AIBU for sacking off pension contributions in anticipation of large inheritance?

[minormajor]

If you knew you would be getting a large (c.£1m) inheritance, would you bother paying into a pension at all or prioritising retirement savings if you are on a lowish income?

Dh & I are 52, both self employed ticking along nicely but far from flush and didn’t start paying into a pension until our 40’s & even then minimal amount as that’s all we could afford.
Our kids are older: one at uni one working/training so we’ve both taken on more work and finally in a position to save so naturally thinking about increasing our pension contributions.

Parents are 80 & 81 in pretty good health and I have a sibling who would be joint beneficiary. Inheritance could be 15/20 years off if parents live as long as their parents did and I’ve accounted for IHT and potential care home fees on the £1m estimate. No inheritance on DH’s side.

AIBU : make your own retirement provisions don’t rely on inheritance or
YANBU there’s a decent inheritance coming your way so no need to prioritise your pension

I would never, ever assume that I would get any inheritance at all..... let alone of a specific amount. Anything could happen.
Just pay into your pension, OP, and stop with the greedy assumptions.

DH and I inherited nearly £500,000, we are in our 60’s retired, with 1 on State Pension and 2 small private pensions, we’ve already spent £150,000 on just living, no big holidays, small house renovation.

As you have been discussing inheritance with your parents - are you sure they are making full use of the gifts exemption? The one everyone tends to forget is regular gifts from income. If they are in good health now but have no desire to spend all their money they could be giving more away - but stop that when or if one needs more care.

So while they are focusing on their grandchildren they may still have the ability to contribute small but regular amounts into your pension if they wished to do so.

I’d still pay pension contributions.

Personally, I’m not doing much in the way of saving for retirement. As callous as it sounds, DH is going to get some money from his mum’s passing, eventually. My parents (while not exceptionally wealthy) have about 10 rental properties that they’ll probably split them up between me and my two younger brothers in their will.

I figure if DH dies before me (which is the most likely scenario) I’ll be left with a couple million in assets and should be able to live out the rest of my life on minimal income from whatever job I’ll do when DD becomes school age, savings, sale of assets, life insurance payouts, and interest from investments.

I should be able to pay off the mortgage on the house we currently own, and we have a well and a solar roof, and I’m trying to get it so I can source all my food from my garden, kept animals, and hunting. My car is electric and paid off. That should leave only expenses like car insurance and repairs (though we have a family friend that usually does that for free for us), clothing (which I hardly spend any money on anyway) toiletries, oil for heating, septic changes, and things for my DD/her eventual DC (hopefully!)… Am I missing anything? I plan to keep myself in good condition as long as possible to avoid needing care, and to hire it if needed. I don’t expect DD to stunt her own life to care for me.

DH has an account set up with funds for DD’s higher education, though my education wasn’t paid for by my parents and I’m not inclined to pay for DD’s, so I’m not contributing to that, either.

If I die before him/our relatives, well… I’ll be dead.

Can things go wrong? Sure. I feel like it’s worth the risk to just enjoy my life in the meantime, though, instead of stressing about saving for retirement.

^ This. I too am seeing this around me. 80/90 year olds are outliving their children, or the children are dying very shortly after the parents. One colleague retired at 65 to look after her 85 year old mother. Mother got pneumonia, daughter cared for her until mother needed to be admitted to hospital with it. A week later the daughter died of.... pneumonia. This was 5 years ago. Mother is still going strong. Another friend of a friend's dad finally died at 103. 6 months later his 73 year old daughter, who'd cared for him right up to the end, died of the cancer she'd been hiding from him.

I work in a care home and it has several married couples living there. That would cost £13k a month. Care homes fees go up by 5% at least every year. Never rely on inheritance as a financial safety net.

Speaking from experience of what I am going through now don't rely on inheritance if you have siblings no matter how well you think you know them or how close you are

My dm will was equal between me and dsis we had both had poa not registered with the bank. Found out dsis had been helping herself to dm money tried to broach the subject nicely advised could be see as deprivation of assets she may get in trouble I thought the matter was resolved and all was ok. Dsis has blocked me and my dc excluded us from dm care and family events although we did used to go round to see dm until she stopped inviting us in the house the locks had already been changed by dsis she has convinced dm to remove me as poa activated with the bank done an equity release on dm house when I asked dm if she had changed her will she said she thinks she has and it should go to the person looking after her which obviously is now only dsis as I've been excluded
Dm house has been cleared and now being rented out I had to hear from a neighbour she has moved in with Dsis probably so dsis can get the rental income
Ss passed to the police I reported it to opg who took a year to assign it to an investigator who doesn't seem to have done anything and neither the police or ss will do anything as it's with opg so she will get away with it

Thankfully due to pil going into care we haven't relied on inheritance as know it isn't guaranteed ironically dsis used to tell my dc everything goes to her and when they corrected her shunlike dsis who has an interest only mortgage with no endowment and 2 other mortgages to pay