How much do you have in your pension pot and is it a priority after having children?

[virgo]

I've only got £35k in my penison pot after having worked for 15 years and its going to be an uphill battle to get it to the amount which could provide enough to live on in retirement. I've started contributing again fro the first time in 3 years. How's everyone going to manage when they get old or are you planning to rely on your partner (if you have one) to have a good pension?

My parents have promised to die in time.

my mother will die which will leave me something. i will invest in property with it, pay mortgage til i'm 65. sell it, live in a one bedroomed flat and work in macdonalds for pin money. with any luck dh may die leaving me not such a hefty food bill

Custy.......

I am on DH's laptop, I very nearly sprayed red wine..................

Nothing and am never likely too.

What amount are you supposed to aim for then ??? Serious question as I haven't a clue.

not sure but logged onto some pension caluclator and even if I save loads and have a pension pot of £360k it only gives you about £12k a year....if you're lucky

Nothing. Can't afford to save.

I stand to inherit a decent amount, but I think the idea that a HUGE segment of the population, much of it with costly health issues, is supposed to sit around and not work for 30 years is a failed social experiment of the late 20th century.

In other words, there's no way that's going to be able to continue for most of us when we hit 65.

Best to plan on changing careers and taking a path which will allow me to work until I cannot anymore.

Because that's reality, folks.

I also do NOT want to live to 100 or whatever the fuck.

Message withdrawn

We both have good pensions, stand to inherit a fair bit. We will move, possibly emigrate to somewhere cheaper andI could also do supply work I guess odd days.

big fat nothing! i keep getting letters from the inland rev telling me i owe them £270 odd if i want a full pension.

I'm with custy's plan

I'm just waiting for my parents to die

Guess I have a better chance to get a hefty amount by buying lottery tickets than by saving....

Anyways, we have been specultaing with property since many years ago, according to DH that and his shares in the company are enough to pay for an early retirement [ha ha ha ]. No... more seriously, we plan to leave nothing to DS other than his education, so what we have got so far would be enough.

And no, my father, being a lawyer, said, many years ago after just dealing with a inheritance case, that the best inheritance he was going to leave to me and my sister was... nothing! so we at least had each other than fight each other for what was left so... I'm not expecting anything in that front

I should inherit some money later on which will come from sale proceeds which I have to split with my sister, which should be a nice little bit. I will just put that in savings as I do not believe in pensions to be honest. I have a couple of employee-based pensions that have been frozen which are not really worth anything. My DH and I have been investing in some savings plans with Axa Sunlife, we save between 10 and 40 per month and in fifteen years you get a tax-free lump sum between 3k and 10k obviously depending on how much you pay and what the rate of return is. We have three on the go at the moment, the first comes out in 8 years and we plan to spend that on a dream holiday but the others we plan to put away for retirement and we shall do probably about another 3-4 plans over the next couple of years and see how we do. I think pensions are not worth the paper they are written on and I doubt very much the Government pension will be worth anything when I retire in 25-30 years!

I have np pension and no state entitlement except for the chunk that has been paid for since having dd1 5 yrs ago. If there is a state pension when I retire I will help the welfare bill by dying of shock.

My father has incured his pensions for 10 years which is wise. He worked until he was 77 but is forced by law to draw them at 75. My ex father in law is still working at 82 a fwe days a week. I think their investment in careers they adored was probably the better pension provision they made although they both have other provision and when my mother died my father has got her private pension too for I think about 3 more years.

But you can't know how you will be and how long you may live and anyone expect inheritance might find a future government imposed IHT where assets say exceed £100,000 at 80% or something, you never know or the parents might leave it to the cat's home.

I think the plan is retirement at 68 for most of us for the state pension is the latest plan unless you're much older than I am. It may even be up to 70 in 30 years' time.

Reliance on future inheritance is a risky business for all the reasons Xenia described. A common scenario is when one or both parents fall ill and require long term care, which frequently consumes the equity in the property. And isn't it our parents' right to enjoy their old age with whatever savings they have accumulated over their working life eg holidays?

Do all of us intend to leave something to our children?

Well, dh will get his Army pension for his full service, and hopefully also have a 2. pension form his next career, and hopefully, soon I will have my own career again and a bit of pension from that, and who knows, we may inherit something, too...but it is a scary prospect...but for now we just don't have anything to save...although, for the first 8 years of marriage we probably could have saved a bit, but now that we have a morgage...it's all been eaten up, sigh!

And this Government hasn't help much by making such an amusing mess of things and changing and then rechanging rules in an incredible way sometimes within a year. and one of their best - if you save nothing we pay you £200 a week when you're retired or whatever but if you save all your life and never go out and scrimp and save then you don't get it. Wow what an incentive. Clever lot the labour party....

My father intended to work until he died but dementia mean he had to retire about 15 months ago. His day and night care is costing and fortune. Despite his substantial pensions he will be through his savings entirely before we know it if he's not very careful although we will of course support him. perhaps being nice to your children is the best way to ensure a pension! It's the traditional way in many countries.

I'm not likely to inherit anything but have been in the NHS pension scheme for 10 years and with a bit of luck will stay in it for another 22 years, so should be OK. Dp isn't in a scheme - has got the odd year here and there, so we have to hope the NHS scheme stays as it is, i.e. quite good, or hope one of the ds's (a) gets rich and (b) is still speaking to us..!