To ask if you have enough for retirement?

[PestilencialCrisis]

Saw this today. I'm a single parent. I halved my wage when I had children, and also my pension contributions. Anyone else worried about retirement? Should the government step in and protect women's pension pots more?

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/single-mothers-retirement-scottish-widows-report-b2447486.html

No. I haven’t even started. I don’t work right now either cos I’m on disability

Feel unsure about this - feel like I will be OK though nothing extravagant and wonder if I should be saving more to be able afford stuff like holidays, meals out or being able to support the kids more like I see my parents doing (often on trips abroad, eating out and treating us to weekends away that we couldn't afford to join for)

I think I should be okay. Single parent and no intention of living with anyone ever again. 30 years NHS pension by the time I retire and will hopefully have paid off my mortgage. I don't think I'll have the money to live like I'd like - holidays etc but I don't think I'll be in poverty.

I tell you what I don't understand. JSA is £84.80 per week. State pension £203.85.
How can it simultaneously be that someone is supposed to be able to live on JSA while saying that on state pension they will starve! When it is nearly 2.5 times more than JSA? Genuinely I think there are a lot of scaremongering tactics going on when it comes to pensions.

Granted state pension isn't going to give you a lavish lifestyle. I'm not saying it will. But it does cover more than the basics. My mum is on state pension (no private pension at all), with pension credit etc she's getting closer to £300 per week. No rent or council tax to pay. Free bus travel, dentist, prescriptions etc etc. I'm working and I spend less than her on my weekly expenses! I don't go for coffees and meals out like she does. She's doing just fine. Oh and she just got her £300 COL payment!

9 times out of 10, if you see a poor pensioner on the news or whatever, it's because they're not claiming everything they're entitled to. So, on that basis, no I'm not really worried.

I retired at 56 but made sure I had enough passive income from property and investments to manage until I got my Teachers Pension at 60 and now I can manage until I get OAP at 67. I planned very carefully through 30's-50's to be able to do so and I inherited from my Mum in my 50's.

Many people on just state pension don't claim Pension Credit they are entitled too. Some because of ignorance as they don't know they would be eligible so don't claim and others due to pride.

Not yet, but I should do if I don't become incapacitated before I'm due to retire.

I'm hoping I will. I had a work place pension and another through my company (part time self employed). I've also got a LISA. Won't be down sizing so my pension is my pension.

We are both retired OH has a reasonable private work related pension plus state pension no where near what he was earning but a decent amount, i still work part time and get state pension, mortgage free so though we are not rich we are comfortable and yes have one abroad holiday a year

No idea. I'll tell you when I'm 68 or whenever the government lets me retire

Yes, I have plenty. Will get full state pension & a very generous Local Government pension. You have to take responsibility for your own pension. I certainly wouldn’t want to be relying on just a state pension.

I’m not where I want to be yet, but if my health permits, I should be.

I’m early 40s and working on it, thanks to a MN pension thread I read a few years ago.

Prior to that I just looked at the annual pension statement then filed it away nicely - not a care in the world.

I won’t get a starter one as I’ve not lived/worked anywhere long enough to qualify. I’ll get about $100 a month from a small one I have in Oz. 😂. I’m paying 20% of current salary into private one now but that’s only been 18mths and variable hours. I don’t think about it, else I’ll panic too much. Just have to keep on and hope I’m in good health to keep working 😭

We’re childfree which makes retirement planning a lot easier: no worrying about diverting money from our retirement fund for things like university or house deposits and no need to care about leaving an inheritance. We’ll take out the equivalent of whatever a lifetime mortgage is in thirty years’ time on our home which will give us a big chunk to live on. That plus decent private pensions and our savings and we’ll be doing pretty well.

I don’t think anyone can afford to be passive about their retirement. It seems madness that so many people have 3 or 4 children and then say they can’t afford to save or put much into a pension as a result.

I hope there are mumsnetters in their twenties/thirties reading this and deciding to up their pension contributions by a percent or two. Wish I had done this in my twenties before I took such a massive pay hit. I'm in my forties now and really worried anything I do now will be too little too late.

Lots of people with 3 or 4 children made these children with a partner that they assumed would be contributing to their upkeep. Many relationships break down for a number of reasons and as the article highlights, women are disproportionately affected as they then have to reduce their working hours and/or pay for childcare leaving little to nothing over at the end of the month to put in their pension pot. Meanwhile, the man is still working full time and still paying handsomely into his pension fund. The gender pension gap is obscene.

My late DF put max contributions into his workplace pension for over a decade. He then died two years after he retired. I know it sounds fatalistic, but it makes me wary.

You don't need the same level of income in retirement as when younger, as long as mortgage is paid. I'm on a low pension but have cut back to live comfortably. The younger me didn't realise I'd need less. It's worth knowing

Pensions were not really spoken about when I started working and my parents never mentioned them because they had/have cushty ones and times had changed by the time I started working so only got DC ones. Add on top of that a divorce where the bloody judge gave my pensions earned before meeting them to them and they are now happily changing jobs and earning more money and shoving shedloads into 'their' pension rather than paying CMS and I have DC more, so more outgoings and struggling with job/DC/age related female issues. I'm knackered.
I don't really look at my pension since the war in Ukraine and our government made it slump to even lower forecast than previously...knowing my luck I will retire with a pittance of a private pension and state pension will be means tested so that I won't qualify for much of that, so all the years of trying to do the right thing will be in vain. Depressing is what I call it.

Certainly don’t think the government should step in to look after women’s pension
Everyone should look after their own pension

I'm expecting to not be in a great situation. Early 40s, trying to buy first house still.. so will still be paying off the mortgage in late 60s. Have decentish NHS job with pension but only work p/t due to health conditions and am single. I don't expect to ever be able to retire and just hope I can work in some capacity for long enough.
It's actually quite depressing but very little I can do about it right now.

I should be ok. I need to merge my pensions though (15 years low salary LGPS and by the time I retire 20 years NHS higher earner). I did have a few years as a single parent where I opted out the pension scheme because that was the difference between the rent being paid and not.

@Motheranddaughter you are right everyone should look after their own pension, so we should get rid of government backed defined benefit ones.

Wouldn’t argue with that

We’ve got plenty & are saving separately for DC’s university/house deposit, but they are still tiny.

I work a four day week and DH is diverting some of his contributions to mine. I’ve upped my contributions once I stopped paying my student loan, and will do the same again once nursery funded hours kick in.

Im mid 30s with about 40k in my pot but we’ve got approx 500k in equity & investments.