Basic pension help

[moonstarsuns]

So I’m not very clued up on pensions, so with the FUND VALUE in the photo below, if I was retiring now for arguments sake, would that fund value figure be available every year or is that the total that i would have to live on out of this particular pension?

How much does your DH have in his pot? Is the idea that there will be enough for you both to live off?

Half your age as a percentage of earnings when you start properly contributing so if you are 42 now 21% of your gross if you were working is the general guidance. If not working then the max a year is £2880.

Presume that you claim child benefit which will give you NI credits until youngest is 12. Other benefits may also give credits. Do check though on the government gateway where you are with state pension forecast. Someone your age could need anything from 28 to 49 years of contributions / credits. The 35 years only applies to people who were born from 2000 onwards.

@moonstarsuns I also think you should also check your state pension entitlement. Usually you would need 35 qualifying years to qualify for full state pension but as PP says it could be anything from 28 to 49. You can check via Gov.uk and they will give you a forecast

For a full state pension you need 35 years contributions.

This is not correct for someone of OPs age. She will need anywhere between 28 and 49 years depending on her own personal circumstances before 2016. The 35 years only applies to people born from 2000 onwards.

I have a very similar Aviva pot. An employer paid in something tiny decades ago and it sat there not growing much for 20 years (due to it being in low risk investments with fees). I’m trying to put in £2880 a year from now on (£3600 added pa). It won’t be huge but it’s something. I have a small public sector pension too but not many years there.

As PP have said, the fund value is the total. You can withdraw that how you want - all at once, bits when you need it, or a regular income. If you go for the last option, the general advice is that for a normal length retirement you can safely withdraw 3%-4% a year without it running out.

Double checking your state pension should be your priority, you should find out how many qualifying years you need.

Are you claiming Carer's Allowance or Carer's Credit for the child you are a carer for? This will take care of your NI contributions and therefore State Pension. Being an unpaid carer is hard enough, but the fact it trashes any hope of a half decent retirement is unfair and terrifying.

OP here but under a different name now. So I’ve set up monthly payments of £50 a month and also just managed today to pay a one off £100 so I think
im
in the right direction

You can get a calculation on how much your state pension is likely to be in today's terms. I started work two weeks after my 16 birthday, gave up work at 34 (and have worked very much part-time in recent year, with no contributions). do not have a full state pension.

I think in all honesty, if you can find a public sector job and stick to it for the next 20 years, this is probably your best chance of having a reasonable retirement. There are a number of part-time options in the public sector. In addition, you'll probably need to contribute to your private pension also.

If there's any way you can up your contributions to £100 per month, that'll help. Also you should consider changing from the default fund to something a little more adventurous that is likely to grow faster. After all, with a 20-odd year horizon, you have time to ride out any drops in the market (which are typically only a couple of years long).

A quick run through a compound interest calculator (£5000 starting pot, £100 per month contributions, over 22 years) comes back with a value of £140,032.95 assuming 10% growth per annum. Now, to get that kind of growth, you'll need to be in a higher risk fund. 10% is a high assumption too, but the fund I'm in has done around 26% in the last year alone, so maybe £140k isn't an impossible target.

Ideally, if you can reach a few hundred thousand at state pension age, then you're going to be fine. What's the situation with your partner's pension? can you both live off that?

What are these type of investments called please?

ok so if you log on to your pension provider's website, you'll find the different funds you can have your pension pot invested in. There will be information on performance etc to help you make a decision. Obviously past performance is not indicative of future returns, but you'd be well advised to go on Youtube and watch some videos from people like Reeves Financial, James Shack, Damien Talks Money etc.

All the information you could ever need is out there, and tons of it is easily digestible via youtube.

Thank you for replying. My pension is nhs so not relevant for this.

Was just thinking it would help as worried about retiring as a single person who rents!

No problem, I don't know anything about NHS pensions, so i'm going to jump out of this conversation, but what I would suggest is just comparing what AVC's in that pension do for your future compared to putting them into a private pension.

Good luck!

@LoveSkaMusici unfortunately can only stretch to £50 at the moment however the odd month or so I may be able to pay in small extra amounts so £20 here or there so I guess that’ll help too