To ask how much is in your pension pot if your mid 30s?

[Kanfuzed123]

I started working in a proper PAYE job at 28. Didn’t know the foggiest about pensions and the place I worked in did the bare minimum which at that point was like 1%/2%.

ive moved around a bit work wise so got 3 separate pots and did some life admin today and saw I’ve got 30k. I’m 33.

my husband has around the same. His pension provider has a calc that shows if you continue at this rate you’ll have X amount by state retirement age and can expect X amount per month and what sort of lifestyle it correlates to. DH’s calc said it would be 3k a month which correlates to a moderate lifestyle. That whole thing seems baffling, since when is 3k a month (no mortgage) moderate and not comfortable but whatever.

maybe that should fill me with confidence that it will be enough in retirement but it doesn’t really. 30k at my age seems low? Any one?

@Kanfuzed123 .

Ah got you! I think they’ve done that as it’s the BoE goal. Predictions are sub 2 for next year though

I had around 130k mid 30s, now 210k late 30s (contribute around 1/3 gross pay) plus c160k in ISAs so a balance between shares and cash. You can never have to much in your investments, particularly with the state pension being phased out (age increased).

34 and 50k.

I lived abroad for most of my twenties so only started contributing about 6 years ago.

I have another 50k in savings in just my name, couple of hundred across both DH & I in investments and we’ll be mortgage-free soon, so we should be ok as that on top of pension.

Once we get out of the expensive childcare years, I’ll top it up. One shift that helped was to immediately increase my contributions once I’d paid off my student loan, as I wasn’t missing the money each month.

That calculator is crazy optimistic.

Ive got 150k or so. Im 38. I earn twice what you do OP and am chugging 20% into mine, and i get projections of about £25k a year (without state pension).

DC pensions in employer schemes seem to perform crap everywhere ive ever worked and never grow.

You can use a compound interest calculator. So if you have a pot of £30k and you put in £575 a month, assuming 5% growth and increases of 3% a year, in 30 years time you’ll have a pot of £815k.

25% tax free so call in £200k lump sum
£600k pot giving income at 4% of £24k pre tax in todays money, plus any state pension income from state pension age.

not in my 30s but the guidance I was given was for every £100K in pension you will receive between 3 to 4% a year.
My OH has a final benefits pension that gets us £1K a month. I was told by an IF that I would need £350K plus at pension time to equal that.

But its just guidance last year my pension dropped £22K because of political mess arounds arounds

Those projections sound way out. What retirement age are you factoring in and what % return on investments?
If you end up with a £500K pot and take £40K a year out of it, it won’t even last 15 years.

Good as your pension figures sound - there is the flip side to your pot growing by so much to give you comfortable retirement - everything you need to buy/enjoy will have gone up by inflation that could be as high as 10% per year

There is no guarantee that your pot will increase by the same percentage.

Fine if it does but it may not give you quite the income you expect. The 3K figure per month quoted in the OP is not guaranteed and of course it will be taxable.

40k included 10k state, so 30k per annum. It was retirement age of 68 and it was either 3.5% or 5% RoI. So would last about 17 years if he started to draw down then, so roughly to 85

his seems to have performed ok but I think mine has out performed him, so I’ll be moving some money from one pot to the one that’s performing better.

as PP said, can never have enough in investments

I’m 35 and I’ve got a little over 50k in mine at the mo. I’ve just checked and my fund also predicts 3k a month at medium growth rate. Obviously there are higher and lower options too but assuming similar numbers to OP it’s not too far off.

I am 36. I have 27k in a SIPP (from my own contributions and smaller pots from previous employers transferred in). It is not much as I was part time for years.

I started a new job a year ago which has a local government pension, which is defined benefit rather than defined contribution. I plan to stay here for years to build up a guaranteed income in retirement.

I will continue to make additional payments into my SIPP and will also save into an ISA to bridge the gap between retiring and taking my pension (hopefully).

yeah no one has got a crystal ball but from my work inflation will be coming down.

yes a pension is an investment in a tax efficient jacket, so it can go down as well as up. Benefit of the defined contribution is someone is paying In more than you

I don’t understand the figures TBH but I’m Civil Service so I contribute 9% and they contribute 29% so I should be looking at a decent pension. More than DH even though he earns a lot more than I do! I only started in the civil Service last year though aged 36 so it could have been much better. I also have a County Council pension which will give me a small amount. I don’t know if I should/ could combine them or leave them separate so I can hopefully claim the council one earlier? I guess I need some pension advice.

I'm 36 and I have just over £200k. I started late but then increased payments to 50% once I was in my 30s to catch up. I've switched around my investment choices too as I'm young enough to take a high risk.

FWIW
To get a "defined benefit" pension costs 30% of salary between employer and employee
which is why they barely exist outside the public sector

I have a small SL pot so I have logged in and looked. It is definitely per month but check the assumptions which are summarised here

• We've assumed you get the full state pension.
• We've used today's prices to give you a better idea of what you could afford to spend, and assumed inflation of 2%.
• Income figures are before tax, and are based on the total value of your projected pension pot. Your income will be lower if you take any of your 25% tax-free cash as a lump sum at retirement.
• We've assumed investment growth of 5%
• We've assumed your earnings will grow by 3.5% a year, and that your monthly pension payments will go up at the same rate.
• We've assumed an annual management charge of 1%, which may be higher or lower than your actual charge.

I think the one you may have missed is the difference between inflation and salary growth so it assumes you get promotions to keep your salary growing at faster than inflation.

FWIW my pot will give me the amazing sum of £204pm (exc state) luckily its not my only one but one I have from an employment I left about 22 years ago.

With inflation at 2 (which hopefully it will be again soon (if budget can be trusted) dh does get a minimum of 4% pay rise annually. Max 6

I'm projecting to get around £30-40k from my private pension but it's currently at £150k and I put £2600 a month into it. I'll take the 25% tax free cash at 57 (11 years time) which will obviously reduce it, then work until I'm 62.
That does feel like quite an optimistic projection your DH has, however I assume it doesn't include taking out the 25% tax free lump sum and a retirement age of 68 which is quite late I guess.
In any case I'd contribute as much as you both can.

I have said this on other threads and I stick by it.

Pensions do not go far if you are still paying rent / mortgage.
Housing security is key - the State pension was built around the assumption of it.

When I had a mortgage I threw £££ at it to shorten the term.
Since then I have thrown the same amount as ISA / Pension and cash savings
and plan to keep working, but less
because full retirement will be unaffordable for the vast majority

again, DB pensions assumed people would only be pensioners for around 10 year max

@Facinguptothisdebt
One of my pensions is with standard life. I have £35k in it at present. So a little more than your DH but not much.
I pay 10%. Work pay 5%.
I totally understand that the % depend on your actual salary, but my SL prediction is for £10k pa pension if I continue paying in at this rate til I'm 65. You DH must be on a fairly hefty salary to be ending up with £30k pa?

To answer your original question I'm mid 40s and have £75k total pot. Not enough.

I'm 33 and have about 20k

I think you mean this for me? He’s a peasant by MN standards, 60 ish base plus 15/30% bonus. It’s also got him working up to 68%

the difference might be because his employer contribution is a lot higher. They pay 12 or 14% and he pays a further 2%

31 and 88k when I looked a few months ago

It depends on age and therefore how long you have left to contribute. For a 35 yr old paying in 14% the assumptions on the SL calc work out at about a £50k salary now for a 30k pension at 67 by which time that £50k will need to have grown in real terms (ie after taking account of inflation) to about £80k. So yes a higher than average salary but not ridiculously high.