To ask how much you have in your pension?

[lbyc]

I know its a really personal question but I'm just interested.

I've been banging onto my partner about how important it is to start putting into a pension but he doesn't seem to get it!

I'm early 20s and have near £4K in mine already. The thought of being older and having absolutely nothing or very little in my pension is terrifying.

I know it's going to be years and years before I retire but I still think it's so important.

What about you?

About £3k, I'm 24

I contribute 16% as my employer matches to 8% (free money!).

Currently have a pot of around 13k at 27, but will increase quickly since changing to my current job last year.

My DH has around 30k in his at 36, however he earns less than me and is likely to inherit a hefty amount. I don't expect anything from my family.

I am not banking on the state pension being available when I retire, nor do I want to have to continue working past 60 (probably will part time though) so I'm maximising my pension now. House should be paid off by 50 so leaves 10 years to save what would be our mortgage payments, which should equate to around 140k.

Our position will improve as we get payrises etc, but I am making sure that we can survive in retirement on today as you can't predict the future.

For information . If you have holes in your NI contributions you can buy those years so it will top up your state pension if they are still about

I have a couple of different pensions, but I reckon altogether I have about £200k in my pot so far? I'm 43. I started saving as soon as I got my first permanent job, when I was 22. DH probably has twice that due to being a similar age and a much higher earner.

Good on you for saving now, I work with several people in their 20s/30s who don't save into a pension at all (and I do understand why of course).

33 about £100k so far

30, have about £15k - started it at 26. DH has loads as he's spent his entire post Uni career working for a large organisation which puts a huge amount in regardless of whether he contributes or not (I really don't want him to ever leave that company!)

On current projections if I stay in the same job until I'm 68 I'll have about £250k and DH £500k. That said I'm planning on continuing to climb the ladder in the hopes that we can retire sooner than 68 (state pension age for us both)

I’m 39 and have about 130K over 3 different pensions (need to look into consolidating those...). This has accumulated since age 28 (was a big fan of extra uni and gap years until then!)

Retired 49 on £50k. Now working in consultancy. Was the last of the final salary schemes but had paid in 15% of salary for years

It's a joke!
I've been paying the maximum amount allowable into mine since I was 30 and my employer puts in double what I do.
Even so, this is my latest projection from the pension company (I'm retiring in 15 years)—
Your estimated fund value at retirement, in today's money, is £206,000.
This could provide you with an estimated annual annuity income of £5,490.

I'm 57 and have about £300k. It worries me hugely as I don't know how much I'll need.

@HopelessLayout

Hard to comment. How long has the pension been going?
Also what is the investment risk profile. If you are a long way off as you are, then I would look personally at a more medium to high risk investment strategy.

I took out a new pension this year after retiring!! Put money in at end of the tax year as a lump sum. Last year has generated 10% return so far which will be up and down but reflects what colleagues are receiving as well.

I would look to review which company you are using and the investment profile

@hopelesslayout do you have a financial advisor? When I got one and I gave him permission to get all my old pension pot details he discovered that one of my old pension pots (about £50Ks worth) was not growing at all. And hadn't in years. It was just sitting there, not in growing investments! But I had no idea. He advised moving it and it is now actually growing.

Even if you manage your own fund (I ran the shares in my SIPP which did pretty well) about £100k buys you about £5000 a year pension before tax (and if you are likely to pay 40% tax once drawing the pension as those of us who will work into retirement will do) about half of that is going on tax too so that is a pretty awful return. I am not saying don't save for retirement, partiuclarly if you have stable employment and an employer is paying in and you want to retire at 67 or 68 and not work or earn after that but certainly do the sums.

@MarieG10 @Jackiebrambles

Thanks for your comments. I've been paying into it for 20 years now. Every year I get a projection of what the pension will be worth "in today's money" and every year that number seems to dwindle! At the beginning it was apparently going to be worth something like the equivalent of £14k, which I thought was low at the time!

It's with a major financial company and apparently my money is invested in shares, bonds, property and cash. I don't have any input into the actual investments as I'm useless at that type of thing and I figure the company pays to have experts make those choices. (?)

@Jackiebrambles I don't have a financial advisor but all previous pensions have been consolidated into the current one.