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?

Gosh, I don't blame you for panicking. That's not good at all. What are you going to do??

Do you share ownership of the house?
Did you always contribute to a pensioner scheme?
Are they his children?

Should we marry to gaurantee this

Well it depends how much you spend / anticipate spending of course.

If you can live happily on £1500pm, you are fine. If you need £2500pm, you are not.

And don't forget you have around 20 more years to improve your position, and it's a period when your housing and childcare outgoings would generally be lower and income at its highest.

Are you serious 🥲

It's definitely worth paying in as much as you can afford while you're still working, even if you cut back in other places.

You'll be grateful later on.

Yes we share 50/50
mortgage, only £100 K left, worth just under 500 k
Dd is his

It is suggested u take 4% of your pension pot a year
A state pension plus £200 a year will be around 1200 a month
I think that is nowhere near enough
If I were you I would stop holidays buying coffee in costa etc put off anything in the home that is not urgent and throw money into your private pension you still have plenty of time
THIS IS VITAL you still have time #DOP NOT TAKE THIS LIGHTLY

If you don't want to get married or have a civil partnership, then you'd need to look at wills and the detail of your particular circumstances. That won't address the inheritance tax issue, which is a benefit that married spouses and civil partners benefit from.

If you did split up, there is nothing stopping your ex-DP redoing his will immediately to exclude you totally which is a different situation to a legal divorce/dissolving a CP where shared assets are considered.

It's not great at all, but you still have time.
You can do the calculations for a private pension yourself:

• Take your existing pot.
• Add on how much you'll be paying into it this year.
• Add 5% of this total, back onto the total.
• Repeat this for each year between now and retirement. That will give you the total pot amount.
• Calculate 4% of that. That will give you your annual income from the pot.

In your circumstances I'd be getting married.

I have found the calculator on retirecalc.uk really useful, which allows you to put in far more detail about pensions and savings than the ones you get on pension provider website, and to easily try out different scenarios like changing your retirement age or paying more into your pension and so on.

I used livingto100.com to give an estimate of my life expectancy.

https://www.retirecalc.uk/

🤣 I think you just blew the minimal cover you had.

Never mind the income, what do you have going out?

You can live on thrup-ence hay-pnee if you have no mortgage, an energy efficient sensibly sized home and don't plan on 3 holidays a year.

Where did she mention holidays and Costa? 🙄

You are 48. You expect to receive full state pension.

Are you currently working? Speak to them about work place pension.

If not, look at MSE or money helper to start with. Educate yourself. Don't believe or trust the first person you meet. Learn about investing, pensions, tax. Learn about what happens if you separate and value of house etc

Then start making decisions.

No. You don't have a lot in your pensions. But equity in your property is decent. You have another 20 years to work. It's not all doom and gloom. But, the best time to start to learn is today

Yes, have been thinking this, I mean we have been together since we were 18! What other benefits will there be if we do?

What do you mean?

There will be no mortgage or rent, there will be savings from the house and Dp's wage-in a perfect situation, we'd be ok, but I wanted to check if it was just me. The internet seemed to tell me I was in a very good position, so I'm quite confused!

@Suchagreedydoggo this is quite a clear summary of the differences between being unmarried partners and being married/CP -

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/living-together-marriage-and-civil-partnership/living-together-and-marriage-legal-differences/

Definitely get married. I was surprised to receive nearly £2k extra a year on my state pension because of DH’s state pension when he died. It was probably to do with him opting out of stuff back in the day but it’s very much welcome.

You need to find out what type of workplace pensions you have - are they defined contribution or defined benefit? From there you can start getting some proper advice and it will also give you more context about the size of your “pot”. You should be getting an annual statement from your pension providers setting out the details of the pension and any growth.

I would get married or have a civil partnership; makes everything easier regarding finances, pensions etc.

State pension is not really considered enough to live on comfortably. But if you have two state pensions plus two workplace pensions plus equity plus no mortgage you should be good.

It does all depend on the type of lifestyle you want to lead in retirement.

We can't possibly say if you'll be OK or not. It looks like you will be on something like 29k a year in today's money. If you want to take 6 cruises a year and weekly spa appointments, you will obviously struggle. If you have no mortgage and expensive tastes, it seems fine for a single person.