Tax / Pension

[Almost2026]

I’ve recently secured a new role and been offered £53k salary plus up to 10% bonus.

It includes medical cover for me (I am waiting to find out if I can add the family but currently have no cost examples for this making it more tricky).

The company will match up to 8% pension.

I got stung by the higher tax band last year when my bonus tipped me over.

Please can you help me work out how much to put into my pension and any other tips to be most tax efficient. Anything else I need to consider. We need to maximise take home pay still for a while as want to get a mortgage in 6 months. No student loans.

This is just a mathematical question though - it's not a true financial advice question like "should I retire at 58 or 60", "should I buy an annuity with my pension or use drawdown", "should I take a fixed rate mortgage or variable" where the answer is always "it depends" and there are lots of factors to consider.

Here there is a numerical answer - £X pa is the most you can earn before you fall into higher rate tax so that means paying £Y into your pension. Of course people can get maths wrong but it's a much simpler question.