Pension question please?

[Llioed]

Hi all, I have a quick question regarding how much we should be paying into our pensions.

Last week it was suggested by Martin Lewis that you take the age you started paying into your pension (which in my case was 25) then half that number - this is how much of your monthly salary that should be paid into your pension. Does this mean only your own contribution or a joint contribution with your employer?

Example: my monthly contribution is only 6% but the company I work for pays in 7% which makes it 13% in total each month.
Is that ok? Or do I need to increase my monthly contributions to 12.5% (and not include the employer contribution?)

I’m a little confused if it means your OWN payments or do you include employer contributions as well? If it doesn’t include employer contributions I will make amendments to pay more into my pension.

Thank you (if you understood that 😆)

I thought it was half the age that you are now?!

Total contribution including your employer's. So that will be good news! But pay what you can to get the maximum from your employer, say for example they match your contribution.

Copied and pasted from Martin Lewis:

How much should you be saving? Martin said the "rough rule of thumb" is to take the age you start saving, halve it, and put that percentage of your salary into your private pension for the rest of your life. This will give you roughly two thirds of your final salary each year in retirement.

@Palavah

I thought it was half the age that you are now?!

Now or when you started. The later you leave it the more you have to pay in. So if you started when you were 25, you can pay in 12.5% for 40 years. If you start when you're 40, you have to pay in 20% for 25 years to reach the same amount at 65.

Thank you Bonnes! I was hoping that was the case. My employer is paying the maximum % there (wish it could be more) but I will look into increasing my own, even just by 2 or 3%.

Thank you again for clarifying.