AIBU to think DP needs a pension?

[onceisneverenough]

Tonight I have been trying to talk about money with my other half. I have decided to start paying into a private pension.

He firmly believes that he does not need a pension because he is going to be rich....

He doesn't have a degree or come from money (neither me nor him will inherit anything at all as both or our parents are in rental/low income). He just thinks that one day lots of money will fall into his lap. I think he is being foolish and naive to think like this, and even if somehow he did manage to make a substantial amount of money he would still need to think about investing in his/our future.

We are both in our mid 20's and we don't have any DC together, we are engaged. I would just like to feel more secure by having things like this in place for the future.

Am I thinking too seriously about this?
He says "I have plenty of time" Is that true? I can't help but thinking that really he should be doing something now.

I think he's living in Cloud Cuckoo land. He needs some kind of provision for the future. He doesn't have 'plenty of time' the longer you leave starting saving for retirement, the bigger the sum you need to put into the pot each month.

The sooner you start paying into a pension the better. Money that is paid in when you're 25 has 35-40 years to grow. If you don't start until you're 35 the money only has 25-30 years to grow, and because of the gains compounding it makes a huge difference. He needs to get a reality check and realise that money doesn't just drop from the sky.

Can I also add that differences in attitudes over money are a huge source of conflict in marriages so think hard before you marry him.

YANBU to think about retirement planning. Whether that's a traditional pension, investments, savings, property or something else depends on you as an individual, how much you can afford and what you want to achieve but it's really sensible to think about it sooner rather than later.

My DH was always neurotic about saving for a pension - and thank God, he was. He retired a couple of years ago (was working part-time for some of that) and we are comfortably off, ie we have enough money to carry on as we did before he retired.

One of the best things we did, however, was to log our expenditure for about four years before that - ie we had (in fact still have) a diary and every last bit of expenditure goes in that; once a month he puts it on a spreadsheet on the laptop. We can tell exactly what we spent in whatever month and how much it has changed in that time.

I know you are young (oh to be in my twenties again), but it's a good way of keeping control of your spending.

Good luck with persuading him, by the way - you sound very sensible.

Rule of thumb is that money paid into to pension before you are 35 is the most valuable bit of the pension. I started at 25 and because of this at 35 I could afford for pension to purchase premise that my business pays rent for. Pension now worth three times what it was 5 years ago. None of this would have been possible if I hadn't started paying at 25.