If you are over 40…How big is your retirement pot?

[AnIndianWoman]

Just that really. If you’re over 40 how much have you earmarked for retirement? My pensions are approx 200k and I have another 200k in stocks and shares ISAs. Even then I won’t come close to the £50-60k a year income we will need in retirement and so can’t think of stopping working before 70.

I was thinking of investing more but not sure what size pot I should be aiming for. I’m 40.

retire at 60 (in 5 years time) I'll get about £19k a year pension with a £55k lump sum (I will have been teaching full time for 31 years then ) so it's not a massive amount as many people seem to think teachers get

This is a massive amount though- to buy an annuity on these terms would cost you well over half a million. People always underestimate the value of a DB pension.

Yes, I get that now. I was being a bit dense!

It happens to all of us 😁

I don’t have a pot as such as have defined benefits pension schemes (USS and LGPS). If I do maximum years service they will be about £50k combined and then state pension on top. DH will only have state but we should be around the £70k mark combined plus I have a BTL to cash in. I’m 45.

We are cash poor now but the future is ok.

I'm 60 and work pension is worth approx £300k. If my elderly mother doesn't have any care home requirements then I'll likely have another £200k from inheritance in the next few years.

58 yes old just shy of £1M, currently throwing everything in. Will probably retire in 2 years. Want to be on a beach somewhere.....

On average people aged 40 have around £30k in their pension (ONS), and to be on track for retirement they should have £75k.

Age Average pension pot
16-24 £2,700
25-34 £9,300
35-44 £30,000
45-54 £75,500
55-64 £107,300

Thank you to the few posters who have explained lgps, very helpful!

I'm 45 and have a little over £300k in DC pensions, about £110k in s&s ISAs and am mortgage free so currently throwing a decent amount extra in each month.

I'm 63 and have £630,000. I work part time..dh full time. We are downsizing in the next year...no mortgage so expecting about £200,000 spare after buying smaller property.
Lots of breaks planned and fun, before we can't. Dh has a much smaller pension pot.

ZERO.

Am piling as much money as I can into being able to buy a property first. Not a system that may not even benefit me.

No idea. I’d been paying into a final salary pension scheme for 10 years which was changed to an average salary pension scheme last year. Guess who will loose out most there? Oh yes, women who’ve taken time out to raise a family. I can’t for the life of me work out how much I’ll get in retirement. I suspect that’s done deliberately because I’m pretty financially literate. All I know is I pay a lot in every month.
I might inherit a very large sum of money. If I do that will probably go towards my pension. Then again, I might not!

Nil. Zero. Nada.

This terrifies me to the point off not sleeping as I have not clue how I will survive in old age, am full time carer to a complex needs child so had to give up career years ago and all the time I had invested just amounted to nothing now. Horrid feeling.

It's not an unreasonable question on the Investments board.
The competition for who has the worst pension fund is not good, people saving and planning their retirement should not be scoffed at and shamed. Anyone (who is able) should prioritise their pension IMO.
There's also nothing particularly abnormal about a £60kpa target expenditure, especially if you hope to travel. It's sensible to plan for a non-basic level of retirement income if you can.

For the OP though, what % of your income are you putting away? Do you have any spare disposable income? If you do, it would make sense to get the tax relief and up your contributions as much as you can for the foreseeable, putting a percentage of every pay rise away before you get used to it. Also check you are on track for a full state pension. If you want to retire earlier than SPA, do a spreadsheet with annual income needs year by year and see how much your pot needs to be. The FIRE movement is great for helping you find 'your number'. For me, I am less keen on the frugality to retire really early but you can cherry pick the parts useful to you.

Surely you get an annual statement from your pension? Otherwise how can you know if you’re on track & make plans for retirement.

You should have an annual statement that sets out the entitlements that you have built up so far. Do you mind saying which scheme it is? An average salary scheme is often quite staightforward to work out compared to a final salary scheme because the latter depends on the uncertainty of what your final salary will be. Moneysavingexpert's pension forum is a great resource for understanding your pension further, especially if it is one of the big schemes such as the TPS as lots of people will know the details.

Hi, what are unwrapped investments?
Do you mean funds not qualifying for tax relief?

Zero.

I've got approx £550k in a now frozen DB pension pot (at 40!). Will pay around £19k a year if I wait until 67, but if like to be done at 58 if I can. (value does fluctuate depending on markets!).
Now in a DS scheme too, which is projecting around £14k per year too.
My plan is mortgage free by 50 (would have been sooner but im a single parent household now) and then will look at how much more to add to my pot then.
righb now barring any disasters im looking comfortable and im forever grateful at 16 some very old guy at work told us bunch of apprentices who had no clue over pensions, all to tick the higher option on the pension form and treat it as money we have never seen.

I use an app that brings together all my financial stuff (accounts, pensions, investments etc). I haven’t been able to find an advisor I trust, but for now I’m at least on top of what I have, what I’m spending (and on what) and how it’s changing. The app also has a retirement modeller, which you can play around with. I don’t know how accurate it is but it’s definitely better than a complete stab in the dark.

What do those with higher end pensions think will happen re life time allowance if/when labour come in?

Does anyone else just not care about pensions? Both my parents (fit, heathy, non manual workers) died before they drew theirs and I'll probably do the same.

That's my retirement plan: death.

Late 50s here and about £1.4 million incl property investment (not incl. own home), private pensions and SIPP, ISAs, savings etc.
DH, a bit older, has the same.

And yes, we know we are very, very fortunate.

@ZonedIn would you mind saying what app it is? I've been thinking for ages that there should be something that brings it all together rather than me and my spreadsheets!

I'm 47 and have 55k. I increase my contributions annually and will increase them more when mortgage goes in 5 years. My DH has about 150k as his employers pay in more so overall I think we will be comfortable by the time we get there.