To ask if anyone else aged 45 and over hasn't got a gold plated pension and other funds

[ChristmasShearwater]

I know you're out there. Show yourselves
Its not a TAAT - it's a topic that comes up frequently on MN and every bugger other than me seems sorted!

@Monoxide

you would need £3,000 per year extra. To get this from an annuity, you would need a pot of about £90,000 I don’t understand this. You’d have to get £3k per year for 30 years in order to get back the £90k. So surely you’d just be better off with the £90k in the bank and spend £3k per year? Otherwise you’ve put in more than you’ve got out? Ditto the pp who said you’d have to save £1m to get £35k per year - surely you’re better off with the £1m in the bank?!

Because annuity rates are shit and have been for years. Much better to invest wisely and spend the income ( I get about 3500 from the same amount in an investment trust) or spend as cash, though there can be tax issues. Pension freedom ftw!

@ParishSpinster
Only 15pc of over 85s are in care homes. Nothing "inevitable" about it.

My annual pension statement came out this week and it says £400ish per year, I am not quite 45 though and I take comfort that I have 24-25ish years to save. DH has better pension but my parents depended on my dad's pension and when he died it was really hard for my mum when that pension halved so I want my own provision.

So with so many people with little to nothing for their pension years, I am trying to picture what the situation will be. Will people keep working into their 70s or, with housing being the biggest cost, will there routinely be HMO set ups just for pensioners?

[quote toconclude]@ParishSpinster
Only 15pc of over 85s are in care homes. Nothing "inevitable" about it.[/quote]
Tbf though that doesn't mean they won't have care costs.

My mum has a companion carer once a week who cost in the region of £24 an hour...she's looking to increase the number of visits as I'm going back to work full time in September.

The way the NHS and social care are going a lot of people will probably end up having to pay for the personal care they need.

Retirement homes, whilst cheaper than your average house or flat, cost a fortune in monthly maintenance.

@Aurea

Well I've got a decent enough pension, but I can't believe how little I am forecast to receive.

48 years old - pension pot of already around £120k currently paying in £1500 a month but only forecast to receive around 20k a year at age 67 which includes state pension.

How can I be paying in £18000 p.a. (excluding state pension) for the next 20 odd years (on top of £120k pension pot) and only receive £12000 p.a. on retirement? Sounds rubbish to me, although I realise I am more fortunate than many.

Assuming that includes taking 25% tax free and buying an annuity? If you look at income drawdown the forecast might be better? Aviva has a good planning tool where you can change the options.

More people will opt for income draw down, or a combination of annuity plus income draw down. Also people will carry on part time working. I saw a presentation about it once.

I have nothing. Spent my life doing low paid jobs followed by self employment whilst brining up my children. There was always something more important to spend money on. I'm autistic and find it hard to imagine the future, I only started to realise it's relevance in the past few years. Sadly for me I'm going to be a poor pensioner. The only thing in my favour is my home is mine.

Lol at the youngsters posting on this thread 🤣

I've got nothing apart from full state pension. Mum died in her late 40s so I was always of the mindset of enjoy it while you can.

Now that I've outlived mum by nearly a decade, I'm starting to think "oh shit!"

[quote toconclude]@ParishSpinster
Only 15pc of over 85s are in care homes. Nothing "inevitable" about it.[/quote]
True. My mum says to stick her on a plane to dignitas as soon as she gets doddery or demented, my dad is possibly planning on just wandering off or dissolving into a pile of tweed and books. That's the total of their old old age planning.

Both of my grandmother's ended up in a care home, I'm not sure either of my parents are expecting to be cared for by me or my sibling. They don't want any of their money going on care either, so the only option they say they have is to burn through it now and then go down in a blaze of glory/plane to dignitas/long walk to the woods/council run care home.

It is what it issssssssssss.

(Fyi they both have excellent pensions.)

Those clinics in Switzerland are not cheap. Thousands of pounds and you have to be a bit secretive about your intentions.
I'm still surprised that they are not allowed to open one up in the Uk : every-time there is a vote on euthanasia in parliament it's voted down. Too many MPs with shares in private care homes I can imagine ( plus people with dementia are treated so differently to others with life limiting illness , which is a whole other thread )
The way we view death and dying is strange in the UK. We should be able to chose if we want to end our lives in a grown up manner.
A Swiss style clinic would do well I think as I know others feel the same about this too.

Sorry to derail the thread below!
I know it's about pensions!

Me. I have precisely nothing.

@MintyCedric

I read 'Ikigai: The Japanese Secret To A Long And Happy Life'. Basically you pick a job you love doing that gives your life meaning and purpose and you won't feel the need to retire.

That's my plan...hopefully

Off to google to purchase this book....

@Jizzle

I could be doing a lot worse, i appreciate that, but i do see some numbers on here and financial subreddits that do make me a little envious!

In the interests of being open, i am 34 and currently have £60k in a defined contribution pension, contributing about £10k a year when I also factor in employer paying in and tax relief etc. I have about 30k in a S&S ISA, but not all of that will be for a pension, some for next house move etc. My partner has about the same, perhaps a little less in the pension.

We have quite a lot of equity in the house, maybe about £250k, but don't really consider this in our financial planning as we wont want to sell our house when we get older just for a little extra cash, we would want to live in it as long as we can.

The hope is to retire about 57/58ish if we fancy it, ideally we would want to be able to withdraw about 3-4% of our savings each year to give us about £35k a year, if we can keep to that percentage we should not run out of money or even really make a dent at all on the cash so that it can all be passed on to our daughter (minus IHT of course)

I don't think you meet the OP's description!

I'm 33, currently jobless, no pension- I probably will end up 45 with no/a low pension.

me , iv got a work pension with my company ,iv been there 17 years so far and i had a work one with my previous of 13 years ,but im single parent low income now , got to admit i have no idea how long i will have to work for until i retire ,what i will get , i assume i will qualify for a state one as well , im bloody hoping so ! im 49 this year , thinking about this stuff makes me stressed so i tend to just to an ostrich and bury my head

the pp who said you’d have to save £1m to get £35k per year - surely you’re better off with the £1m in the bank?!

It's not really the subject of this thread but I don't think that poster (Jizzle) was talking about buying an annuity. I think she's talking about this approach www.mrmoneymustache.com/2012/05/29/how-much-do-i-need-for-retirement/

So she's aiming to have £1M invested, presumably across pensions and ISAs etc. On the strategy in that link she can then take £35K pa with the expectation that the investments will usually grow by enough to cover that and inflation. If all goes to plan then she should be able to live off that money and still have the capital to pass on to her DC. So essentially she does have the £1M 'in the bank' but it's (mainly) in investments not cash. If it were all in cash the likelihood is that it would be erroded by inflation and if she were relying on it to give her £35k rising with inflation over decades she'd risk it running out before that.

She's talking about a huge amount but you can use the same strategy for smaller amounts to supplement the state pension. If you're interested look her ewww.mumsnet.com/Talk/legal_money_matters/4165470-FIRE-starter the thread has been a bit quiet recently but plenty of people with much lower amounts.

@Saracen

I don't have much of a pension as such, but DP and I have money earmarked for retirement - bought a house just before house prices shot through the roof, then later bought an additional house which has also gone up in value. This makes us very lucky, but I don't know if it's a wise strategy. I am a little nervous because it's all our eggs in one basket. If anything happens to that house we are scuppered.

What baffles me is that my civil service pension is worth so much: £2k a year in retirement. I only worked there for 2.5 years!! It was while I was very young so I guess that is why, but still... it seems like a lot of money. I look at the forecast every year and think that it "should" only be a couple of hundred.

I have a private pension from my next job, where I worked for 5 years, but I may as well not have bothered contributing to that one even though the employer did put something in too. It is worth next to nothing because the management fees are so high. The boss bought it through his brother

Your civil service pension sounds about right. I get 1.2k a year pension for every year I work, so 10 years of work would get me 12k a year from 67. These pensions are valuable!

@chaosrabbitland

me , iv got a work pension with my company ,iv been there 17 years so far and i had a work one with my previous of 13 years ,but im single parent low income now , got to admit i have no idea how long i will have to work for until i retire ,what i will get , i assume i will qualify for a state one as well , im bloody hoping so ! im 49 this year , thinking about this stuff makes me stressed so i tend to just to an ostrich and bury my head

I'd really recommend getting all the information you can and making a plan now. I did this a few years ago and feel so much more on top of things.

So:

1. Get your state penison forecast www.gov.uk/check-state-pension - you can do this today and it'll tell you where you are now and how long you have to full entitlement.

1. Get the details of your work pension and take time to really understand exactly how your pension works, what you've built up so far and what you'll build up each year. This forum is great if you have questions forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/pensions-annuities-retirement-planning

1. Think about your goals. Obviously it's different for different people but there's some very helpful research that sets out what people actually spend and that might be a good starting points: www.which.co.uk/money/pensions-and-retirement/starting-to-plan-your-retirement/how-much-will-you-need-to-retire-atu0z9k0lw3p and www.retirementlivingstandards.org.uk

You might find the situation is better than you think, but if it's not at least you can start to make a plan

I did have a good pension until I had ds

Now if will be a few thousand a year

I’m a single parent I can’t afford to too it off. Also have an interest free mortgage once sold I can pay the internet off (I hope) and that’s about it

I don’t even look at my pension it’s too depressing I know I shall be working into my 70’s

The way we view death and dying is strange in the UK. We should be able to chose if we want to end our lives in a grown up manner

I agree the80sweregreat

There a really interesting discussion with retired surgeon Henry Marsh about assisted dying here He has terminal cancer and advocates for the Canadian system.

I have about £2k pa in the TPS and similar in the LGPS. I have 9 years of NICs to make up, as both of those schemes were contracted out, so instead of the 6 years to get to 35 years (as I have 29 years NICs), I have to make up 9. I will buy back 4 years and work 5, and then consider my options, as my TPs and LGPS pay out at 60. I have just gone back to work F/T after 13 years as a trailing spouse abroad, and will get about £450 pa into my Civil Service pension. I currently plan to work til I'm 60, (5 years) and then make a decision about what I do. I can only ever get £178 a week on the state pension due to the previous contracting out, so once I've bought back some years, I'll get them to tell me again how near the max I am, and if it is worth buying back more.

We are mortgage free, ds is in the Civil Service and dh (retired) does have a gold plated Public Sector pension that I will get at 50% if he dies before me.

@Zenithbear

For a lot of you there's still loads of time to do something I know that it's possible to save a lot even in your 40s and 50s once the mortgage is paid off and the dcs are independent. I've been planning on taking early retirement since my 30s and I have been part time since late 40s and will be retired by 54. I have managed to save on a modest wage, as DP has, without missing out on the things I wanted to do. Little and often and I'll admit that at the beginning I thought it's a pathetic amount, why am I bothering? But eventually it will pay off. For example one pension I have is only worth £20k (I paid in £50 a month for a few years) but if I only had that, at least it's something and I could afford to work part-time for a couple of years.

I know that it's possible to save a lot even in your 40s and 50s once the mortgage is paid off and the dcs are independent.

That assumes people bought their house young, and had children young, and stayed together as a couple. Which is happening less and less.

The average age of a FTB in the UK is now 34 years old. So they will likely be paying the mortgage until around 60. Plus people are having children later, there was a thread recently about being 60 with an 18 year old still at home.

And as a PP pointed out, many people who divorce end up with very little and renting all over again in middle age. It's all very well having a plan, but sometimes life doesn't care about your plan. And some people genuinely aren't in a position to save hundreds a month when they are younger.

My IFA invests it and I’m currently getting good returns of 20%

Strictly speaking @MyCatDribbles you're not allowed on this thread but I'll let you off if you tell us what your IFA is investing in and where to get a stonking 20%

pastafeend

Gulp, having your own home is a massive huge asset that many many people don't have! Your in all good position to own your own home so don't knock that and if you own it outright sans mortgage it maybe worth trying to save the little away

Christmas my s and s isa and my sipp are around 36%