Worried about my pension prediction

[Suchagreedydoggo]

Does anyone else know what there's is and can compare?
Had three years out with Dd, but the rest i've worked.
I'm 48 and Chat help seems to be predicting (obviously can't be exact!) recieving around £1000 per month state pension, with a couple of hundred extra from private pensions, should also be able to downsize by age 67 and have some equity from that and have until then to get more, but does this seem enough?
Have a partner who does have a higher prediction but we're not married, so it won't count for anything will it?

Have you paid in a decent whack of your income since you started work? If not you can’t be surprised. Anyone with a DC pension needs to put away at least 15-20% a month if they have any expectation of a remotely comfortable retirement.

What sort of pensions do you have, DC or DB? If the former what's in the pots? Have you had forecasts from the providers.

You have 20 years to contribute. Where are you getting the predictions on the private pensions? Are they DB or DC? More info needed really.

Don’t rely on ChatGPT! Do you have the actual details of the pension schemes you have paid into and are paying into?

You mentioned private pensions but if you work/worked surely you also have workplace pensions.

I'm 66 and know exactly what mine is. It is impossible to compare because we don't know your salary, you pension fund type, your likely outgoings.

I suggest you google tight, moderate and comfortable retirement incomes and pay to see an independent financial adviser to achieve what you need between now and 67.

State pension is currently approx £240/wk - it will rise, as it is triple (maybe double in future) locked.
Private pension is difficult to advise on without any information and even then… difficult to predict cost of living in 20 years

Sorry I mean these are workplace pensions, couldn't edit my post!

DC or DB?

https://www.retirementlivingstandards.org.uk/

Not sure about your partners pension, that's something I don't know

But you need to look at what you spend and how much you need to cover the lifestyle you want. If you continue to work until you retire/complete the necessary years, which you will the current pension is £12,547 in today's money. In 20+ years when you hit state retirement age it will be more but that's not predictable.

So you need to work out how much you need, remember you won't be commuting to work or needed to buy work stuff and if you've downsized there's no mortgage

Personally I have a decent private pension but for me and my wife I am currently working on us needing £30k a year to live as we do now (I am retired and she is winding her business down and we are 58) I've not touched the pensions yet as we ar living off of savings/wife's income

What is the actual size of your workplace pension at the moment? How much do you pay in each month? Are any of your pensions defined benefit?

https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/building-your-retirement-pot

I need to look and have emailed them today-two past workplaces, I think 30k in one and 15k in the other-ish

Why are you using an AI to give you advice? It's not reliable and may give you totally incorrect information.

Go to the Gov.Uk website and check your state pension forecast and your pension contributions to date.

Your private pensions will also give you a prediction, either via a tool on their website or in your annual statement.

Your partner's pensions will be their income when you are both retired which will form their contribution to your household income, so that will "count". If you mean that you won't have any access to their pension should they (sadly) die, then that may be the case depending on how the pensions are set up and who they have nominated to receive the benefits in the event of their death. Ditto for your pensions should you pre-decease your partner.

As I said, I have no definitive figures yet, but on a prediction of possibly-£1200-1400 at present, no mortgage and equity from house-possibly a good amount-150-200 K
Will I be okay?!

Yes, with his too, we would lead a comfortable life I think, but anything could happen-separation etc, I just want to see if by myself, i'd be ok

You still have 20+ years to build your private/work pension.

Are you able to start paying extra into it? I started paying £150 p/m into a new private pension aged 40 as although my work pension is good I want to retire early, I increase it by 50% of whatever my annual payrise is so I don't really miss it.

Don’t forget you will have very minimal expenses because you won’t have rent or a mortgage to pay if you own outright.

You’ll be part of a two income household with partner too, so that will give you more comfort.

Unfortunately you are part of the generation that is going to be the poorest pensioners…it’s a problem but at least you have property equity.

Make a list of all of your outgoings that you will have during retirement and it should give you a bit more relief

If you separate, then your partner could change his pension nomination to not be you, so you would have nothing from his pension. You would also have to share the house equity as presumably you'd sell your shared house? So that would be less.

If your partner pre-deceases you and he doesn't have a will, you may not get what you think you might be entitled to, as you won't be a beneficiary of his estate, only your (his) children will be.

The first thing to do is check your state pension entitlement on the government website. Chatgpt cannot tell you what this is as it's personal to you. How many years more do you need to pay in in order to get a full state pension?

Then check what your workplace pensions are invested in. With 20 years to go, it would be sensible for these to be entirely or mainly in equities (eg a global equity tracker) NOT in the default fund (which is less volatile but will also grow less). With your long time horizon you don't need to worry about volatility yet.

Then look at what you pay in each month and whether you can increase it. If you post the amount on here people will be able to give you a very very rough idea of what you might have by retirement age and what that means in terms of income.

So you are looking at state pension, plus a modest amount from other pensions plus equity from downsizing of say £175,000 to be spread over 20ish years, that would give you £25,550 pa. If you think you need more to live comfortably then you know that you need to increase your pension contributions over the next 20 years.

It's not great atm, but if you can make changes now, you will ok.

First off find out how your workplace pensions are invested. Most are in the default fund, which is often low risk and low reward. Most workplace pensions will allow you to change the fund(s) you're invested in. I would go for a higher risk option until you're 5 years out from retirement. Do some reading around investing if you're new to that world.

Second, put more more in pcm than you currently are. Even £50 extra per month will make a difference over the next 20 years.

If you invest your savings/ capital from downsizing you can probably generate around £400 a month interest for each 100k , maybe more if higher risk.
We are thinking along the lines of needing less after aged 80 if we live that long Dh isn't in particularly good health. i think most older people do less after this age although you may need to factor in higher heating costs. You do need to consider what will happen if one of you dies. My dh has a lot better pension than I do but even if he died first and I got nothing form his pension ( unlikely ) I would still have just about enough to survive on ( state pension and around £500 a month NHS pension ).

Like others say I’d look at putting in extra. It’ll make a difference in 20 years. I’m 40 and in similar position with not a great pension but I’m planning on putting in extra each month.