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.

Umm, well we had a lot between us, a couple of years ago, it was enough to retire on. Stock market has crashed since, lost tens of thousands, so have to work longer. Nothing is ever guaranteed.

I’m interested in knowing where people think their costs will drop in retirement. Mortgage, when paid off, commuting... But unless and until we downsize I’m not sure that we will be spending a lot less - if anything in some instances I think our costs may go up unless we are careful as we will have more free time. Just curious? I don’t want to work longer for a gold plated retirement necessarily but in my current phase of life (with adult children) I haven’t noticed huge reductions - was hoping to see the food bill drop but col has wiped that out.

Having been in several nursing homes spanning a range of cost - no.

There is a big difference in provision of elderly care (at home and m in nursing homes) and frankly the more money you can throw at the problem, the better it is.

If I don’t need it, someone else can have it.

I'm 46 and have $300k and plan to stop working at 65ish. My husband has $800k though so I'm not too worried. We save the max allowed in our company schemes. I'm in the US and social security benefits (retirement) are generous - our state pension will be about $6k a month between us.

I'm sorry, that sounds really stressful.

Yes, same here.

Yes to a certain extent. I hope to live a long life but I don't want to scrimp and scrape and suffer in my younger years for something I may never use anyway.

I took early retirement. I'm 62 now. I get about £9k a year for life from Teachers Pensions. This is index linked so will rise with inflation. I got a lump sum of almost £28. I also get a £6k a year annuity from my additional pension. So £15k per annum but when I'm 67 I'll get a full state pension about £11k. I also get rental income from 10 btl properties plus DH still works full time and does not want to retire yet. He is coming up to 59. DH pension will be over £24k per annum index linked for life if he retires at 60. If he decides to work on it will rise by about £1500 a year. Plus £72k lump sum or more if works past 60. He also has a tiny amount about £22k in a pot from years ago he could draw down but he'd pay higher rate tax after 25 percent. DH will also get full state pension at 67 of £11k. Our mortgage is paid and we have savings and a holiday home that is paid for. I know we have plenty for what we need. DH and I both gift each of my DC £1k per year under gifting scheme and £250 each for both of 2 DGS's.

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I’m 36 and have £250k in mine and aiming for £400k by 40, so similar to you OP.

I was feeling pretty positive about that as an amount and was planning to retire at 62/63. We will be mortgage free at 55 unless we extend the term. DH’s pension is tiny so I’ve been assuming this will
provide a reasonable income for us both. I can’t see why you need £60k pa if you are mortgage free (and no longer making pension contributions!)

Thank you @ZonedIn

It’s to cover both of us as DH’s retirement plan is to currently die before me lol. Seriously though his pension is miniscule. So mine will need to cover both of us.

If they are individual pots. This is to cover income for 2.

Is he a similar age to you OP? Surely he's got enough time to improve his situation if so? Even if planning to retire as a couple it's surely best to make sure that each indvidual has decent provisions - it's more tax efficient and a better safety net if the other runs off into the sunset!

We are late 50's now, two DD's. So in the last few years, mortgage paid off, no more private school fees. DD1 now completely self sufficient, so not paying for education, or for car insurance or phone. DD2 still at uni, but only for another year, on minimum loan we are paying up to maximum, so the extra £8.5k per year will go, as will the £1k we pay for car insurance, and small extra's like phone etc.

Those all add up to HUGE savings for us. We also will now keep our 8 year old cars until they die, don't use much petrol as WFH. So only need to fund "living" expenses.

It’s to cover 2 of us and I had my DC late so it’s to support them too. I don’t want to rely on state pension

Yes he is. He’s trying but his pension won’t really amount to more than 2-3k a year. He’s currently using all his spare income to overpay the mortgage.

So you can downsize and that will release equity.

Unless you’re on a shitty rate it would be worth investing in his pension. The tax breaks are better

My financial adviser says that they will likely bring it back but to keep an eye on things as it may be worth drawing some extra ££££ down now if that were the case in advance of the assessment at 75. Who knows though!

Hi, I put 25% of my pretax income into my pension (employer pays 17%). I invest approx 40% of my post tax income and save the rest (DH pays mortgage and bills).

This is why I invest in an ISA too. My retirement savings are across both pensions and ISAs and I’m building a cash pot as don’t have much of one.

Why don’t you split the mortgage so your DH can pay more into his pension?

Wow this is impressive! How did you build the property part? I toyed with the idea of taking some money to buy property in the UK but prices are so high right now that I wouldn’t be able to afford it even if I took all my investments out.

I am mid 50s & my pension pot is currently about £180k. I can live pretty cheaply, don't want to retire until age 75, so am satisfied it will all work out.

Need to search thread to find out why OP needs £50k annual after retirement.

Your comment prompted me to check, as while I thought the OPs pension value seems reasonable, I had no idea what the average was. I can’t find an average, but there’s a median number in table 6.10, row 46, of some ONS data for all people with pension savings.

And it says that (albeit it for the period 2018 - 2020) that the median private pension fund value was £30,600 for 35-44 year olds with a pension. Which was surprisingly low to me.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/datasets/pensionwealthwealthingreatbritain