To think I am fucked for retirement?

[Realstudd]

despite a decent job and income, I am absolutely rubbish at anything financial. I don’t understand pensions etc.

i became a single parent last year and I have one dc, 9. I am 42. I have 3k in savings but these are used for car stuff or emergencies and never get beyond 3k.

i looked at my pension pot the other day and it says 2,400… I’ve been paying in for over 9 years, 8 percent of my salary. My salary has always been over 35k and for a few years has been over 50. I don’t get how the pot can be so low?

the only positive is I have 140k left on my mortgage which I overpay so could be paid off in 6 years. But what good is that really if I can’t afford the bills! I feel like an idiot for not having planned ahead, I guess I will lose my home and have to go into rented to pay bills when older? What do people do? I go from feeling insanely stressed about it to accepting that that’s just how it is but I can’t picture my future anymore. What do you do in this situation?

You have another 25 years to make contributions. I assume the £2400 is what it is worth now.

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Check pension pot today. Doesn't sound much after so many years. Instead of overpaying mortgage add to your pension.

I'm not great at this stuff either, but those are a few thoughts.

If you're paying £2k a month on your mortgage could you not lower the overpayment and put the rest into savings to get you above £3k? Balance it a bit more.

@Janedoe82 but after paying in over 9 years how can it only be that? What was the point

@LittleBirdd i could do I was just focused on the mortgage. Impressed you worked out my monthly payments by the way!!

You need to ring them to understand. Do you mean it’s a projected 2400 a month?

Are you sure that is the pot and not the predicted annual income?

Are you sure that figure isn’t them modelling what your pot might pay out per annum? (I’m assuming you’re in a defined contribution scheme.)

Do you have an advisor through work that you can speak to? We had a ‘contact’ from the pension provider would help us and answer any questions in my last job.

Also I think the figure you’re seeing might the predicted yearly pay out based on what’s currently in the pot? Not the total amount.

I'd double check that amount it doesn't seem right.

But you've still got years left to pay more in. Plus you'll be mortgage free by the time you retire so why on earth would you switch to rented?

Is the amount you have quoted from your pension the predicted pension amount/year?

It doesn't sound like it can be the value of your pension OP?

Pensions work on compound interest. Run your figures through the NEST pension calculator to get a ball park of what it will be worth at 67- will be much more.

@Flossyts it just says pot value is 2400 on my online banking?

£2400 doesn’t sound correct- you should query that.

Has your company moved pension provider and you possibly have another larger pot with a different policy? You need to see if you have annual statements and work out what's happening with your contributions. You can't surely only have £2400 after 8 years.

@AwesomeThanks oh so it could be it means I would get 2400 a year on retirement? It still is nothing though is it …

2400 is how much you’ll get every year, right? It’s expensive to save to get income! I think they expect people to claim for 20 years and you need a LOT put by to get a income for that long

@Snoopsteandcooper i have worked at 3 companies over this time. How can I trace them? God I feel stressed!

Do you have a defined benefit or a defined contribution pension?

@YouLookLikeStevieNicks because won’t I need to free up some money to live off? I can’t pay heating bills etc on nothing and I have no savings and minimal pension

@Parky04 sorry I have no idea what that means

I am assuming that is the amount per year, without even looking at growth the pot should be at least 25k.

I am 40 and work for the NHS so my pension terms are pretty good. Even then I only increase my pension annuity by about 800 in a tax year. I have 28 years to go so that makes the total pot worth about 25k plus state pension. I am hoping it will increase with the rate of inflation...
If your employer contributes minimally, it sounds as though you still should be adding about £500 annually so that's 17k plus state pension. Not a huge amount but not peanuts either. That's probably well over 2k before tax.

What's the £2400 figure?

If you've paid in 12 months a year for 9 years that's nearly 120 months.

I'm pretty sure you've paid more than £20 a month into your pension?! (That's if they are saying that's the total you've paid in?!)

It's difficult because the my predict yearly sum out over so many years.

So it never seems as much as you expect.

But usually there's a lump sum and then a monthly or annual amount to be paid?

I'm guessing you also have enough NI credits for state pension too?

If you think you'd have paid off your mortgage in 6 years you can have a look at private pensions with that "freed money". I'd look at paying less and up your current rainy day savings too if you can.

This might help with tracing:

https://www.gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details

Get a pension advisor once you've traced and talk about the possibility or viability of moving it all to one pot.

I would seriously consider putting more in your pension and overpaying your mortgage less. But I'm not a financial advisor and a good one of them, might be a good bet also.

Plenty of help if you find a good independent advisor.