Would really appreciate thoughts on this.
We're late 30's, happily married (together 20 years), 3 dc. I'm full time employed earning circa £40k and have been with the same employer for 20 years. Dh earns £30k ish but is self-employed. All money is shared.
We've had a rocky financial past. Got into a bad situation about 10 years ago with debts (mainly due to mismanagement on our part and when we were earning less) but have pulled ourselves free and are now debt-free, secure home, all bills taken care of and some money to save each month.
Neither of us have ever contributed to a pension...not a penny. Dh has a few scattered pensions from various employers pre-self employment (employer contribution only) worth about £10k total.
In my sole pension with current employer is about £55k...again, employer contributions only, they contribute about 9.5% each month. Defined contribution pension.
We now have circa £200 a month (total, not each) to put aside solely for pensions. This may well increase in future but for now that's it.
My first thought was that we obviously need to prioritise a pension for dh as his is so much lower. Then I discovered my employer matches contributions up to 8% and have realised the difference this would make.
If we contribute £200pm into my pension, my employer will match it, doubling our efforts. If we put £200 into dh's pension, it's just £200. Obviously plus tax savings.
Now I'm thinking it would make far more sense for us to ignore dh's pension and just really focus on mine. It has far greater potential for growth with the additional matching contribution and to not make use of this seems like money down the drain.
Obvious pitfalls are dh being left vulnerable with no pension in his name...but we're married, if we split he'd be entitled to half and if I die, it would go to him anyway. And when it comes time to claim it, we only have my tax free allowance as it's all in my name so losing more to tax. But I think that would surely be made up for by the extra £x years of extra employer matches we wouldn't otherwise get.
What would your thoughts be? Am I missing something awfully obvious or is putting all our pension eggs in my basket the most sensible plan?
For various reasons changing careers for dh isn't practical so he'll remain self employed for the foseeable - so no realistic chance of him having any further employer contributions.