To think that a lot of us will be in trouble when we retire...

[Fleetheart]

This generation seems very unlike the previous ones in that we take out loans for everything, buy holidays on credit, kitchens on credit, new clothes etc etc. And pension schemes are getting less and less generous. And most of us don’t understand them anyway. I’ve always earned well, but have split up from partner, so still have s lot on my mortgage, no savings, and really not very much in my random pension schemes most of which are money purchase schemes and won’t pay a lot. And I know many people of my age (mid 50s) who have no pension at all. And meanwhile the govt is being less and less generous. What will become of us all?

Pineapple you’re talking rubbish. The teachers pension scheme is good but not that good! And to those saying, bloody hell I’ll retrain as a teacher, the scheme has been reformed and you’re not going to get anywhere near the deal that older teachers who’ve been in the scheme for 30 plus years will get.

But as a teacher I agree it’s one of the best going, although we pay in a lot out of our monthly income. I’m in my fifties and planning to retire before 60, and yes we’ll have a comfortable standard of living (dh also in the scheme) but we’re not talking 100k each! And even for those of us who’ve been in the scheme for decades, the terms and conditions have changed a lot over the last few years (as have many other pensions with the reforms) so at the same time as having first of all a pay freeze and then pay rises below inflation for the best part of a decade, our pension contributions have risen a lot, simply to get the same deal in terms of monthly pension. So it’s not all a bed of roses. But frankly anyone who sticks a full time teaching career for 40 years bloody deserves some payback! The pension is the reason I always worked, continuing to do 3 days a week when we had 3 young children and all my take home pay disappeared in nursery fees. It’s the reason I stepped back up to full time as soon as my youngest was 4.

You’re right OP, I think a lot of people are going to be in for a shock because they aren’t preparing financially for older age. It’s definitely a case of doing with less in the short term for the sake of having more in the long term

USS has changed NewAccount270219 so I would not be surprised if your projection was worse than your DH’s. If you were in USS before 2016, those contributions will be worth more than those made after 2016.

I am in my 50s, moved South from North when I was told to get on my bike!
My husband has worked as a school caretaker for the last 35years and inbetween raising our daughter I have done numerous jobs.
I have been self employed as a cleaner for the last few years, I have no private pension, everything I've earnt I've spent on my DD +DGD.
DH job provides us with housing but he retires in 5 years.
I worry so much. Where do we go!
All of my friends back North now own their own homes and have employment.
I sometimes wish I'd of stayed put!

USS has changed NewAccount270219 so I would not be surprised if your projection was worse than your DH’s. If you were in USS before 2016, those contributions will be worth more than those made after 2016.

That makes sense - I've been paying in since 2012 but DH has since 2009, which doesn't feel like a big difference but I suppose at this point three years is nearly half of the total time I've been paying in so a big difference. It just surprised me how much better his projection was since I've always earned more (though the gap is closing as he moves up the teacher payscale, and he also got a TLR last year)

I have worked all my life and have saved in a pension since i was 19.
I know I am lucky. Money gives you choice. I am 53 and plan to retire st 55/56. I am currently at £840k savings, I have upped my savings to 25% of salary and the.company’s 6% and the plan is to get to the £1.055M take the 25% tax free. I have 80k mort on a £500k property plus £120k equity in another property.
I know I am lucky that I have been able to earn the money, but I have also paid a considerable amount in ta over the years.

after having paid into both my experience is that USS is better. However they just got rid of the 1% match which was quite a good deal!

Fair enough - as I said, I could well be wrong. I've never used the extra contributions - we're at the start of a mortgage and have a baby in full-time childcare so we already find it a bit of a struggle

Sorry - going back again to Pineapple1. The calculator is very straightforward. Key in your salary and years of service to get the value of the lump sum and yearly payment. Unless you have been on a huge salary for many years you will be receiving much less than you estimate. You either need to carry out some research to get a clear picture of your future pension pot or stop posting ridiculous figures on what is otherwise an interesting thread.

@Dylaninthemovies1

Oh God, yes. I’m 37 and have about 80k in my pension fund. But a apparently am only likely to have about £6k per year from the estimates on the calculator..

That’s what you will get based on the current size of your pension pot. But you have up to another 30 years to pay into it....

@Puzzled. I’m a bloody idiot. Thanks for pointing that out

@Dylaninthemovies1 haha well at least you have a nice surprise, unlike poor pineapple who is going to have to seriously rethink their retirement plans 😬

I think if people simplify while working and can get mortgage free, it’s possible to live comfortably off once retired. But the problem comes when you still expect to spend lots on clothes, cars, holidays etc.

Since having children our priorities have really changed - we don’t keep up with the Joneses, we don’t need or want all the ‘stuff’. We value our time as a family.

One thing we do is plough money into our pension pot, so hopefully our more simply lifestyle will really pay off because we are saving and we aren’t already used to not spending for the sake of it.

Skittlenommer. A lot more shoukd be like you neither no children or at least less. Less spent on childcare, all the associated costs as you mention. Less stress worrying about all of the problems they bring so you will probably be healthier, live longer, be able to work longer and have paid more into a pension when you retire.

@Pineapple1 so you have a higher salary now than £69k? I'd wager you don't if you aren't on the SLT at your school. I know a teacher that is, in a large secondary school and they are not on £69k per year.

Whatever your salary is now, will be more than you'll get per year from your pension.

But very few people get as much in a pension as when they were working. I know I will have less, and I do not earn a high wage. But I will manage as I can live frugally and will have the time to do so.
I know some retired people go on lots of holidays, but I have also seen a lot of retired people who because of age related disability find holidays just too stressful anyway. As my DP is already disabled, I suspect by the time we finally retire going on all but local holidays will be too hard as we won't have the money to pay for expensive ones where they will be more set up for him.

I know we all have to think about the future, but I think it is important as well to live for today. I have had a brother and close friend die in their forties. You can't just live for tomorrow, as sometimes tomorrow never comes.

I put some figures in that online teacher pension calculator and with a final salary of £50k it said I'd get a pension of £69k. I think the calculator might be broken, because that doesn't sound right.

Average headteacher salary is £51.7k-£88.7k; some will be on much more and it's possible to be putting into a teacher pension from a higher paid job in the private sector or another role altogether. The thing that makes £100k not work is the £1m pension cap.

@EasterEgg80 there's a balance though isn't there, no good living "simply" "ploughing into pension pots" if you in fact both die at 64. We pay into pensions (thankfully both public sector) and have a mortgage, insurances etc, but there is no ploughing here, the rest is having holidays, days out and generally enjoying our lives and our children while we are on this planet!

There is definitely need for a balance.

My lovely parents did manual jobs, but always saved into modest private pension schemes. The one thing my dad said to me when I joined a big company age 19 is pay into the pension. If you start paying in, you will never notice it coming out. And I did.

My parents are now in late eighties, they are comfortable but not rich and their small extra pension amounts and reduced lifestyle together with state pensions mean they can put the heating on in winter without worrying and buy nice food.

I am in my fifties, I’ll be OK too. Thanks Dad.

My DC were given exactly the same guidance when they started work at 21 after uni. Hopefully they will be OK too.

Meanwhile some of their friends drive BMW1 series on PCP.

My DF, who would be 97 had he lived, retired at 59 with an index-linked, tax-free final salary pension. He collected it for 20 years. My mother, 96, still gets it. Basically, she has received a fantastic pension for longer than DF paid into it.

Final salary pensions aren’t guaranteed anyway. DH had one and the company made all the employees on it change them. I thought that would be illegal but wasn’t.

My Dad told me take out a private pension the day I started working (early twenties), which I duly did. I didn’t pay a huge amount into it and indeed in recent years (raising a child, divorce etc), I have paid in less. However, I recently transferred in three workplace pension pots to my private pension so it’s all in once place and the fund is doing very well (thank you Dad!). On top of that I am now in a job whereby £600 each month is going into my workplace pension. I have another 25 years before I can retire and feel more confident that I won’t be living in poverty. This thread has been very thought provoking and it is worrying what will happen in the future. I have checked the HMRC website and I actually only need another 15 years of NI contributions to qualify for a state pension, but I have a terrible feeling that a state pension won’t exist for people like me who have pensions elsewhere (despite working hard and paying NI). FWIW, I can’t afford a holiday and my car is 6 years old, but I am happy with that if I can carry on as I am!

My lovely parents did manual jobs, but always saved into modest private pension schemes
When manual jobs paid a decent reliable salary with holiday pay and other benefits. I’d like to see someone do that nowadays while surviving on a zero hour contract and paying a huge mortgage.

Manual jobs aren't what they used to be. My late DGF worked in a factory in London and managed to buy a house for his family and have a reasonable retirement. I wonder how a London factory worker would do today.

I'm going to be state pension only. I raised five kids as a single mum (when their high earning dad turned out to be a shit), so did pt work for a LOT of years (no childcare, no family). I've been in rented accommodation for 25 years, I'm 59 and have had no opportunity to 'save for a pension' - we were living on borrowed money and benefits for quite a while, until I got work in a school to enable the school holidays without my children being left feral.

I am truly terrified of the future. I'm single (and intend to stay that way) and won't be able to keep renting on a state pension. I live rurally and there is practically zero council provision for housing. All the new-build 'sheltered housing' is privately owned (and incredibly expensive to buy).

I'm going to have to find myself a house share!

Some factory jobs were actually relatively well paid. But unless you moved up into supervisory roles, which men were more likely to do, it was really hard work. I worked for a bit standing in a factory line doing repetitive work, and I used to hobble out like an old woman at the end of the shift. It would not meet modern health and safety requirements. The kind of things I did in a line have now been mechanised, the jobs do not exist any more.