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

Until September, I paid 5%, employer paid 5% and govt 4%.

I'm within 10 years of retiring so I have a fair idea of what I will have.

There won't be any caviar or world cruises but I should be ok. Much better off than my dm anyway.

I pay into my work superannuation pension only . I don’t trust private pensions so we have made other arrangements for our retirement .

I contribute enough to max the employer contributions.
Beyond that, I don't currently view the tax advantages of contributing more as worth it when there is so much uncertainty - who knows how old i'll need to be for the government to 'allow' me access to my own savings.

Furier, At the moment you can access at 55 which I don’t think is too bad; however you will need to pay taxes if you withdraw all.

Pension age increase is another issue though, it is increasing to 68, hope it doesn’t get to 70 or even worse 75 😬

@Kerry987

Furier, At the moment you can access at 55 which I don’t think is too bad; however you will need to pay taxes if you withdraw all.

Pension age increase is another issue though, it is increasing to 68, hope it doesn’t get to 70 or even worse 75 😬

One thing I am preparing myself for is the 55 age rule to change. Therefore I am also saving outside the pension just in case that gets raised.

@FurierTransform

I contribute enough to max the employer contributions. Beyond that, I don't currently view the tax advantages of contributing more as worth it when there is so much uncertainty - who knows how old i'll need to be for the government to 'allow' me access to my own savings.

I do worry about this actually. They change everything on you all the time. Definitely as an (old) millennial, my entire experience of government programmes is of them being withdrawn just before I get there. Starting with milk, then tuition fees, etc!

You can't trust the government to do you right over anything longer than their own re-election schedule. I can't make life plans based on promises made by politicians. I guess this is why so many people end up BTL.

I’m in the NHS pension scheme, not sure on percentages i think its around 7 percent monthly.

I plan to save/add more when the mortgage is done. I couldn’t afford 50/30 even 20 percent of my wage. I have a family history of dying young and It’s important to me to live now too.

About 15% and my employer tops up - only started doing that much a year ago when I inherited money that allowed me to pay of my mortgage, it was about half that before then. I'm 42.

DH is self-employed and hasn't paid into pension for a while.

I have an NHS pension. I pay in 7.1% & my employer pays in more.

Once upon a time I was a public sector employee with a good pension. I paid into it for four years. Then the government cut our budget massively and my employer decided they couldn’t afford to have any employees. But the work still needed doing. So they made us all redundant and hired us back to do the same job as zero hour self employed contractors. No pension, no paid holidays, no paid sick leave, plus they were able to cut 25% of our hours by saying they would no longer pay us to attend meetings (but we still had to attend the meetings). So I didn’t pay into a pension at all for about five years. Now I’ve been laid off completely due to Covid and have no income so can’t pay into a pension even if I had one. My existing pension will pay out a lump sum of approx £5k. I hope to get another job and gain enough NI credits for a state pension. My Dad is leaving me his house so the proceeds of selling that will give me £150 a week for 10 years. I’ll probably be dead by that point.

9% me + 20% company. Been paying in for 20 years and it's a final salary defined benefit scheme. Unsurprisingly they closed it to new entrants shortly after I started.

Most employees now have a defined contribution scheme with matching contributions only.

The minimum age I can claim my DB pension has already moved from 55 to 57. I can claim it (at a reduced rate) 10 years before my state pension age which is 67.

I save about 20% per year when tax relief, govt contributions and (minimal) employer contributions are all taken into account.

I'm early 30s, and would ideally like a pensions pot big enough to give me 50% of my current salary when I retire, and that allows me to retire from 60.

I'm sadly not saving enough to achieve that goal yet, but can't afford anything else at the moment.

Hopefully cumulative investment returns over the next 30 years will make up some of the shortfall, and I will be able to save more when my circumstances change and some of the current costs are eliminated.

Even if I don't manage to up my rates I should have enough to get by on - which will be about 30 per cent of my current salary (assuming state pension still exists).

My mum has also written a decent-ish inheritance into her will, but I'm not relying on that because it could all vanish if she ends up needing care in later life etc.

I hope the age to get your pension funds which is 55 doesn’t change; but I guess everything is possible, specially if the government is borrowing money from pension funds during the current pandemic.

I think the government's plan is/was to keep the age at which you can get your private pension at 10 years before the state pension. I also think (hope?) they will give people notice and so if you are already in your 50's you should be ok.
I am planning on being able to get my pension at 60 and and I aiming to save as much as I can in case there is no/ less state provision when I get there.

If not earning and reliant on benefits is it still worth paying ib to pension OR mortgage?

nothing. Would like to but cannot afford (mid 40s). I still expect the get the full state pension though.

The age at which you can access your pension is currently being changed to 57 and then to be 10 years below whatever the state retirement age is. The exact details are being pinned down but anyone of around 47 or younger won’t be able to access any pension funds before 57.

Not that many people of late 40s will be able to afford To retire in 10 years anyway. Those who can Will need to look at ways of bridging the gap from stopping work to being able to access pensions.

With more company schemes not starting until state pension age and state pension on the verge of being raised to 68 for those in 40s, more and more people will need bridges of funding if they want to stop work before late 60s.

I’m working on a tenatiative plan of stopping work around 57.
My DH will continue to work full time until he is 60 and that should support us both for 3 years.
Then at 60 he will go part time and I will be able to claim the final salary part of my occupational pension which still kicks in at 60, plus receive a tax free lump sum.
At 65 my DH will fully retire. He will be able to access £5k of occupational pension at that point, plus I will release £10k of my lump sum and still have my £10k. We will need some other bridging savings to give us around £5k per year for 3 years.
At 68 we will both be able to access our full occupational pensions, plus full state pensions too and be pretty well off.

Currently, I put 8.5% in my DB pension whilst employer pays 23%. DH also has a DB benefit but he has to pay less in and gets bigger employer contribution for a bit better pension.

We are hoping that our plan above works and we can afford for mentos top altogether at 57 and he winds down from 60-65 (he likes working more than me and wants to keep going albeit part time) before stopping altogether.

Does anyone have any thoughts about this plan of ours.....any glaring holes? I have read that for a couple, around £30k is a comfortable retirement and £45k is very comfortable. We should be very comfortable after 68 and can manage comfortable from me being 57 to 68 if I’m right.

The age 55 for DC pensions is planned to change, it was announced in the notes of the 2015 budget by George Osborne. The plan is to make it 10 years below state pension age and then track that. This is planned to take effect in 2028 when it will jump to age 57 although it has not reached legislation both May then Borris government have confirmed it is still intended to take effect.

www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-8083623/When-age-access-pension-cash-rise-55-57.html

oops - sorry WombatChocolate, didn't see you had already written this >

9.3% NHS. Assuming I stay til I retire I will have 44 years service. Maybe in the future when I have less commitments Ill increase it. Im 32, 1 child

This post is interesting yet very worrying/ upsetting.
I'm now paying 25% of my salary into my work pension. It's currently about 19k. I only started paying in when it became compulsory, I regret bitterly not paying in when younger but I've always had quite low paid jobs. Now I can afford to pay in I am but I worry massively for my future. I rent, can't afford a deposit yet could afford a mortgage (rent is £700 pcm)
I could inherit my mum's home but if guess it's very likely she will go into a home.
Are work pensions best of am I better looking elsewhere and pumping money into it for a better return? Currently paying in approx £500 a month. ( im living frugally!)

@wombatchocolate
Depends on what your current lifestyle is and how much you want to change but I would say £30k is better than comfortable in retirement.

My salary goes almost entirely to pension as DH earns far more than me. He puts around 20% in savings so I may be in a position to retire early (he'll be retired too, but age difference means it won't be early for him )

8,5%. I'm still paying some childcare costs, our mortgage is high and I'm pregnant with #2. We do save on the side too. I could probably afford to put a bit more in but atm I'm prioritising getting the mortgage paid off by making overpayments.