If you’re in your 40s, how much are you focused on and planning for retirement/ pensions etc?

[Peterrabbitismybrother]

Firstly I appreciate many are living hand to mouth and are not able to save, and being able to save for retirement is a privileged position.

If you are in your 40s, and are in a position to save for your future, how much are you focused on this, what’s your strategy (eg ISAs, pensions), and planned retirement age etc?

I’m mid 40s and would like to have the option to “step down” my work a notch in my 50s, with full retirement not later than 60. Although I might carry on if I am enjoying work when that time comes. (I currently find work stressful but I have primary age DC and juggle a lot so guess that’s the norm!)

Some of my friends always seem to have the latest and greatest (eg tech, cars, holidays) and I do wonder how much they are focusing on the future, although I would never ask them.

We are very fortunate to have excellent public sector pensions. DH is serving a full military career (and will be extending) and I became senior in the civil service in my early 30s so if I stay put my pension projection is very good.

In light of this, we are not very focussed on saving for retirement. We don’t know yet what we want to do, but I think with our pensions we should have a relatively flexible set up (from 57) when DH does decide to leave the military he’ll start getting monthly payments (even in his 40s) though he’d need to supplement with another income.

Our only goal really is to have paid off our mortgage by mid 50s so if we do decide to take early retirement or go part time we don’t have that to consider.

In the mean time, we have the latest and greatest tech, cars and holidays, because life is for the living now too

I've always saved since my 20s as my employer matches my pension contributions so it was mad not to. Add compound interest and now I'm 54 I'm in a very good position which is lucky as it looks like my 25 year career is about to end quite out of the blue.

I wasn't really that focused in my 40s as I have a defined benefit pension, for which I am hugely grateful, and was concentrating on paying down my mortgage.

Now I'm in my late 50s, Im thinking more carefully about it. I hope to retire at 65 through additional pension contributions plus savings. I looked at partial retirement at 60 but the maths didn't add up - I'd be worse off albeit on a 4 day week.

DH is, he wants to retire at 55. I’m not that bothered as everyone who has left work is now bored and looking for part time jobs. They leave too early imo.
I’ll go part time if DH does retire, but unless I’m moving to Spain for 6 months of the year I’ll not leave work. Unlikely and impractical as DD isn’t even ten yet so it’s not like we can go anywhere any time we want. DH’s dad has dementia and DM is 84 so our lives are here.

We have LA pensions and an AVC both pay £500 in a month at the moment as mortgage was paid up years ago. I want to reduce mine though.

It was when I was in my 40's that I really started to plan for retirement.

I was already in a compulsory DB pension scheme (and had been since 19). Mortgage was about to be paid off so I directed additional pension payments into AVC's. Later on, the DB pension was closed (as many of them were) and a DC pension set up instead, I stopped my AVC's and directed all additional payments into the DC pension.

Along with savings, investments etc it all eventually came together and is funding a reasonable (early) retirement.

I'm 45 and keep thinking I must look into that sort of thing. I haven't yet. Obviously have an employer pension, and I think it's pretty decent. I'm just not money minded.

Ive been saving for my pension my whole working life.(since 19 years old)

Was confident that I would have an excellent retirement, comfortable, great lump sum and monthly payments not too dissimilar to my wage.
Retirement at 55 because in my industry you can without penalty.

But no, it’s not turned out that way. Bitterly disappointed doesn’t come into it.

So plan B is underway while I have 10 years of action in my favour.

ISA, savings, frugal living, mortgage soon paid off, no debt as it’s almost paid off.

100% literally everything I have done in the last 10 years from 40 to 50 has been focused on retirement paying down mortgages avoiding debt and topping up the pension and now I’ve done that I’m gonna start on topping. The kids pensions up.

@Thesofathatwaswhat’s the change if you don’t mind me asking? Something personal or how it’s performed?

I don’t understand @Thesofathatwas have you lost your pension? I didn’t think that was possible with new financial regulations?
But good you have a plan B!

I am a few years ahead of you. I am currently actively thinking about my retirement - aiming for a significant step down in 4-5 years. I don't want to just retire full stop, so I am thinking about what type of occupation will keep my brain active but not require all of me.

Financially, I am currently looking at how to fund the gap between that step down, and my workplace pensions being available. I have saved diligently from my very first job so I am in a strong pension position and have very low expenditure, mortgage is paid off etc, so getting to 67 and State Pension starting is not an issue for me

We both have our employer defined contribution pensions, DH's employer is a bit more generous than mine!

Other than that, we have a big mortgage and KS3 dc so we are focused on the fact we have a limited number of years where they want to come on holiday with us. So our 40s are definitely going to be prioritising holidays over retirement.

I'd like to retire at 60/62.
My private pension is payable from age 57.
I can claim my work pension from 57 too - but with a big reduction in benefits compared to taking it later.
I have a S&S ISA I'm hoping will help bridge the gap.
I'll do the calculations nearer the time but I feel on track for now.

I’m late 30s and am definitely focused on saving for retirement, but also want to make sure we as a family have a life now too. My company over-matchs contributions up to 10% so I make sure I’m contributing that every year, and we over pay the mortgage to get paid off faster. We’re aiming to retire by 60, there’s no way I want to be working to state retirement age which could be age 70 by the time we get there.

Pension is considerably less due to part time hours while my kids were small (went back to full time as soon as I could) I also left that industry (after over 30 years) so didn’t continue to contribute to it.
I cashed it in early as a security measure as my job now is unstable, could end any minute.

Not lost, just much less than I anticipated. I am feverishly investing it and not touching it for the next 10 years, it’s doing well, probably better than it would sitting with the pension people.

Possibly divorce?

I’m 38 and recently have been paying much more into my pension. I don’t have a goal in mind yet but would maybe like to retire aged 60, or slow down then. I’m self employed so I can see the tax benefits of paying into a pension. I paid £35,000 in last year and overall have around £163k in pension savings, plus stocks and shares Isas (also got a fairly hefty mortgage). I plan to pay into pensions a lot over the next few years to take the pressure off down the line

I max out my ISA every year and have done so for years. Stocks and shares i should say. Im hoping to be able to live off it from my late 50s or so. I have a private pension. I think they put up the age and I can't get it before 60.

I also have shares in my company. They tend to do incredibly well. I can't rely on it and obviously have no idea if I will be able to hold them until my mid 50s. But if I can I am in for a nice payout and will clock off at 55.

I do live below my means. Im happy with a simple life and a few luxuries, such as my pets or a nice slice of cake from the bakery.

I would max out ISA over increasing pension contributions every time.

Why?

It's something I have really started to address now in my early 40's. I have a private sector pension which I only started contributing to in my 30's when the pension changes were made so its not what it could have been if I had started much earlier (I was however saving for a house deposit and paying off a student loan). I have a mortgage. I have 2 ISA's that are full and my plan for retirement is to put more into my pension and also fill an ISA every year with the intention that I can retire begore state pension age. I think in your 40's there is still plenty of time to address these issues but its a balance because making it to retirement is not a given and therefore I think it is still important to enjoy disposeable income now, but certainly plan for retirement too. I am fortunate to have a decent salary which I admit makes those decisions easier.

I'm in my late 50s but in my 40s I was conscious of the fact that I wanted to save as much as I could while still having, frankly, nice holidays. So I hung on to my older car, we didn't move house etc etc, but prioritised a decent holiday.

That's worked in that we both have decent savings pots. We live below our means and most people woudn't have a clue that we earn as much as we do - most still goes into savings. We have moved and both have a decent car now but are feeling OK going into where we can start thinking about dropping a day a week and I'm likely to retire, all things being equal at 63 (there's a chance of redundancy before then).

Why though? With pensions you get tax relief, although can’t access till 55 (soon 57). The first 25% is tax-free when with withdrawn, although they’re not completely tax-free like ISAs

Because it will be accessible at any age at any rate. The returns are not usually lower (higher in my experience).

although I handsome ticking along in the background I didn’t think must about it until divorce in mid 40’s. At that point I paid 5% my employer paid 5%. I upped mine by an additional 1% every year and now it’s 15% total contributions.

i track it monthly - have recently merged an old pension into main one and think I am on track to retire at 63 which is my current aim. I have a mortgage until nearly 70 though, plain is to pay remainder of that off from lump sum.

must admit though I am not as
comfortable as I was that I will be able to sta in my current job until retirement so thinking I should maybe increase contributions to take pressure off if I have to go earlier.