Does anyone else worry about their future pension?

[NatMoz]

I have 2 pensions. One from my former employer with Legal & General which has a total pot of roughly £21k. Based on predictions this will equate to £363 a year by retirement age . Bearing in mind I contributed for almost 8 years it just seems so low.

My current one is faring a bit better. It's a Civil Service one and over 3 years amounts to £2k (annual statement was from March this year so may be a little more than that now).

Even so, as it stands it all equates to about £200pm pension.

Am I being dumb here? Is there any way I can make my Legal & General pension work harder? You can choose which investment to opt for but they are just names on a page to me.

I feel like pensions are such a minefield. I have no clue what I'm doing. Also don't think there's any point relying on state pension. I'm 32 and have been working since 21.

Does anyone else feel like this? What do you do? I'm considering a stocks and shares ISA such as Vanguard?

@amazeandastonish I could be wrong but I thought you had to be enrolled for 2 years to get the CS one and if you left before that you'd get your contributions refunded.

www.telegraph.co.uk/financial-services/pensions-advice-service/find-my-pension/?WT.mc_id=tmg_share_em

Looks a good recent link Re tracking down old forgotten pensions.

Thanks but this is going back to early noughties so not sure if that happened in my case. Can't remember.

Read meaningful money handbook / watch their YouTube Channel

You massively need to up your contributions I'm afraid . 20% + a year

• you can increase your contributions to a private pension and claim the tax back *

I think there may be advert for pension tracer in the article if so apols - but there’s a lot of good advice and how to do it yourself. I need to do this for a couple of older pensions only paid in fir a year or two but it all adds up and it is actually my money !

@stevalnamechanger OP's pension is CS it's defined but between her and her employer they'll be making more than 30% contributions.

Ooh this is a good thread!!. I'm about to join CS, Ive got a pension with L&G with my current employer, what im not sure about is do I transfer that into CS pension or just leave it with L&G??

ilikewinter your CS pension scheme will explain when and how you can transfer other pensions. My pension has a modeller so I can see what benefit. There are limits and it is a bit complex but I’d think a CS pension advisor wil help you out. From this thread sounds as thkigh you’ve made a good choice pension wise !

I am correct IMO ;)

In addition to a CS pension she should realistically be contributing privately unless she doesn't want to retire till 70

I'd want to retire 55-60 so high contributions to a SIPP are essential

I have no idea how people will work till 70 or whatever it soon will be

@stevalnamechanger you're not right at all, you said OP should be making at least 20% contributions when she's got more than 30% going in, you don't understand her pension at all.

@HeronLanyon I think this thread has highlighted how little some of us ..ie me .... really know about pensions, I just happily pay every month because at some point in the past my parents told me to join a pension scheme early!

Is there an idiots guide to pensions out there somewhere?
How much do you need a year even?

It’s madness really isn’t it ilikewinter I’m late 50s and ‘planning’ to retire early in a few years. Well I should actually have been doing a bit more planning and quite a bit earlier ! But at least I’m now sorting some things out. It just doesn’t seem real to many of us when younger and a bit more remote.
I don’t remember my parents ever mentioning a pension which is odd as when my lovely old Ma passed away and I really saw her finances I discovered she was more of a saver and a planner than I ever suspected !

@amazeandastonish

I find pensions all very confusing

I'm 41

I worked in the public sector for 18 years (same employer) and I think the pension contributions were something like 21%

before that I spent 2 years in Asda, and 18 months in the CS. I can vaguely recall pensions being mentioned whilst there but being young, I didn't pay much attention to whether I had one or not.

Now I'm in the third sector (covid meant I left last job) and pension contributions are 11% I think so less.

How do I find out my total pension from all these jobs? I did try to look at some pension websites and it seems I wasn't at Asda or CS long enough to get a pension from them?

Do I get contacted at a certain age to be told 'do you want your pension' or do I need to contact them myself? What if I can't remember how to access my pension?

I would imagine you got a refund of benefits paid from the Asda and CS pension as you were there less than 2 years... but if not you will have to contact them yourselves at the age you can claim.....I have 2 small local authority pensions....from jobs I left over 20 years ago ....I can claim both at age 60.... I used to get an annual statement every year from them....but then it all went on line ....I haven’t checked them in the last few years....but made sure I informed them when I moved home and they wrote back to confirm receipt of my new address

Pensions Advisory Service (now Money Helper by the looks of the site below) was set up by the government to give impartial advice on pensions.

www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement?source=tpas

I've always struggled to get advice on my pensions, it's such a regulated market they won't commit to very much without an official relationship (and thus payment) so I've never gotten clear cut answers from free advisory services. I just wanted to know if I should transfer a private pension into a public pot but could not get any advice anywhere (I tried, including government site) I wasn't looking to pay for that advice yet (it really wasn't enough to worry about either way, only 3 years contributions in a poorly paid private pension) I gave up and left it be.

I'm basing off the predicted numbers I ran with an IFA my work provides ...

Personally I would like to have more than 20k a year pension hence why I'd be topping up a SIPP

£19k for an individual and about £28k for a couple are meant to deliver a reasonable retirement.
If you google the question ‘how much do you need for retirement’ you will find lots of sites that answer this Q with a break down if what’s needed for basic, comfortable and luxury retirement. To be honest, you just have to look. Even an hours research could reveal a lot of info.

@stevalnamechanger because that's what you want, not what you need, so don't try and scaremonger people telling them what they "need" to do particularly when you don't understand their pension.

This thread has given me a much needed boost. I also have a civil service pension, been paying in for about eight years and I'm 35. DH the same. Sometimes it's hard to fathom peers in seemingly less stressful/responsible jobs, earning a hell of a lot more than we do, but if I work until 60 I'll get around 30k a year and so will DH, plus healthy lump sums. I've been thinking about leaving for the private sector recently but this helps me to give my head a wobble. The flexibility also saves us two days a week in childcare fees.