What percentage of your salary are you paying to your pension

[Kerry987]

I am getting a bit concerned that DH and I don’t have much pensions contributions and want to increase it so would like to have an idea of what percentage people contribute. I know it will vary depending of people’s circumstances but want to have a rough idea.

Thank you

I have an AVC that puts in a further 40% of my salary. I'm about 9 years off retirement and my forecast is not enough! My mortgage is paid off though so small living costs. Honestly, it's worth it for the tax relief

How come some many people have started contributing so early?

For me it was growing up and seeing the poverty that the elderly were in at the time. If you look at recent history, back in the 80/90s the elderly were the most poor. My parents would also tell me, that’s what happens when you don’t take responsibility for your future self. There were also deep economic crises then with high unemployment and real worries that state pensions would not exist by the time my generation was old enough to claim them.

I pay in 16%, which is 8% matched. It's the highest my company matches so I went with it as its free money.

In a year of being at my current company I earned more in my pension than I did the three years prior due to it bring statutory only.

I am 27 and I hope to retire at 60. I don't expect the state pension to exist when I reach retirement age so I'm planning outside of it.

I started contributing in my early 20s when I got my first job (mid-90's).
Partly because I have always saved and thought it was a good idea, partly because I work in finance and therefore learned about these things and partly because ex-H's dad worked for an employee benefits business and advised me.

My first employer contributions were in about 2006/7, a few years before they became compulsory.

I have my own plan (where I put the bulk of my contributions), a lapsed employer plan (because they changed scheme) and my current employer plan (which gets 4% from me and 4% matched from my employer).

@JamSarnie same here.

I joined the civil service at 23 and they gave me the option to opt out. But I just thought ‘well I will never feel the difference’ if I just paid it from the get go and genuinely have never given my pension as much thought as I have today.

I can’t wrap my head around DH’s situation though, he has a few years here and there of various pensions as he has bounced around jobs and I just don’t understand how that will work. He has no idea what he will ultimately get in terms of a pension at this point.

Employer 21% Me 9.6%
Husband is largely self employed but does similar in total. Maybe just a bit less.

Mine is dreadful due to time at home with kids. I now pay 12% (plus 3% from employer) and am late 30's.
I'll up my contributions once I've paid my mortgage off and kids move out.

It is depressing to see what some employers will contribute/ match. Mine give the absolute bare minimum.

My DH is a high earner and is limited as to what he can put in his pension and so I put in the maximum I can,100% of my very PT salary. I also have a LISA which I put £4K in per year. The result of this is the government tops up more than I actually pay in tax (which seems a bit wrong!)
I also put up to £16k a year in a S&S ISA (depending on what we have left over, this year I probably won't save more than £10k) and DH saves £20k into his.

However, this is making up for years of not contributing enough - I only started saving this much 4 years ago. I basically work now to pay into my pension so I can retire at 60.

I am early 40's and my total "retirement pot" is £220k so far. I am not sure how long we will be able to keep up saving at this level as DH is very fed up with his job and I don't think he will be able to sustain the hours/ pressure past 50.

I pay 6.8% employee pays 17%, defined benefit scheme.

Employer*

I pay 14% but only 11.2% (11.8?) comes out of my salary. My work pay 6%

I plan to always save a percentage that's half my age. So I need to top it up now.

I also pay £40 per month into a stakeholder pension with tax relief £50 goes in each month.

I'm aiming for £250,000 in my pension pot by the time I retire and hopefully my DH will have a similar amount.

We'll be paying off our mortgage until I'm 67 (unless we manage to overpay).

If we've paid off our mortgage and if there's still a state pension we might be okay.

I put in 6% and work put in 30%

Me and employee was 18%, just moved to Civil Service so now 27%. I'm thinking pay of mortgage in 5 years then increase? I'm 42 and only started at 30.

Employer

@Fleurchamp I know, right! My work pay the legal minimum - 3%. Thought that was normal tbh!

It is great that so many people started planning so early (in their 20s or 30s, instead of nearly 50).

Also, many companies seem to offer more than the 3% statutory. I need to find a job in one of those Companies for the next 15 to 20 years.

If everyone put in the minimum including the employer contribution for 35/40 years people would retire much more happily!

If no-one has already mentioned it, there's a great tool on Aviva. You put in the lifestyle you want in retirement and it tells you roughly how much you'll need from your pension. Then you can use other tools to understand how much you need to put in.

www.retirementtools.aviva.co.uk/myfuture/ShapeMyFuture/LandingPage

I pay 5% into mine, employer pays 11%. I'm mid 40s, and my pension pot is currently 2.5 times my salary. With the state pension, the projections should be enough, but if i want to retire early there'll be a shortfall, and of course if it takes 10+ years for the stock market to recover.

Forgot to mention I am 31 and have been paying into defined benefit pensions since I was 21 (first NHS now LGPS). I plan to stay with LGPS now until I retire.

Thanks @WotsitWiggle I hadn't come across that tool before.

Thanks for this thread. You inspired me to set up a direct debit to my LISA today. I'm going to aim for maximum payments for both my and my husband's LISA each year.

@WotsitWiggle - that's an amazing tool! I'll be using that a lot.

Another good pension tool is this one

www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/tools/pension-calculator

Thank you all for the responses; I think it is important to plan financially while at the same time ensuring we are living and enjoying the present; unfortunately we didn’t give it much thought until now when not too far from 50 and DH over 50. I think it is sad getting to old age, unable to work and not having at least the basis covered like food, house and bills.

I also need to learn about all the different type of pensions and investments.

I pay 6 % employer pays 16% (roughly) so around 22%