Clueless about my pension(s)

[Crochetcrochetcrochet]

I should start by saying I'm not like this in any other area of my life, but over the last year or so I've become a bit concerned about my pension provision but (and I'm being utterly genuine here) have no idea what to do.

I'm 41, married, have 2 children and was made redundant from my last job whilst on maternity leave with DS1. We decided I wouldn't go back to work until DS was in school - he was premium and very poorly for the first 6-9 months. He's 4 now and we've just had DS2. We're thinking I might go back to work before he's 2 depending on nursery provision then.

I'd worked full time since graduating and paid into 3 workplace pensions - 3 jobs over 16 years of working. I've never done anything with any pension after leaving my jobs and am not sure what, if anything I should do with the funds, or how I would go about starting to do so.

Also, should I have a private pension? All I know about those is that my mother's was reduced to pennies in the 80s.

I'm mortified to sound like such a complete idiot but just have never thought beyond ensuring I'm paying in what I can to something.

All help appreciated, but I know I've been stupid, I'd be really thankful if you didn't point that out. Thanks in advance.

Workplace pensions are private pensions. The state pension is based on your national insurance contributions.
Other than that, make sure you keep records of the different pensions that you have. You could also speak to a professional adviser to see if it’s possible/worth combining them into one so you don’t end up with too many pensions in retirement.

You've been paying in and you're only 41. Don't panic, you've got time to figure this out now. If I were you I'd:

1. get yourself to the moneysavingexpert site, do some Googling and give yourself a crash course in pension basics

2. gather together the details of all your and DH's pensions, including what sort they are, how much you've got in there, what you're paying in, and what their fees are

Sorry, currently pumping and my phone slipped and posted.

3. use an online calculator and play around to see different predications for the future. How much money could you get? How much would you need?

4. if you feel courier at this point make whatever changes you think best, bit of at all unsure, seek out an advisor

You might decide to combine pensions to reduce the fees or to make it easier to track, but unless the pensions are special in some way (e.g. defined benefits) it won't make a difference to you once your annuity is bought and you're retired. (I used pensionbee to combine mine, just to make tracking easier. Similar services probably exist.)

If you don't work you're pretty limited in how much you can put into a pension. It's about 3k a yearish (off the top of my head). But you can carry forward allowances from some years when you did work. I think it's unfair because it's pushing people into focusing on the earner's pension, but hey.

Hi,

If you are not working it is important to check your position with Child Benefit. Even if not receiving Child Benefit it is necessary to claim it to accrue NI credits towards your state pension.