to not want to put money in DH pension and not mine?

[yellowcuptea]

Okay - so DH & I together 20 years, 2 kids. Have had the usual ups and downs.

DH is in highest earner bracket so puts a lot in pension as it's tax efficient. I earn about a third of what DH does. I went part-time for kids, took a hit on promotions, didn't pay into pension in maternity etc. but DH was free to go for big jobs.

DH has close to £1m in pension, I have a quarter of that. DH is now suggesting I basically drop my pension contributions to minimum, we put more of DH money in his pension, and use more of my salary to live off. More tax efficient.
Then when I'm 55 we take the 25% out of my pension that's allowed too.

AIBU that this makes me feel really uncertain?? I don't like the idea that my pension will be worth so much less! DH of course is saying, but it's OUR money at the end of the day and even if we split, pensions are a shared asset so I'd still benefit.

YABU - it's family money. Use your salary to live on and save more in DP pension

YANBU - you should both have separate pensions, and you should be paying more into yours not less...

Not necessarily and of course if he dies first you would only get a percentage. Definitely worth topping your own pension up.

MIL only got 50% of FIL's work pension on his death.

DON'T DO IT!
It won't be tax efficient for him when the budget comes out. If he has £1m in his pension pot he won't get tax relief for much longer.
Also it's generally a bad idea for a 5% saving! He will pay more tax when he takes it out anyway so not even tax efficient!

Yes, been reported on regularly by the Sunday Times' money section too.

@yellowcuptea think he is being a chancer!

If it were more tax efficient, I would.

It depends on the type of pension.
A DC pension (pot of money) is inherited.
A DB pension (promise to pay according to a set of rules) generally has a 'survivors' pension like your mother's 50% but each scheme has different rules, there is no single answer.

Not in a million.

I'm a divorcee and pensions were kept off the table despite huge inequalities (yes I had a barrister, the judge just refused to take them into account).

So don't assume anything.

DC pensions- depends what you’ve done with it. If you bought an annuity, whether it pays out to anyone else depends on the terms.

In that position my h topped up my pension so it was more equal to his. Why doesn't yours do that?

What's he generally like with money?

Noted!

The point is for DH to pay less tax by putting into pension. If DH put post tax money into my pension, that would be nice but tax relief is gone?

The answer is - generous. It’s always been our money even though I contribute less financially to the household and DH pays more,
much more. Rarely been made to feel that it’s anything less than equal. Though I hadn’t realised just how big DHs pension was til recently.

He’s well above the £125k

Well, then it makes a lot of sense to put money in to his pension.

This is what we did (although my husband was only a 40% tax payer), but our finances are completely intertwined so it did not bother me.

Ours are too, but I suppose I’m worried about in 10/15 years time…

I am reasonably sure you get the tax benefits by paying into a pension, it doesn’t have to be your own.

so it makes no difference if he pays into yours rather than his. In fact it can be more advantageous paying into yours as yours is lower.

i’ve had a quick google which seems to agree. Not an expert though.

ETA we work the other way, we live off my salary and put dh’s into his pension. I am the higher earner, dh took the paycut to be around for the teens. I also have a public sector pension. Tax wise it doesn’t appear to make a difference whose pension we pay into.

What are you worried about? After that length of marriage, you will be entitled to half his pension won't you?

This is the first thing you need to know

You can't elect for anybody but spouse to get a widow or widower pension

@yellowcuptea - you would get tax relief on any contributions to your pension, no matter where the money comes from.

Agree that you need to see a financial advise for all-round financial advice, though.

You should be considering the tax both on payments into the pension as well as payments out.

It seems as though as marginal increases to his pension will be taxed at 40% or more. What will your pension be taxed at? There may be uncertainty but I suspect there will be a future tax benefit for you to have a higher pension taxed at a lower rate than your husband.

You can if it’s a defined contribution pension (which is what most people have nowadays in
the private sector).

If you have used the funds in the pension to buy an annuity, yes correct, it’s only your spouse who can receive this

Don't put everything in his pension.

I know an older couple who did this, planned to live on one very healthy pension together to the end.
He now is in a nursing home with dementia but very healthy, not going anywhere any time soon. All of the pension was his name and is being used to fund him as having so much makes him not eligible for much of anything and she is left living on her state pension only and things are tight for her.
Lesson learned her daughters and their husbands are now making sure to split the pensions they are paying into to make sure bother have money in their names so this doesn't happen to them.

He must be coming close to his lifetime limit? Makes more sense to shore up your pension given it's so low, when it comes to withdrawal your tax burden will be lower. Anyhow that's what we are doing - building my pension up - dh has stopped paying into his pension.