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.

I've got a fairly standard workplace pension that I pay into every month. We have the option of three amounts to pay in and I've always chosen the middle one and not thought too much beyond that.

Now that I'm 40 I've quite suddenly got much more interested in pensions, and I've upped it to paying in the highest amount possible! But that's it - no other ISA/investments etc

I pay into both a SIPP and stocks and shares ISA for this reason. I prioritise the Sipp but yes I feel the isa has its benefits too

I have just under 30k total in my pot, which I know isn’t enough to live on come retirement. I’m relaxed about it only in that I’m in a much better position than my friends but I’m not overly stressing about it yet either, just aware that it needs to be dealt with sooner rather than later.

Surely you don’t mean you have £30k total in a pot? That will pay out very little. I have a £20k pot from a short 3 year stint in the private sector in a relatively low paid job. I don’t even factor it into my calculations it seems so negligible.

I was widowed in my early 40's & am now early 50's - I have rentals as a result (no mortgages) the income from these & the widow's pension cannot be put into a SIPP. So I max out my ISA every year now, I also invest in stocks & shares separately.
I have a small part time self employed role & am a full time carer.
This means that I have income that will come in whatever my age & I didn't want my access to funds restricted by my age as I have no intention of working up until pension age, another 2 years maximum i think so I would still be under 55.
I also have a small DB pension which will pay £4k pa at 55 & another that will pay a small amount later on.
For me it more about the mental mindset & being ready. Becoming a spender not a saver & having my caring responsibilities as my only responsibilities & whether i am mentally ready to be in that position

Negligible to you is the bulk of my pension pot and I’m grateful I have it. Plenty of people would love to have even half that!

That money (about 17k actually, not even 20k!) is from a work place pension I joined when I was 22. I made minimum contributions for about 3 or 4 years then the company went bust and I pretty much forgot I had it for years. I’m thrilled it’s worth as much as it is and that 22 year old me had the sense to join a pension plan because smart decisions like that were very unlike 22 year old me!

I’ve never said I think I can live on my just under 30k total pot. What I have done is compare myself to friends who have worked freelance their entire careers, have never had a pension and aren’t in a position to start saving now. I have a plan to increase my pension, vague as it may be, and things to look into thanks to posters on this thread, that’s why I’m not stressing.

I think the payout would be about £125 ish a month! That wouldn't even cover council tax.

Get it into a SIPP and presumably youre on 20% tax so the government will boost this by £6k.

Err - Im not sure you know what you're doing TBH.

To anyone reading please don't blindly follow what this poster is saying.

We had planned how much we'd retire on 20 years ago. Decided on an annual amount that we could live comfortably on, figured out how we'd get there and didn't think too much about it again apart from checking we were on track. Then dh heard about the lifetime allowance limit, which he has hit and was forced to stop saving into his pension. I know this isn't the case anymore but at the time it was the equivalent of being taxed £1.10 for every £1 you put in.
I was a SAHM for many years and had very little pension so when we started a business and we focused on putting all my earnings into my pension which is a respectable amount now. The flashy car we bought was zero emissions and so made total sense from a financial perspective - bought by the company we pay very little tax on this benefit. We still have a mortgage on a big house that we don't plan to retire in - so we don't focus on paying it off - we plan to downsize to a cheaper area and/or a smaller house.
We still go on several holidays a year, we eat out frequently, we live our lives to the max, we don't want to give up the now by scrimping and saving to build a ridiculously large pension or leave a stupid amount of money to our kids - life is precious and we are going to enjoy the now as well as (we hope) the future. Balance is important to us. Other friends really enjoy the challenge of scrimping and saving - and good luck to them - their retirement won't be any better than ours because they are hard wired not to spend money on themselves.

Watch this if you need to decide on ISA vs Pension

I thank God for the Teachers Pension. I was pretty financially naive in my 20s and 30s and divorce and a move out of London, three kids at private school and uni meant we were never able to save anything. 59 now and mortgage paid off and I get the bulk of my pension in a year. I plan to carry on teaching part time for a fair while and am going to switch to my school’s private pension for my remaining years as it will help minimise tax and give me a pot. I get a 60k lump som and about 19 k a year and then the state pension and remainder of the TPS pension at 66/7. Husband in similar position so we should be fine.

do you mind me asking how old you are?

I have a few self employed friends who have no pension pot at all. They seem to be planning for their house to provide for them, so downsizing at retirement and then living off that equity release.

im late 40’s but have no idea how younger people are supposed to save when you look at the world they are in - high property costs, student debt, cost of living etc.

Ok..

This

@1980isitjustme i turned 40 last summer. I graduated in 2007 and bought a cheap flat the same year with my now husband, my Dad died when I was 18 so between us we had a large deposit and a relatively small mortgage. Pensions were being spoken about a lot when I graduated which is probably why I joined the work place pension in the first place. We now live in our ‘forever’ home with a bedroom and proper bathroom in the ground floor so no plans to downsize and live on the equity but our mortgage will be paid in 8 years so still a good bit of time to seriously start saving once it is out of the way. Saving anything beyond minimum contributions that come straight from my wages is just a dream for now, but I feel better that I’m aware of it and have a plan to deal with it.

I’m 43. Paid off mortgage a few years ago. I save the maximum per month into a LISA (350), 150 into a stocks and shares ISA, 100 into workplace pension and 350 into a private pension. Dh and I both put money into ISA for dc. Once I hit 50 I can’t pay into LISa anymore so I’ll look to divert that money into either isa or pension. I’m not hugely wanting to retire early but my job is very flexible and I can work a day a week if I want which I’ll prob do for as long as I can.

I will be mortgage free in 4 years time, I’ll be 47. I have recently retrained as a nurse and love my job, let’s hope it stays that way but I’m already ready to drop from 4 days to 3, or 2. I’m divorced, 2 teens and proud of my achievement!

Age 40. I have an NHS pension, a chunk of which is the ‘old’ final salary pension. However, have worked part time (1, and more recently 2 days a week) since having children. DH doesn’t have a pension at all. We have paid our mortgage off, & have savings from some shares sold a few years ago, which we haven’t touched. I looked at my pension last week, and need to think seriously about increasing my hours in the next couple of years.

Can I ask what happened?

Part time hours for a spell to bring my children up, COVID significantly impacted me meaning I left the industry earlier than planned so reduced input into the pension.

In the meantime, DH pottered along full time, no penalties whatsoever but paying into a crap pension will not have a decent pension either.

Im investing as much as I can into ISAs which actually are forcast to more than make up for the loss if left for the next 10 years.

Bringing kids up is expensive in the short AND long term man!

V early 40s here, DH a little older. I have several years and am still accruing in/contributing to a final salary pension but also max out ISA / LISA every year, plus investments and a SIPP. DH also has a historic DB pension as well as the other pieces above.

Live in an expensive part of London, so also overpaying as much as we can of the mortgage. Should be mortgage-free in 5 years or so.

Plan is to move to part-time in late 50s, work as long as we fancy it (DH and I both love our jobs) and perhaps combine with travel etc. while leaving it as long as we can to take our pension. Am not anticipating taking our tax-free lump sums but at this stage, you never know.

We are also enjoying ourselves. We love the theatre and galleries (one of the benefits of living in London) and travel. Life is short, so we are trying to be balanced.

Interesting that for the majority this seems to all be about topping up pensions. We’re mid 40’s - DH has no pension (always self employed) and my DB ended 11 yrs ago when I took voluntary redundancy and went on Mat leave. Have a small employer pension now that I contribute to with PT job but won’t amount to much.
However our focus over the past few years is to increase our rental properties so using what we would of put in to a pension to save for a deposit with the aim to have 5 properties fully paid off by the time we are around 60 (all 5 properties now purchased and don’t plan to buy anymore).
So aside from the deposit, our retirement funds will come from someone else paying the mortgages for the next 15 years. This means we are in control of our funds and can access as and when we want.
Retirement shouldn’t be solely seen about paying off your own mortgage and a pension pot!
Should also add we are very much about enjoying life now and not waiting for retirement as who knows what tomorrow brings!

I am mid forties, I have a small pension from my twenties but my 30s were essentially a write off due to mat leave, part time work at charities with poor pension schemes and study. So it is only since my early forties that I have paid into a decent work pension. I still have young children, my youngest is 7 and 20 years left on my mortgage. I am focusing on mortgage overpayments and trying to build my savings, my main worry is not being able to take pensions until late when realistically I think I will be ready to retire by 60.

This is obviously working for you but for most people the tax legal and risk implication’s of buy to lets with big mortgages make a pension far more tax efficient and simple for retirement planning.

I am very close to 40 and barely think about it. I worked in the public sector for around 15 years and have a DB pension from that which should pay out around £18k a year.

I do also pay into the pension at my current employer, as well as a shared AVC but I only work part time so it’s not that much. If I carry on in this job until retirement (which I probably won’t of course) I think it would give me another £12k a year or so.

I’m assuming there will still be some form of state pension by the time I get there but I guess we’ll see.

So I’m not that worried. I don’t expect to retire particularly early but it doesn’t bother me that much. I do have some acquaintances who are working themselves into the ground in jobs they hate in their 40s so they can have a nice time in their 60s, seems bizarre to me but each to their own.