How much pension do I need

[Bluesky999]

I am 50 and have around 60k in pension fund; want to retire when I am 60k with a pensión of around 30k per year. How much do I need to save now? I think probably realistically I won’t get to 30k per year retirement and we may ending having to downsize move somewhere cheaper.

thanks in advance

DH and I are retiring on about £50k/year between us and including state pensions. We have a house we can downsize from later on if we need/want to. We reckon that will be enough for a comfortable retirement including travel. We’re not fussy about cars or clothes.

We do have paying hobbies which will help for the first few years.

I'd make a few comments when you say you need 30k a year.

At some point you'll hopefully get a State Pension....if you include that then in those years you don't need so much.

When you are 80 plus you may not need as much. I know this is impossible to predict but my Dad (who owns his own small home) manages on 15k a year total and still manages to have enough savings to continue to do home repairs etc as they fall due. He's lost Mum and is past wanting holidays and has given up driving. All of these things have reduced his expenditure. I appreciate there are 80 year old still travelling the world too.

If you have a house to potentially downsize then it is worth thinking about how and when you would do that.

I have moved to a (much) cheaper area which is still on the main train line and so have a similar sized house for adult kids to visit but have released quite a lot of capital.

Obviously if you have an in person job you can't do that yet.

You started working full time at 48 and expect to be able to retire in 12 years with £30k a year? I suggest you pull all your figures together, most importantly where you are with accommodation (mortgage? Rent?), lifestyle you want, do you have a partner? Look at what you need, then want, and then look at what you can feasibly do to get close to your goals. Are there other things you can do like downsize.

Do you really need all that money OP? it’s a lot of pressure to put on yourself, starting quite late.
How much are you thinking of spending per year on the house, holidays etc.

I'm contributing about 16% (8% me, 8% employer). I'll put in more once DD1 has gone through university and we have paid off the mortgage (in about 7 years when I'm 55)- on current projections I'd get a lump sum then £20k a year and DH the same. We will also have some inheritance and could also downsize/live in a cheaper area.

No point putting yourself in penury to save though, it has to be a balance with enjoying life now. My friend's DH just died age 51, my uncle died age 46, his son age 31, my best friend's dad age 50. Lots of people don't make it that far. And most company pensions are a bit shit really.

Yes; not very realistic. I think the most I will be able to get is 18k per year and state pension at 67; maybe retire later. need better planning

I worked full time for 10 years before kids, then had my 3 kids close together (dropping to 3 days a week while they were tiny) but then stepped back up to full time when the youngest was turning 4 and in pre school. Main reason was the pension. It would have been very tempting for an easy life to carry on part time even with the kids all in school but I'm so relieved I didn't. I look around me know I'm in my late fifties and see too many women my age who realise now that they're facing a depressing older age as they haven't made good enough pension provision. Or they erroneously thought they could just rely on their husband having a good pension. (Ok that might work for a while but not if he dies first..)

It's an important lesson for women and girls to learn. OP, I would continue stacking as much as you can into your occupational pension. Any chance of promotion or increasing your earnings some other way?

Assuming you are mortgage free on retirement, will you have savings/investments or are you relying on your pension lump-sum?

Which? have a really easy to use calculator to work out how much you will get.

https://www.which.co.uk/money/pensions-and-retirement/options-for-cashing-in-your-pensions/your-options-for-cashing-in-your-pension/pension-calculator-how-much-money-youll-have-a9DH71u5ilAl

FYI I'm 48 and have nearly £300k in my pot and my current contributions add £2k a month. That will give me a pension of about £30k per year plus state pension.

Don't forget that when you reach 67 you will get your state pension which equates to about £1000 a month. So you might be short for the first 7 years then it will be bolstered by the state one.

I've got 270k in a final salary which will give me about 14k a year and I've been putting in about £650 a month into a private and work place pension. My private pension gives me 2 lots of tax relief to which means that although I'm paying in £400 a month, nearly £600 is going in. Plus I pay on £250 to a work one and the company pays extra.

The best thing I ever did was speak to a financial advisor

firstly even if you retire at 60 you can carry on voluntarily paying NI until you are 67/8 if so how many total years of contributions will you have? you can also look into buying any years you missed since you have been in UK if you claim child benefit you get credits until youngest is 12.
Assuming you own your house outright by then andif you and DH both get full state pensions that is 20K to start, many people manage on this so I think the 20K is enough for council tax, utilities, food some clothes/ shoes and basic living will probably pay for fuel for a car and MOT but not enough for a new car or holidaying abroad etc. so your work pension is needed to pay for cars, holidays, eating out, entertainment, hobbies buying more than token gifts etc

I think checking whether you have sufficient contributions for a full state pension needs to be your first priority.

The first thing you need to do is work out your budget at retirement. Hopefully you will be mortgage and debt free. You won't have to travel for work or need work clothes etc. Obviously you will have other expenses, maybe more holidays or hobbies. Plus remember that people tend to spend more when they first retire, then wind down. You're doing ok, you've a good salary and a pension. There's really no need to panic you have a good plan and awareness. You need to live your life now too, none of us know what is round the corner. Get a good balance.

If you can afford to pay a lot into a pension, it might be a good idea to get advice on other investments which may have a bigger return, as most pensions are pretty rubbish and I wouldn't put all your eggs in one pretty poor basket.

Not sure what else. DH Finance advisor was not interested in me due to my salary

The good thing reg the pension are the tax savings and as I don’t see it I don’t spend it

Yes, there may be opportunity for promotion. I need to put myself out there and start working towards it. Could increase another 15k if I get promoted to next level.

Other F A’s are available.

Do not lie down under one idiots negativity, there were proabably not enough ££££££’s in commission for him to deign to look at you. 😡

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Enough-Much-Money-Need-Rest/dp/1530800552/ref=asc_df_1530800552/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=310762413837&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16355787704807634654&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=m&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1007091&hvtargid=pla-523339426535&psc=1&mcid=1ec337d20fbf385aad2bbd545e514dd6&th=1&psc=1

This book is quite useful to help you answer this question.
Do go to gov.uk, log in and get your personalised state pension forecast.
Then work out how much you need per year (outgoings may go down if mortgage paid off, no travelling to work expenses and children costs), when SP kicks in and how much top up you need.

What is your DH’s position? Presumably he earns considerably more than you if he’s been able to use the financial adviser. You need to look at the different scenarios - how much you’ll have as a couple and how much each of you will have if one dies, taking in to account what survivor benefits each one’s pension has.

50k a year pension is around 3.5 k a month after tax maybe a bit more.

You say you have been in the UK for twenty years, don't you have to contribute 35 years worth of full NI contributions to get a full state pension?

You can pay for the missing years but there is a cut off date.I'd look into this so you don't miss out.

I have a basic question - those of you talking about your pension "pot" - how do you know how much this is if you're worked in different jobs with different schemes ?
I can probably look up details of my current pension statement from this job, but i've worked in 5/6 different workplaces with different schemes over the past 20 years and will likely change workplace again a few times before retirement

www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/pension-problems/tracing-and-finding-lost-pensions#Are-you-sure-your-pension-is-lost-

Can’t see if anyone has mentioned this but the standard pension in NHS and local authorities on your current salary would be around 1k per annum accruing for every year you work there. Might not be possible but ten years there would give you a considerable uplift and you could save as well and also pay into a private pension.