To ask how much is in your pension pot and your contribution %

[Vistada]

Just that really?

I'm starting to put a lot of thought into my pension (something that in my 20s I thought just ticked over) but its difficult to get a good gauge of what one should have saved.

WIBU to ask (if you're happy to share) your age, salary, pot size and what you contribute per month in %?

Me: 33, £23k pot, £55k PA (only recently) and joint 13%

You can’t possibly have 35 years contributions at 40 if you started work at 18? Who is telling you that you have enough years in for a full pension?

A 23 .7% NHS pension contribution surely that cant be correct 🙏🏽🙏🏽

It would take a pension pot of about £700k to get 35cm per year pension so that what your final salary is approx worth

Sounds about right for the type of pension the NHS offer!

I am also self-employed.

The primary incentive of paying into a pension as a self-employed person is the alternative of a retirement in penury. I find that pretty motivating, to be honest. But the fact that my contributions were tax deductible (meaning my 12K became 18K) was also pretty incentivising.

Oh this is basically where I'm at. Happy to see I'm not the only one in this position. And that you're tackling it in a positive way.

Can't believe how many people seem to have a loose 600k in the pot!

I am in the same situation too - very very small pension pot, low salary for a long time although good now, but need to pay off debt. Don't know if there will even be a state pension when I come to retire.

I am mid 40s and now need to look at how I can put enough away for both myself and DH, as it is looking likely that DH will lose his job due to an injury at work last year, he is effectively disabled and due to his injury is limited on what he can do. Can't sit for more than 1 - 2 hours, definitely can't do any more manual handling type work.

51, £657k, £60k now the allowance has gone up.

60k at 38.

contribution is £870 a month, 15% from me and 7.5% employer - just recently upped as IFA told me it needed to be £1200 a month to retire at 60 on £25k a year in today’s money - trying to get up to that!

@EmpressSoleil I agree with you. There's a limit to what people can do once they're 50 and you need to be realistic, plus renting is a whole different ballgame - eg in your situation with £10k rent, if your annuity is anything less than £20k you're literally just breaking even compared to having nothing at all (£10k housing benefit, £9k state pension) and you're also losing out on the add on benefits that you would get. Just to get £20k you'd need a £400k pot which most people won't be able to be anywhere near. You've got to work with what you've got.

Don't forget, for those of us who are already in our fifties, we didn't have the current type of workplace pension set-up, and indeed a lot of us lost what work pensions we'd managed to get going during the 90s and 00s merger firesale.

The most important thing any tenant over 50 can do is get themselves into some kind of social housing imo. Takes the pressure off massively.

I’ve got a DB scheme which will pay 47k a year if I keep contributing until 67. There’s no way I’m working that long though so will be retiring early with a reduced amount. Will also have full state pension and mortgage paid off, so will be fine.

I wouldn’t want to be surviving on state benefits at pension age, as I want to spend a lot of time on holidays, weekends away and doing my hobbies, some of which are expensive. Some people are happy with a quiet life at home though.

I am 50 and have nothing saved for retirement, I am a teacher so I sort of expect I will keel over in the classroom one day and that will be that.

I am mid 40s and have £360k in a pension pot. It now grows at about £30 - £50k a year and I vary how much I put in.

I have always worked and nearly always contributed something, but probably not more than £5k a year. I have always had a higher than median income, so am relatively priviledged. But have also always lived a bit like a student. I still do, because there are children to support!

Due to income draw down options (as opposed to having to buy an annuity), I think it's even worth contributing even if you don't start til 50. That might buy you a few years before the state retirement age kicks in.

Do you not have a teacher's pension?

Age 50
Salary £46.5K FT (UPS3 teacher) - but I only did 6 years FT - been PT (range 0.4-0.6) for last 20 years or so, had 3-4 year out too. I earn £28K/yr on 0.6 now.
I pay 7.4% and employer 23.7% (I used to pay AVCs too but that was decades ago when I was FT).
Total 'pot' c. £250K
DH has a much bigger pot (approx. 1.5x the old LTA) and we have joint finances so that was definitely part of the decision to stay PT even when the kids were older.

I think you need some advice as this isn’t correct. The ‘only’ incentive to anyone is the tax, matched payments used to be salary.

The available schemes are often BETTER than auto enrolment schemes. Get on Fidelity International and set up a SIPP. Buy Vanguard Lifestrategy 80% and chuck some money in.

It is likely to be!

Please don’t say you’ve left TPS.

Mine is Defined Benefit, I pay 6.8% and if I make maximum contributions it will be equivalent to about £30k per year, index linked.

I also have an old final salary scheme one that I did about 10 years service which will be another £9k per annum.

It probably is. However the amount paid has nothing to do with the resulting pension as it’s a defined benefit scheme

I agree. I find it sad that people just sit back & let the state/tax payer pay for their retirement. It won’t be a luxurious retirement for them at least!

Public sector and with a teaching pension - just over £50,000. I'm a couple of years off retirement.

Doesn't seem loads against some of these pots on here.

It won’t be a luxurious retirement for them at least

It wouldn't be luxurious for me either way! As I said in my post, anything I paid in now wouldn't come back to me. So with the money I'm saving right now I can have a luxurious life. So what if i can't do those things later, I've already done them and will be happy to sit back and enjoy a slower pace. I'm quite looking forward to it tbh.

The Teacher’s Peniosn is a great pension though. You didn’t opt out of it did you? 🙈

That’s because they are extortionate to pay for. Only really seen in the public sector these days.