How much in pension pot at 41?

[chubbaa]

I have almost 44k, which I think is shite. Trying to build it up as much as possible now though. What does everyone else have in their 40s?

1.1 at 41

43 and 420k
Self employed but have always paid in a decent amount since age 21

Pretty much the same age and same amount, that’s the average pot for our age.
I’ve now finished having babies and paying for childcare so can now concentrate on contributing some more

39

£78,000

I had 30k DC pension age 42 having only started to contribute age 35 when auto enrollment came in. Panicked and decided I needed to do something about it. I moved to public sector and converted my pot into a defined benefit pension of 3k year at 68. I then started contributing towards additional defined pension and sipp. I've also had 2 promotions and decided to sink all the increase into my pension. I'm now 47 with 13k defined benefit pension age 68 and 65k SIPP. Through a combination of choices and plain good luck (10% inflation added nicely to the outcome). Most important thing is to be aware and do what you can to increase contributions over time.

At age 41 mine was £25k. Now at age 47 it's worth £296k. I've put almost all my salary in in the past few years, and invested in high risk investments, so it's been able to grow a lot in a short time.

My pension statement shows my pot as being the total amount I have paid in. Where is the “growth”?

I'm almost 40 and have nothing.

38 and almost at £100k. I didn’t pay in much in my 20s so have been making up for it in my 30s.

42. Been paying into a public sector scheme since I was 19 with one brief foray into private sector. Think that’s currently projected to be about 15k/year (without a lump sum - presumably less with). Hopefully will stay in the public sector until retirement - not sure what it’s likely to end up at if I do but DH’s pension provision isn’t so good so it will need to sustain us both.

53 and about 850k. A decade ago, it was a lot less. My career has accelerated. Hoping to knock it on the head next year, when it should be over 900k.

235k at 46. DH has zero.

I only really started earning a lot in my mid 30s - I think it was only at around 50k when I was 35. I've put a lot in since then and it's had a fair bit of growth. In theory I have about 800k equity in my house but I wouldn't want to rely on that - I don't think house prices are as safe as they were.

£145k at 44.

You have to look at what the pension is invested in. Employees usually have a default pension which is, for me, too risk averse and doesn’t grow. The first thing I do in a new job is check what I’m invested it and change it to a risk level I am comfortable with (usually higher risk). I also choose funds that have lower fees.

47 and £350k in pension.

49 years old, currently have £122k (£84k in pension pot, £38k in S&S ISA) and £8.5k per year (from 67 years old and inflation linked).

The plan is to work for another 8 years and put in roughly about £30k/year into pension and S&S ISA. By then, I will have more than enough to sustain £24k/year income (after tax) from 57 onwards. Husband has his own pension arrangements and is in much better position than me.

I'm 38 and pretty much the same as you. Although I contributed a huge amount this year through salary sacrifice since I have a child in nursery and I earn a bit over £100k. I had quite a few years in my 20s where I contributed nothing due to contracting and living abroad so I'm catching up now.

Not quite 40 yet but have £20,000 in a Scottish widows one (a short stint in the private sector, rubbish contributions!), and I have so far earned £10,000 a year after 68 in the public sector (which I don’t think is bad going at my age), ChatGPT tells me that’s roughly the equivalent of a £250,000 pot but would take that with a pinch of salt!

DH has a military pension so retirement should be comfortable if we can keep ourselves healthy.

42 and 318K. I had effectively nothing in it 10 years ago though so they can build up quickly. As a previous poster mentioned, it's really important that you check the fund. The default fund was pretty average, but have since moved into a global tracker fund (SW SSGA International Equity Index CS8) which has returned 81.5% over 5 years. I would be nowhere near where I am if I'd stayed in the default.

Who is advising you, as this is really very high for your age.

I hope you aren’t putting further contributions in and are investing elsewhere.

For those talking about switching their pensions (I know nothing) for higher risk so it builds quicker, where or how do you do your research on this? Do you have financial consultants to help or is it somethjng you can reasonable easily research on your own?

I haven't personally used a financial adviser, it was mainly through getting into finance youtube/podcasts during the pandemic that I realised I needed to change. I actually found that in my case ChatGPT gave some pretty good and specific advice when I provided it with my own set of circumstances, that's where I found the fund in any case. A lot of people speak highly or Rebel Finance School- haven't tried it but that may be a good place to start.

I don’t have a pot as such as it is a defined benefits scheme, but I an see what I get on retirement and it is about 30k a year

Exactly. Ideally, you aim for a diversified portfolio at retirement, so a combination of savings, investments, property and pensions (private and state).

Can you do salary sacrifice for your contributions? It makes a big difference to how much you put in vrs how much you lose from your payslip.

At 41 it was probably about 120k. Now nearly 50 and it’s just over 300k. I’ve only ever put in £2880 a year, in high risk funds, only started when I was early 30’s so pretty pleased with how its performed so far. The high risk wouldn’t be for everyone though. We prefer to max out our ISA’s than pension contributions. I’m not from a long lived family so edging my bets!
We’ve started pensions for our kids too - wish we had done that sooner, when they were born rather than teenage.