To think Mumsnet is not an accurate reflection of most women’s pension provision?

[Helpmenotpanic]

I have name changed for this although I am a regular poster.

I have always found Mumsnet really supportive but recently I think I have been hanging around on the wrong threads, because I am starting to feel worse about my life! In particular, there have been quite a few pension threads, as this has been in the news recently.

It feels like everyone on mumsnet has retired/is going to retire on at least £50,000 per year or more and it’s all down to “working hard”.

my future looks very different despite hard work and planning.

I have worked non stop since graduating from university. Full time or nearly full time, earning a pretty decent salary that probably puts me in the top 10%. I even only took a short maternity leave. BUT - it has always been private sector and various events completely outside of my control (including becoming a lone parent with a tiny baby following divorce) have meant all my efforts have been focused on keeping us financially stable right now.

So at 50, my work pension pot is currently a measly £50,000. I have £100,000 in savings (to keep me and teen dd afloat if I lose my job) and I am still paying a mortgage. I still have quite a few years left on my mortgage (thanks to my divorce, which was not my choice) so I suspect there will come a
point where I will probably use my savings to help pay off my mortgage as in the future I think my salary will be significantly lower (for various reasons I don’t think I can stay in my current job past 55).

i think there must be lots of women like me, or in fact much worse off, but maybe just not on the mumsnet pension threads!!!

If i were op i would probably see an ifa
As she may want to say
do an ofset mortgage
Put lump in pension (but it does get taked on way out
Invest in s&s isa (accessible)
There are 5%+ rates around now for savings

My work pension hasnt really grown at all. (Took career break)
Although supposedly i have control of it there is awful info so i cant understand which funds i want

The interest rates were very low for ages

The problem for people is
Pensions coming out are taxed
The uncertainty of how long you (or partner) will live
Costs have risen so much with hearing alone 2k your owb pension wuldnt be able to keep up.

But op,.how attached are you to London? It sounds like when your kids are grown and you retire you could buy the same size terrace somewhere else and release lots more equity to add to your savings. Or before if possible then invest in a pension or rental or whatever. I wouldn't do rental though unless it's useful for you, eg place for daughter at uni.
Maybe you'll get lucky and she's settle somewhere reasonably priced either where she went to uni or whatever, and you can retire close to her.

MN isn't an accurate representation of women in general mate. Billy Bullshiters tend to skew the figures a lot.

Retiring on a large pension and moving to that perfect village by the sea is all part of the perfection that some mumsnetters like to pretend is real. Along with the chicken that will feed a family of 6 for 2 weeks, babies who sleep through the night from day 1, husbands who are drop dead gorgeous and dote on the mumsnetter even when she's puking from morning sickness or from staying too long at a hen do.

Most of us don't have anything like that. The same as most of us don't have cheating husbands, children with lots of problems and horrendous in-laws. Most of us are ordinary and have ordinary lives.

(semi retired, sole income for the household, currently £14k a year but due to increase to just over £20k in the next 18 months.)

38k a year is a massive pensions. You'd have to have a shit load in a money purchase to get that as an annuity.

Exactly this - I am 77 and live on circa £16k per annum - made up of state pension and private pension. My total income is taxed.

I worked for 40 years full time and was a single parent to one child so very little could be thrown at my pension during my working life.

I am fortunate I have a mortgage -free property worth about £500k but I will sell up shortly and downsize to pass an early
inheritance to my family.

The thread on how much some posters have with defined benefit pensions and £1m houses did make me feel I had missed out as I worked hard and have not that much to show for it.

No it doesn’t. It’s a statement that is entirely centred on the person saying it. It’s not about other people at all.

it’s not a reflection on other people. Especially when written on a page. There’s no tone. Just like op objects to people saying they worked hard to get a big pension. They haven’t said she hasn’t worked hard. She took it as that.

Well I won't be retiring on 50k OP, you aren't the only one.

Like you I've worked full time ever since graduating, had one maternity leave, but otherwise I've paid in 5% the whole way through.

I'm 60, single and have very little in savings, but I have £400k in my private pension fund. I've got 43 years NI paid so no concerns on that score. I still have a very small mortgage.

I think it means I will have about £18k a year from my private pension and £12k from the state pension from 67. So I might manage £30k, which according to that article last week will just about give me a 'moderate' retirement.

Basically, keep me fed, warm and housed, run a very small hatchback, and have one holiday a year. I will count myself as supremely lucky if I manage to retire in 2 years time, which is the plan.

Who are these people who will have £50k?

Most of the time when I’ve seen people say that on here there’s a definite subtext of “why haven’t you done the same as me”

There are a lot of teachers and health care workers here on ‘MN from a time when final benefit pensions were a thing and had decent options from 55. They seem to have retired early, sold up and moved somewhere cheaper. They also benefited from house price inflation.
The vast majority are never going to match that type of pension sadly!

@oldfarm getting divorced definitely wasn’t a choice for me. My husband basically walked out after quite a long marriage, as he had met someone else. I think that has contributed to me feelings of insecurity as I was literally left “holding the baby”.

I think late 40s/50 is often when reality hits us - particularly if we have been battling other obstacles in life.

I’m in my 40s and woke up to my pension situation a couple of years ago.

I’ve started putting 20% of my salary into my workplace pension.

It costs me £700 each month to put in £1200 into my pension, as the £500 is a tax saving. Then my employer contributes £500.

Based on this £1700 contribution each month, my pension company are estimating a pot of £800k. No idea if this will actually materialise.

I'll have state pension plus about £6k from an old DB scheme. Then it's whatever rate I can get on whatever I have personally bunged into a stakeholder pension (disabled child, plans all went out the window, self employment, yada yada, so no employer contributions for years, and frankly by now I'm too knackered for a massive career change).

£6k pa, I mean. And full state pension, so it's not a total disaster but possibly not far off.

Agree! A lot of the stuff I read on here feels like it's from another planet

MN used to be the place to come for advice and a chat really good friendly at the time.
But now i dont come here as much it seems like you cant really say what you want unless you get piled on and bullied seen some get picked at because of their grammar and everyone is rich and owns something i dont fit in on MN any more.
Plus you cant believe all the threads.

Teachers pension; I pay in 10% and they pay in 23%. Based on me working full-time from 22-67. Only took two short maternity leaves and returned full-time after.

It’s not really a huge amount; I’m the main earner. And it’ll drop if I’m unable to keep working full time until I’m 67.

It is a huge amount compared to what you’d get in a private sector scheme paying the same amount in yourself

Agreed. But take everything with a pinch of salt, some posters will say any old shit just for fun.

Right, but if I worked in the private sector (not education - in an industry linked to my degree) I’d be earning significantly more than I earn now, based on my qualifications and tenure. Plus I’d have a lot more flexibility.
Pensions are literally the only benefit of working in the public sector. Along with maybe job security.

Think it's one of those threads where the OP wants reactions from people worse off in order to feel better.

A humblebrag, if you will.

You've got £100k in savings? That's more than the average Mumsnetter surely!

It’s a fact that people will only post giving such pension details when they have something to boast about. I doubt Janice, working on the Tesco checkout, is on a pensions thread shouting about her retirement pot

I feel this. Mn feels so out of touch with all my friends and their pensions. I worked part time whilst raising ds's. I've increased my pension contributions to 15% a few years ago. I can't do much more. I'll still end up with a measly awful amount you can't survive on.