How much in your pension?

[Petpank]

I'm a SAHM & DHs pension is doing pretty nicely... just logged on to my account online for the first time however - and had a wake up call...There's £26k. Suddenly that doesn't sound very much. Not going to last me very long.

House will be paid off in a few years - but we have live...

Is it just me? Feel like a bit of a fool for not addressing it much sooner.

Depends how old you are, earning potential etc.

My pension is miniscule, so I get you.

Not enough. I regret not starting one earlier. I'm 41 and have only been contributing to a pension for 13 years.

Approaching the big 4-oh...

Earning potential-lowish.

I am 48 and mine is rubbish. I think the last forcast gave me about £4k a year if I retire at 65. I have had so many gaps in mine ( very part time work when the kids were small), time abroad, time out to do a full time degree etc.

I dread to think. (Am 42). I've got a small private one, small local government and one with my current employer.

I'm expecting to be working until I'm around 70 so I need to get my act together.

I dont have a pension and I'm 50, I was talked out of starting one by a financial adviser at 25 and now regret it so much but have no spare cash for one

Ssd that is interesting. When pensions were being slated in the media day in and day out ... I took the easy option and let that justify my decision for not keeping up contributions...

Funnily enough you don't hear so much pension slating these days...!

true!

Forecast to receive 32k annually if I can keep going until 68, which I won't be able to! I'll end up retiring early on a much lower amount.

you can pay into a stakeholder £3600 gross per year even if you are not earning. DH should be contributing that for you each year as well as his own pension contributions.

I am quite pensions obsessed. I made it the next priority after mortgage payments.

Child maintenance

If you pay £3600 per year in how much is added by the government if you're lower rate tax payer?

I've been out of work 6m I'm 33 and only have £18k in pension.

£100,000 pension gets you between £3-£5k a year if you retire at 65. Savings is vital and pensions get tax relief at source and employer contributions, so worth doing.

Not enough, I know that much. Have started putting in around £300 a month but the pot does not seem to grow very much.

Hi boppity, the £3600 stakeholder limit is the gross amount paid into the pension scheme. So the £3600 is made up of the cash payments that you make and then the tax contribution from the govt. so if you are a non tax payer or basic rate I think your cash contribution is approx £2880.

I have attachéd a couple of links from reputable bodies with more info.,

www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/stakeholder-pensions

www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/about-pensions/pensions-basics/contract-based-schemes/stakeholder-pension-schemes

It'll all be drawdown anyway by the time we retire, annuity market is going to die off.

If you don't engage with pension planning you are destined for poverty in old age. I worked part-time in the past, but now work full-time again and overpay into my pension and review contributions every year. Check your state pension forecast, especially in light of needing 35 years (was 40, then 30, now 35!!) and not relying on your partner's contributions. Maybe Mumsnet could run an event to raise awareness?

PP is correct - Non tax payers can pay a maximum of £2880 each year into their pension. Tax relief is added to your contribution so a total of £3600 is added to your pension scheme each year. So, the actual monthly amount it costs you is £240 pcm but you effectively get £300 pcm in your pension scheme. No brainer if you can afford to lock this amount away.

OP you are right that's nowhere near enough. How much you need does depend a bit on what you consider to be an acceptable standard of living but you probably need to start putting a much bigger slice of your income into your pension.

There are plenty of online calculators available to tell you how big a pot you need to save to get to a particular target income. I did this and found I am supposed to be saving many hundreds of pounds a month to get to my target retirement income. I haven't been saving nearly that much but I am taking it seriously now.

Question for the thread - I have been over-paying my mortgage to get it paid off early. Would I be better to stop doing this and put my spare money into the pension? Obviously if I get my mortgage paid off early then I can funnel the equivalent of my mortgage payments into my pension fund for the last few years of my working life but that won't give the investment much growing time. If I slowed down on mortgage and put more into pension then there is longer for investment growth. So I guess the question is whether a typical managed pension fund is likely to get annual growth that outperforms mortgage interest rates over the next 20 years. Any thoughts?

You should be doing both at the moment, so around 15-20% of income going to pension, around 20-25% going to mortgage, living on the remainder. Percentages just a guide, adjust for your personal circumstances.

Do both, extra payments off mortgage and pension contributions.

Some banks offer an offset current account and mortgage - so when salary is paid in it helps reduce your mortgage loan. Even for a few days each month this makes a difference.

For pension contributions, if you are working, investigate what your employer will contribute.

10% of salary over a 12 yr period plus 8 yrs as a SAHM but continuing to make pension contributions. Therefore, 20yrs of regular contributions (varied between £150 - £300 pcm net over the years) have resulted in a current pension pot of approx £150K. That currently equates to £7.5K pa which isn't enough. I'm 45 and I very much suspect that I'm in a better position than most. That is not a comforting fact.

Thank you to everyone who flagged up the £2880 point... I will do that. Very impressed with some of your large contributions, especially clerquin. I er... seem to have paid in just £25 a month for quite a few years despite earning between £18 and £40k when I was working. Feeling like I have been pretty reckless now :(

We already overpay the mortgage but have 10 years left to run... so doing a bit of both, I like that idea.

If there is any cash left which is looking pretty unlikely... I could start saving into an ISA then. Is 28 years enough time to bother with a S&S ISA? I'm guessing at least I won't be taxed much on any interest?!

YES to the idea that MN could run a campaign highlighting pension information and myths. It seems many women on becoming parents have neglected pensions - whereas the DHs have often consistently paid in...

I have just looked up the definition of annuity. La Gatoteca - why won't here be an annuity market in the future, please?

And do we think there will be a state pension in 27 years time...?! I bloody hope so! So many questions!

I am 44. I have around £250k in one private pot. Plus company pays equivalent of 13% and i pay 3% of salary into their scheme, currently around £30k in there. Plus whatever negligible amount i get from the state pension by the time i am finally able to take it when i am about 95!

This is one of the (many) reasons i returned to work after kids.

I'm self-employed, so no employer contribution at all.

My personal pension pot is lower than yours (and I'm older). Currently forecasting about 5k a year IF I can keep up the contributions. Putting the contributions in a sock under the bed is sounding like a better plan as long as I don't intend to live too long.

I do have a final salary pot from a job many years ago, which will cough up a minimum of 4k a year. That's quite possibly more per year than I put in over the six years I worked there.

And do we think there will be a state pension in 27 years time...?!

Good question. I think so, but with state pension age at 70, and possibly means tested (as per Australia, for example) where only the poorest people get anything.