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

But you're basing that judgement on your own experience and education. Many people don't have that, me included. I grew up with no financial education from my parents. I was homeless at 17. I needed all the spare cash I had. Now I'm more financially literate I am taking steps to rectify that but at the age where I made decisions about DC/jobs etc I didn't have a clue.

But then if you are dependant on state pension alone and don't have the full 35 years contributions, pension credit will top it up. So realistically, no pensioner should be getting less than £200 per week. But they have to know to claim it. Of course, if they do own their own home and need major majors, that's a big problem. They won't be able to pay for it. And yes, I get the point that JSA is meant to be temporary but we all know it often isn't. And that isn't always solely on the person claiming. There are areas where work is very hard to come by. Plus the longer you spend on JSA the less "employable" you become. But that's a different topic.

I guess a better comparison might be some people I know working now. Low wages, minus rent or mortgage, travel to work, full council tax payments etc and they are left with less than £800 a month and they're working full time. That's not uncommon. My sister has around £500 p/m for food and utilities, which is all my mum needs to pay for. So my mums much better off than my sister. Yeah it's true she can't go off on long cruises or whatever. But she can eat well, heat her home, etc etc. She's not stuck in one room shivering in a blanket eating soup. Which is the picture that's being painted.

I’m 30, so I don’t have it all saved up yet but I should be ok if everything stays on track. I’ll have my civil service pension, which I pay extra into so I can take it 3 years before state retirement age. My mortgage should be paid off by 60. And I’m hoping to put some away in a private pension when my earnings go up at work. I’m not relying on there being much in the way of state pension by the time I retire

@usernamealreadytaken it's a thread about if you've got enough for your pension.

@LaurieStrode was challenged and answered factually, not sure where you got being boastful from?

I need to know 2 key things.

1. What the inflation rate will be.
2. When am I going to die.

Grim isn't it? Tell me the answers to that and then I will know.

This! I've seen many cases where pension salesmen/women have basically conned people into making stupidly high investments in pension schemes by comparing their "wages" when working against pension forecasts, cleverly not mentioning that their costs will plummet, i.e. no commuting to work, no work related costs such as office clothing, buying coffees/lunches daily, etc., less tax/nic on a smaller gross income (and of course, no NIC on pension income), mortgage paid off, no longer paying for other insurances such as life insurance, sickness insurance, and of course, assuming kids have left home, not paying for their food, clothes, transport, hobbies, extra curricula, school fees, subsidising Uni, etc. etc. Once you've retired and your kids have left home, your costs plummet!