I’m 58 and I have this much in my private pension

[elsaandanna]

I have £75,000. In a Nest Account
My chances of retiring early are not looking good.
I genuinely did not understand the principles of a private pension despite being self employed for 30 years.
These things should be taught in schools!
My mortgage is paid off and I have about £8k in a rainy day fund.

I wish I hadn’t looked now.

Can you downsize?

Not really.
I already live in a 2 bed house in a very cheap part of the UK. It’s worth less than the national average house price.

Have a look at Rebel Finance School…there’s still plenty of time to increase your pot.

I agree retiring early does not look like it will be possible, and agree that this should be taught in schools.

auto enrollment is a good thing but hasn’t benefited you due to being self employed and also too old by time they rolled it out.

In short, no, you probably can't retire early.

Use the next 10 years to get more saved, if you can double that pot, it will either top up your state pension by 3-4k per year as an annuity, or you could drawdown and invest it yourself but its riskier.

Auto enrolment also still just isnt enough for most lower earners. 8% per annum of low pay simply doesnt compound enough.

You still have time. You need to put as much as you can into your pension pot. Could you open a SIPP alongside the NEST pension?

I don’t think I know enough to do a SIPP.
quite honestly, it’s a miracle. I’ve opened the Nest account. I’ve been told as a rubbish company. But I can put my payments up and down depending on what sort of month I have. The problem with being self-employed as you just never know what’s coming in.

I can’t believe this situation. All of a sudden, I’ve got old with no real pension to speak of. I grew up With parents on benefits, so no financial education to speak of but I’m not blaming anybody other than myself

There’s nothing wrong with NEST. Well done for opening that OP. Hopefully over the next five to ten years it compounds nice. Don’t stop contributing.

Better to be doing something now than in 10 years at least. Just try and put as much as you can in. I’m with Nest and they are great for amending contributions when you need

If you can work until state pension kicks in at 67, it gives you 9 years to build up as much as you can. Your existing pot could double in that time with compound interest and if you could put about £400 per month in too, you might be able to get it to around the £200K mark by then. A drawdown amount of 4-5% of that each year would top up your £12500 state pension to around £20K per year. Consider if that would be enough to live on?

Of course it’s not enough, but it’s a step in the right direction (although very aware it’s most just gearing people up to fund their pensions themselves then pull the plug on state pensions).

For people of OP’s age auto enrollment just wasn’t a thing. My age as well. I’ve had numerous jobs when I was younger when nothing at all was put into a pension.

Auto enrollment is better than nothing.

How long ago did you pay off your mortgage? If very recent and you have spare money each month then put all of it into pension. If you’re using it for living expenses, put in as much as you can. Every little helps, and as previous poster says you could still have £20k per year, which with no mortgage is doable.

Now you've paid off your mortgage you can pay the money you would have spent on that into your pension.

I agree that it should be higher, but the most important thing is that everyone adds 8% from the moment they start working so the compounding can happen for as long as possible. If they were to increase employee contribution to 6% and employer to 4%, plus ban opting out then most people would have enough when they retire in generations to come

If you’ve got no mortgage now it’s a good opportunity to really up your pension over the next 10 years. Maximise your earning now and up your monthly pay mental into the nest account. You’ve still got time.

Watch the Rebel Finance school. The 2026 course is on YouTube and is free.

Can you put some of your rainy day fund into your pension, or is that what you need to cover living expenses if your income drops?

What's your monthly income and how much can you put into your oension over the next 10 years? Compounding will do a lot to grow your current fund but maxxing your contributions will make more of a difference

Can you get a job in the public sector for a few years? The LGPS builds up quite quickly compared to NEST in terms of contribution.

They can’t teach everything at school. Soon you will just have to ask AI so there is no point and pension rules change from time to time.
OP, if you have paid your mortgage off then do you have spare money. How about paying into a stocks and shares ISA.

Nest pension have only been going for 16 years. Do you have any pension savings from a previous job?

OP, you’ve done a great job paying off your mortgage and saving a decent rainy day fun. You should pat yourself on the back! £75k is a decent start. As others say, keep saving. If you work another 9 years it could double. Meaning you could end up with a state pension and annuity paying you a combined £20k/yr. With no mortgage for one person that’s not fancy, but secure.

www.retirementlivingstandards.org.uk

Ive re paid into my pension fund (thanks OP i needed a kick up the arse too!!)

if you have paid off your mortgage, can you fund those into your pension until you retire?!

I pay minimal in at the moment with work, but some, and my plan is to go heavy once the mortgage is paid off in ten years!

I think you've done pretty well and have saved more than many people. Nobody i know will be retiring early - I know this was a big thing in the past, and amongst the well-off, but I think it will become less and less common as public sector pension schemes have tightened up on the rules. So we'll all be in it together until 67!

This, for sure. If you got a job paying £30k and had zero pay rises for the next nine years, you’d still be getting an extra £5,500 a year pension. (In today’s money - obviously inflation would be added to that)