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%

I started a job out of uni in 2000 and have worked ever since, all 3 employers have had employer contribution pensions of 10% - so the contributions have increased over that time in line with my salary - I need to check my first and current pots but my middle pot has £24k - I was with that employer for 5 years - my salary is now much higher and my current monthly contribution from my employer is £550 per month but I need to find out what my pot is at and I was at my first employer for 12 years and need to check out my pot with them. So I am hoping that it is around 80k across all 3 pots ' although u know I need to ramp it up a bit in future years to have a decent annual pension payment from that

45. Pots currently add up to about £475k and I'm putting about 25% in with another 5% employer contribution. Also recently became mortgage free so hoping to ramp up contributions and aim for early retirement.

OP I think how much you should have saved is completely dependent on your circumstances - debt/mortgage, inheritance, current and future lifestyle, how much you need in retirement and when you'll retire.

Nothing like the amounts on here. Auto enrolment didn't happen until I was older and got very little before then. Should clear the mortgage early next year and will then max out what I can to pensions.

I am embarrassed that I don’t know. I think it will be a decent amount. i cannot find where to access this info as it’s not on my ESR.

I am a hospital consultant and have worked full-time since I was 23 and am now early fifties. I was paying 13.5% at one point but that’s going down to 12.5%. I am in a better position than many. Just annoyed I will have to share it with my husband 😏

I have exactly £5,727.09 in mine. I’m 42 and been in the role 3.5 years. My salary is only £15k so didn’t think that was too bad. Every pay rise, I increase my % contribution.

Before this job, I have 12 years of a Local Government Pension scheme. No idea how much that’s going to give me.

I’m heavily relying on my husband’s pension to keep us going! 😬

Why do you say that? I work in pensions and everyone I deal with has a huge pot. Lots of people save heavily.

I've found this thread really useful and have learnt a lot. Thank you to all who've contributed.
I've 43 and it's only in the last couple of years I've given any thought to pensions. I definitely need to do more research and maybe increase my contributions when I get past nursery bills/current hideous mortgage rate.
I'm extremely fortunate to have a civil service pension with an employer contribution of 27.1% which I will hold on to for as long as I can. The salary is nothing compared to many of the posters on this thread but the pension keeps me there (and thankfully I love my job). I hope I've got that right. Just worked it out from my payslip and it seems to tally with civil service pension info online

I was unusually anal about pensions in my 20s and early 30s before having 8 years off and working p/t on a very low income for a few years. When I changed jobs 12 years ago my public sector money was catching up with my public sector earnings so I transferred in three pots and bought ten years in the final salary scheme to add to the ten I'd worked again.

Fortunately this was just before the LGPS locked into salary average rather than final salary. It locked 20 years into the final salary scheme. Subsequently I have had some promotions. A few years ago, I breached my pensions allowance. That was expensive.

I hope to retire next year on about three quarters of a occupational pension. It will pay about half my annual salary. I'll be 65 and will have 35 years of full NI contributions for a full state pension.

The value would exceed £1m if I were in a defined contribution scheme.

It was achieved by a combination of luck and design.

DH was self employed for the majority of his career and will draw down from his pot into which there were no employers' contributions.

I'm 45.
Earn £45k
About £150k in pension pot. I pay in 8% to get max employer contributions of 15%.
Been paying in for 18 years but increased over time.
Also have a previous final salary pension with 7 years in so think that's about £3k per year.

Plan to get a couple of promotions and hopefully think to retire around 55/60. Once the mortgage is paid off can wind down and maybe go part time as I'm already feeling knackered.

The Local Government scheme is one of the best there is so you might got a nice surprise. I would get in touch and find out what you have there. They should be sending you annual statements.

zero, I invested in property instead

Early 30s
NHS pension, I have been paying in 13.5%, which will change to 12.5% from April.
I'll get a defined amount based on my salary across my years of work. If I stay on the same salary in the NHS until late 60s I'll get c. £55-60k per annum.

Our situation is historic and now a bit odd. We started a SIPP in 2002 and bought a commercial shed with a mortgage between us (DC was 3, so obviously a passenger). The tenant's rent paid off the mortgage, so the rent is now all contributing to the pot, except for the years the tenant didn't pay and did damage. That fixed, the trustee company (you have to have one) is bust and sold and their replacement could not run a party in a brewery so we are looking to move our whole fund. I have spent thousands of hours trying to tiptoe through the pitfalls. And I am actually pretty good at all of this.

Managing your own pension while governments of different politics rewrite the rules every few years is difficult. But, there's a pot ready. It's not part of our estate, so the 3 year old will have a pension, whenever. ATM, we shan't crystallise the pot but will spend our savings first, so the pension goes on earning money/interest as long as possible, later we'll take the new income (the current rent being paid). Our retirement income will be our state pensions plus the shed's rent. Our DC will have to consider whether to keep the rent and manage the property actively or to sell the asset and manage the money.

It's a good situation but the DC's choices and decisions for an unknown future still 40 years away in an unknown landscape will be theirs to make. We shall be dead.

What, no liquidity?

Property, well run, is never liquid but can be profitable. My post above. Property can also be very good at generating cash.

We have zero liquidity @Tedaaaaaaaaah but income-producing property doesn't lose value. I could sell the property but only for it's current value; the income stream is worth more.

On my started at 40 but currently about £120k at 47.

20% a month (10% me and 10% employer) plus all my bonus (10-20%), all salary sacrificed.

I have a small defined contribution pot of 57k but 4 defined benefit pensions so don't necessarily need 'a pot'. They will provide an adequate income in retirement.

@Boofoof I doubt you will tbh. I've been working since 21 and am nowhere near that level of defined benefit pension and I've done some pretty senior roles!

50, pension pot around £45k Spent 10 years working without even thinking about pensions, then time out for childcare then low paid self employed so only started a pension in my 40's. salary £28k and I contribute 3% matched by employer so fuck all is the short answer. If I get to £75k I'd be amazed & DH has even less so won't be retiring until late and then living mainly off state pension. Inheritance may change things but no guarentees.

Four defined benefit pensions, even small ones, is enviable.

Age 48

£380k

Just as I went freelance, my former employer went bankrupt. The insolvency people did a good deal. I get £3600pa from a £16000 pot. Because the deal was done on the expectation of 8% growth (then typical).

Some of you have stupendous pensions. Chapeaux.