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?

I have a pension with the comapny that I currently work with, but I get made redundant at the end of March so will freeze that one.

Intend to get an NHS one when I become registered- If i ever complete the bloody course.

Job I went for interview today, im positive about getting it, so will no doubt set up a pension with them also.

Dp has a good pension scheme through work.

Im TERRIFIED of having no money as an OAP, it distresses me when I see old people too poor to eat or heat their houses.

Wome have an appalling record in the UK of burying their head in the sand and not doing anything about pensions and many do live in poverty when they retire. They live longer than men and virtually always end up alone. They often take the cash on divorce rather than a pension sharing order too which long term is not always the best choice.

DH has two cracking company pensions, I have two company pensions - one frozen and one a 2/3 final salary scheme. I am also paying £100/month into an AVC to top up my pension.

Also have ISAs, and an endowment, plus a nice lump sum that matures when DH is 50.

we both have good company pensions. it's something i have always taken seriously even before children.

i may stand to inherit a large amount, however i'm not counting on it as who knows what may happen, if elderly relatives need to pay for care etc.

Xenia, hasn't that rule about State pension ALWAYS been the case through sucessive govts? You can't blame the Labour Government for everything that is wrong with pensions. At least now you can save up to 100% of your earnings towards a pension, not limited to 15% like it was before. And labour introduced low cost stakeholder pensions. Before that, private pension schemes were poorly performing, badly managed, expensive to run and IFA's that recommended them completely at random in order to get nice fat commissions.

I am 33 and I have been paying into a 2/3 final salary pension for the last 11 years. Theoretically I should be able to retire at 62 on 2/3 of my salary, which when combined with DH's pension should give us our current standard of living (bearing in mind our mortgage has 15 years to go and we will have no childcare costs ). But what are the chances of a) me still working for this company and b) the final salary pension scheme still being in operation - it has already closed to new joiners? Also because I have only worked 3 days/week for the last 5 years they only count as 3/5 year, so that already bumps me up to having to work until I am 64 to get it.

I've got, erm, I think about £0 when last I looked.

Ginger, the Tories, Lawson I think, introduced the cap on the total amount you could contribute. Then Labour raided the pension funds with the huge ACT change which was really the start of the rot for many schemes. Perhaps the latter was the worst change. Then women used to get their pensions at 60 but that's going up to 65 and then 68 although they can still force you to retire you even if don't want to at 65.

I was also thinking baout things like they said you could put residential property in your pensino, people did and then about 3 months later they changed the rules. Then they said you didn't hbave to draw the pension adn could leave it to your relatives - people set up arrangements to take advantage of that and they said oops, although the law doesn't say so we intended (read our minds) that would only apply to people in religions which are against annuities. It just leaves you thinking these rules can be changed, my money could be taken, Why shoudl I lock it away when we might have a crisis for teh country, need more tax and they bring out a 10% sudden take on funds.

Probably lots of other things too. In other words they create a climate of uncertainty which makes people reluctant to contribute to something because the trust is lost. Even my pension a Sipp in which I choose the investments, that was set up on the basis under those rules I could draw it at 50 if I chose and Governmetn changed the rules last year to say no, everyone in the UK has to be 55, They just change things on a whim retrospectively and then I see my father who put every penny he ever had in his pensions working to age 77 so not really needing them and likely to die within a year or two of drawing then and you wonder what was the point. And annuity rates are so dreadful and much much worse for women than men.

I agree though that all the rule changes have a) made it impossible to have any certainty about the future of your money and b) put many people off starting a pension as the whole thing is so bloody complicated.
Annuities are pants full stop.

I suppose the main reason I put mine on hold was because having got divorced and paid my ex so much there just isn't the spare money at the moment. But also I had a fund and I sat down and thought if that increase by 10% or 20% a year - one year it was going up 25%, then 20% but that was in a booming stock market (I don't claim to be a good stockpicker) it could well hit the total £1.5m by the time I draw the pension at age 75 (I want to work as I love it for as long as I can) so if you get over that limit and I can just see a later Gov saying oh that's too high if the fund is over say £600k we'll confiscate it) then that new limit - another new labour thing - means they basically steal your money, something like 55% they just take away from you or more. It's disgusting. So everyone was last year who had biggish funds and had 30 years to retirement like me has had to consider that too. That was the last straw for me. I bought my island. I have a big house and 5 children and my basic interests and needs - thinking, reading walking are really simple anyway so I don't need a huge income for that. But we'll see. My father is spending £200 a day we think at the moment on his day and night care. Being ill paying for your own care at home is very expensive indeed but at least he's not in some awful care home (althgough some are presumably nice but your own house is for many people nicer still)

I'm another one reliant on the NHS final salary scheme. I only hope that it's still going in another 30ish years time. If my health is good I dont think that I would mind working reduced hours until Im 70 or thereabouts.

Dp doesn't have any pension provision, I suppose he is sort of relying on his parents dying which is just awful really but as they are nearing 70 now I suppose it's unlikely that they will live for m,ore than another 30 years.

My brother said they were trying to steal £250k in effect from his NHS pension. Not sure how the negotiations ended up in the end but part of the NHS deal was you weren't massively paid but at least you had the pension and job security. If they start to move the goalposts it becomes less attractive for employees. (3rd biggest employer in the world which always amazes me after the Red Army in China and the Indian civil service I think and yet we're such a small country).

I'm just relying on my dh's pension which is a bit pathetic, I know. It should be pretty good, but he's Scots and I just realised recently that he'll probably give me an allowance which will be stingy.

Then again, I could just divorce him immediately before he retires, get a pension sharing order for half then remarry him