To rely on my husband's pension in old age?

[user1483390742]

We are both early 50s. He has had a stable job earning £60k for 20 years and is paying into his company final salary pension scheme. He plans on staying there until he retires.
I have taken 4 years out, then worked PT (2 or 3 days pw) since the kids arrived 15 years ago. Have paid into a pension but am now worrying that it is worth peanuts!
Is it wrong to hope that DH's pension will keep us?

N3wDiary I take your point, though I would hope most couples would Discuss and come to some sort of consensus about big spends, because surely that’s what being in a partnership is.

Dh and I are probably among the last generation to get the really good final salary pensions, having both taught full time for many years. We’ll each get a lump sum and an index linked pension, and we’ve already started the discussions about how we might use our lump sums, but we see it as a joint thing. I believe any big financial decisions in a partnership should be joint .

For me, the issue is more simple than that: I don’t see how it’s possible to have a comfortable retirement if you’re relying solely on someone else.

When dh dies I will get 50% of his pension (or vice versa if I go first.) Half of his pension as a top up to my own is good; if I were relying totally on just that half I’d be pretty miserable

Some food for thought here.

We see DH’s pension as family money, we share all other finances and always have. Just hadn’t occurred to me about after he dies and that I am potentially quite vulnerable. Mmmm, some thinking to do.

Statistically women are likely to outlive their husbands so it’s a really important thing to plan for, even though none of us like thinking about that sort of thing. I remember reading a while back about the percentage of women who are under prepared financially for their older age; I can’t remember the precise figure but it was truly shocking. And it wasn’t the case that a lot of these women weren’t working at all, it was more the case that they’d only worked part time for the long term without considering the impact on their pension

If you're worried about what happens if he dies, why not have life insurance? Insure him for the equivalent of a pension pot for you.