To ask you what annual pension you've built up aged 43 ish?

[Boredbumhead]

Just that really. I chose my career in academia as a lecturer because if the final salary pension scheme, but in 2016 it changed. After 16 years in the profession my pension is so far only 9k per year and a small lump sum. AIBU to be disappointed by this? I feel like I chose the job based on the pension benefits, as well as other aspects about not wanting a corporate job, but now that has all changed. Academia is now like a (badly run) business and the pension scheme has been badly eroded.

How much do you have in your pension pot, aged 40ish?

Suewiththeredford you should be receiving annual statements which clearly show total value of funds in pot, annual pension, lump sum etc. If you're not getting them contact your pension provider and ask for one.

@SomeHalfHumanCreatureThing

Those of you with private pensions - interested to know what percentage you have to contribute.

Currently I am contributing about 20% as I am frantically paying as much as I can into my pension so I can retire before the state age.

My employer contributes an amount on top.

@AhNowTed I completely agree. My English relatives were telling us what their pensions are and I couldn’t believe how low they were. My 82 year old aunt is worried that if my uncle dies she wouldn’t be able to afford the bills...it’s awful.

I'd be thrilled! If you didn't work another day in your life, you'd get a lump sum plus £9k a year for the rest of your life, probably increasing with inflation and with an attaching spouse pension.

I’m 37 - about £12k per year (final salary and average salary - though affected by many years of part time working) plus an AVC scheme with £8k in total in it so far.

7k at 48. Not bad,. Final salary scheme but like many women my pension is impacted by part time working for a large chunk of my career.

@Boredbumhead really? Their website has loads of info on it. However I appreciate that it’s not always easy to understand. Why not go to HR and ask who in their team can explain it.

I can tell you that the USS is still one of the best schemes. You don’t get anything like it in the private sector.

I'd be thrilled! If you didn't work another day in your life, you'd get a lump sum plus £9k a year for the rest of your life, probably increasing with inflation and with an attaching spouse pension

Yes exactly. PLUS the state pension. And that’s 9k in today’s money. It’ll increase every year in line with inflation until you take it.

@PinkFondantFancy single mum so no spouse pension for me unfortunately!

Mine currently shows £6.5k a year if paid in todays terms. Im 43, i pay 8%, employer pays 12%. I think that sounds really low but seeing where others are i can see im not too far off, would like it to be higherbut i cant afford to pay any more in right now!

A lump sum of £140,000 and 18 grand a year.

@Suewiththeredford it’s hard to put a value on it as depends on what pension increases you receive and expected asset returns. The annuity rate for company pension schemes is much better than securing an annuity with a private provider as the scheme is less restricted by regulation in terms of what assets it can invest in and also the scheme doesn’t need to make a profit (like a private provider would).

If you want to know the value of your “pot” for a final salary scheme you can request a transfer value. This will be the total value of your share of the pension scheme, but this isn’t a fixed value and will fluctuate depending on market conditions at that date.

I think for a final salary scheme the important figure is your projected pension at date of retirement, you’d only want a transfer value if you are planning on transferring out of the scheme. To transfer out of a final salary scheme to a non final salary scheme (defined contribution) you would need Legally be required to take financial advice.

@boredbumhead I'm in USS too. I think it's different if you joined earlier, but now you get 1/75 of your salary each year as an annual pension, and 3/75 as a lump sum. So if you earn 30k for the next 40 years, you woukd get £400 x 40 = an annual salary of £16,000 in retirement, plus a lump sum of £48,000. In reality you'll likely get pay rises every year so the amount you accrue each year will be higher, but to give you an idea.

I am 46 and have around £175,000 in my current pension pots. I am contributing quite a lot though each month now. These kind of threads freak me out however because I am not a home owner so considering my current rent is £1440 a month for a one bed flat (live in London) I really have no idea how I will survive when I retire. Am praying I hang on to my current job which is well paid and then get a big redundancy payout in about 20 years! But I don’t see anyone older than 55 in my industry which also freaks me out. I know I need a better plan!

I will get about 24k per annum plus state pension

The annuity rate for company pension schemes is much better than securing an annuity with a private provider

Utter rubbish.

If you want to know the value of your “pot” for a final salary scheme you can request a transfer value

Misleading utter rubbish

AhnowTed, ask for a cash equivalent transfer value. You can take the entire lot as one huge lump and live off the interest.

At 58 my cetv is 700k and another 60k is in 2 other pensions.

£9k in 16 years

That’s huge. You’ve got another 20-25 years until retirement age, so will have £20k+ by then. As well as £9,000 state pension and any private provision you’ve made for yourself.

I guess I am also thinking academia is also exhausting and I don't know if I have another 24 years in me!

If you think academia is exhausting you should try the real world.

I'm public sector. Annual salary £25k and projected pension is about £17k.

I agree 9K pa is a good amount. Don't forget that's also essentially guaranteed and the risk of rising and falling stock markets is all on the scheme itself (and probably the government behind that if you're public sector). I have almost 1.5k pa from just four years in a final salary scheme at the very start of my career. I spent the next 7 years working in financial services earning a good deal more but paying into a personal pension where I had to make the investment decisions and a slump like the financial crash wiped thousands off my pension savings. I have about £45k saved in that which is probably worth the same as the final salary scheme 🤷🏻‍♀️ And that's with me being much more savvy than the average person regarding investments so I've had above average returns some years. A lot of people have their pension pots in 'default' funds that barely keep up with interest rates. You really are not hard done by.

@intheningnangnong I work in the pensions industry... it’s not rubbish

I think you’re unreasonable.
Not if you compare yourself to someone much older who happened to have many years in a generous DB scheme, but that isn’t every Boomer by far.

After only 16 years on working and 17 / 22 / 24 years before:

• 60, a nice retirement age to aim for
• 65, what people our age thought our state retirement age would be (and still the USS retirement age)
• 67, current state retirement age

you already have:

• £9K per annum
• £9K that is inflation linked, backed by a massive and reputable scheme, and guaranteed regardless of how the market treats a DC “pot”
• also a lump sum: you are disingenuous to calm this small, it is 3x your annual pension so presumably £27K - and that’s tax free
• after 2016 sure you lost FS like almost everyone else, but unlike most people remained with a DB CARE scheme. That’s up to a salary of almost £60K, it’s pretty good. For many people, the biggest gains in their annual salary are in the earlier years, so although CARE is worse than FS, it’s not always that bad depending on your progression potential now
• at the same time 2016 you got a better accrual rate of 1/75th instead of 1/80th to partially compensate for CARE
• you get to take this at 65 whilst your peers relying on state pension have to wait another 2 years
• you can take it even earlier (subject to reduction - but better flexibility that someone on state pension only)
• you also have life insurance (death in service benefit) and critical illness cover thrown in, which would cost you maybe £50 a month to pay yourself
• for the most valuable part of what you’ve already banked (the £9K per year plus £27K) you paid only 6.35% of your salary, and that was pre-tax so cost you even less

So yes - you’re being unreasonable!

£9K guaranteed after only 16 years?
You’d have got nowhere near that if you’d been taking your 6.35% (or the approx 9% it is now) and investing it yourself.

You are being unreasonable to not realise just how good you have it.

Take that £9K - well, £10K if we divide your £27K up to £1K per year, I think 27 years of retirement is a reasonable guess. You probably won’t double it in the next 16 years as CARE isn’t as good. But let’s say you get £5K, half of it.
£10K + £5K + SP of £9K = £24K.
£24K a year when you are doing NO work.

If it’s not enough, start putting as much money as you can afford into the USS Investment Builder.

If you really did choose this career for the pension, then you still made the right choice.

Now that it’s a lower pension, if you feel you can earn more in industry (and put that into a private pension) - then do it!

@lifesnotaspectatorsport I agree with you. I think people who started off with DB and maybe only suffered the switch from DB FS to DB CARE just don’t stop to think about how valuable the guarantee is.

I have FS/CARE mix through work, and a DC private pension I contribute to myself.
In the week of Covid stock market tumbles in the UK, I lost £25K in one week. That’s scary shit.

Obviously this is personality dependent, but I would take £9K guaranteed for life that I never had to think about, over £11K potential that I had to manage (even if managing is just outsourcing the managing to Aviva et al.) and which could have large variations.

@BananaCake10 then you’re not expressing it correctly. I’m a Chartered Pensions Adviser and the named adviser to a University in the USS. I’m qualified to advise on DB schemes, transfer DB schemes, and hold all the required licences that the FCA require. What you are saying is utter rubbish and very misleading.