more)

I started a pension straight after college, company went bust so no money there. Started another pension paying lots in to make up for previous one but had to stop it when out of work for a bit, their fees eventually ate up my pension so no money there either!
I don't think I will received a state pension either because I was pushed into opting out of state pension as the whole company I worked for when I left college did so. This is really bad and I think the government took it back over.
Started another pension but it's not performing very well. At the moment be lucky to get £1000.00 a year!
I'm worried as dh had his pension also eaten up in pension admin fees when he couldn't afford to pay in for a while.

I feel like a mug, lining the pockets of the financial sector!

So would saving in a stocks and shares ISA be equivalent to a pension (and safer?).

We are a mix of self employed and low income jobs between us but Im v aware we have neither savings or pension. We do have about 2k tax rebate we could get started with.

Although moneysaving expert page first points out its a risk and they can go up and down.

Im not sure I want to sacrifice 100 a month to gamble with my money. Is it something that only people who are secure elsewhere do.

Were 40s, own tiny house on a mortgage.

Many people dont have a pension or own their own home.

I know maybe 3 people with a pension thats it!

Most people i know live in council or private rented house, are on carers allowance or earn very very little.

None of them are worried at all! They all tell me that the government will step in and pay rent for you when you are retired so there is no need to panic.