50+ without a fat pension pot....

[lechatnoir]

Come on it! Share your plans or just be thankful you're not the only one who didn't or more likely couldn't squirrel away £££ every month.

I've got the grand total of about £40k in my pension which will give me pretty much fuck all! Retirement is a long way off for us (both on pretty low income in an expensive part of the country) and we just don't have spare cash to put away.

Ive just started paying into a company scheme but only the minimum so will be a bit more so accept retirement won't be fine dining & luxury cruises and will probably just draw down money to go on a last hurrah holiday, down size to release some capital and rely on state pension and a bit extra.

What are your plans (if any?) Please don't post worrying that a £30k annual income won't suffice - this is not the thread for you!

I think your plan to downsize and release capital for a bit of fun money is a good one.

What age are you? Just wondering if you would ever be able to make additional payments. Your plan isn’t a bad one. I would also say if you live in an expensive part the country it may be worth relocating but that isn’t for everyone. MIL was very reluctant to relocate to us up North, she lives in a very expensive part of Surrey. It would have solved all her money issues and left her with around 300k cash after buying a house. So she remains in a house worth a huge amount living like a church mouse. It’s not huge but it’s a stones throw to a train station and in central London in 25 mins.

You might get more replies if you posted in chat or AIBU, OP.

However, I did that once on the same subject. Lots of supportive replies but the smuggers couldn't resist piling in with their big pots 😉

I'm 60 with nowt. Luckily I enjoy my job (lowly paid though it is) and have no wish to retire. I'm mortgage free so if I needed to I'd downsize and live off equity.

DD is at uni and I'll make sure she doesn't make some of the mistakes I did.

Yes sorry by downsizing I should've also mentioned that includes moving somewhere cheaper as we only in a three bed semi! We've been lucky enough to benefit from buying in our 20s & ridiculous house price rises.

In similar boat, though I have a (very) small private pension I paid the minimum possible into while the children were small and I couldn't work. So do have something.
Am now paying as much as I can into a work one, but I would really like to stop working once my state pension is maxed up. (3 years time)
Have found myself clicking on pension calculators a lot over the last 6 months or so, but realistically there's very little I can do. But at least I won't have to pay tax on my pension 'earnings' once I do retire.

Zero pension here and a crap freelance income. I am ramping up my entrepreneurial skills! At almost 50 I plan to finally start focussing on earning money. I am giving myself 3 years to become a multimillionaire. I realise this sounds ridiculous but sod it I am giving it my full attention.

Yes no pension here at all and no savings. Both self employed and covid wiped out those.
Fortunately we have equity in our home of £300k ish, business is Okish and we can carry on for now but any plans to retire are just a dream

When you leave work, your costs often spiral as you are home most of the time, so heating lights and you go out more often. That is unless you are using the trains/tube etc I london to travel to work when people are paying over a hundred a week easy in fares as you save that being home, WFH

I'm 61 and only likely to get about 5k a year on top of the state pension. Not really anything I can do about that as still working full time and will until i am 67 probably. Plan is to downsize which hopefully will release 20 to 30 thousand more to supplement. Luckily I don't have particularly expensive tastes but it does bother me that being retired will be more expensive than my current lifestyle just because of utility bills being higher if home. No other costs will change for me.

I think there will be very many people who have little for their pensions in old age.

There’s a recent thread on pensions where experts were agreeing that if you haven’t got a lot then it’s not much different to having nothing as benefits will make up to minimum anyway.
Oh, and spend any spare when you’re in 60s and 70s and young enough to enjoy it.

Me included as stbxh has pissed away £800k from the sale of our house. It's just gone.

What? Was this supposed to be split between you?

@Candleabra Yes. He sold the house the year before we got divorced. And then just told me he'd invested in buy to lets.

He was very controlling financially and violent. I had to take his word for it.

Turned out he's up to his neck in debt and nothing to show for the sake of the house.

Fucked me over good and proper.

For the sale not sake

No pension either . Had to cash in what little we had to compensate for loosing high income due to illness. At the time we had kids to consider so really had no choice. A bit of equity in the house, a bit of savings. As long as we can cover the basics it will be OK. A lot of these experts on pensions are calculating on so called quality of life , like holidays , cars , entertainment. I am lucky as I feel I have done all that when I was fit and able to enjoy it. Won't feel too deprived . State pension and benefits in EU country is quite good as well.

Sell up on retirement and move to an energy efficient property in a cheap part of the country. Look at easy ways to supplement your pension income like casual work.

There are no magic wands that will create a significant pension pot in the space of a decade. The more you save now the better off you will be. That's it really.

My mum passed away recently and I was quite surprised to find her state pension and top up with pension credit was £299 per week.
She also had attendance allowance so despite no personal pension she was fairly OK. No council tax to pay, no mortgage etc. Don't begrudge it one bit but she was in a better financial position, disposable income wise, than me.

I'm in the same boat, started work full time late in life due to kids and being a single parent, making contributions for the 10 years I've got remaining in full time work. It feels like a slog tbh

@lechatnoir yep same here. I’m not wasting time worrying about it though. I did pay into a private pension but had it decimated by a previous government tax raid and it’s never recovered. Then decades of caring for aged parents and in laws. I have altered my mind set from worrying about it to enjoying living today and possibly tomorrow. I suspect I won’t see retirement due to genetics and the likelihood of retirement goal post moving yet again. I have a part time job I enjoy and spend a bit and save a bit in accounts where I can access it if I need to too. We are fortunate in having low overheads and are used to stretching a penny to make a pound. Dh has several decent pensions and is almost certain to outlive me, so he will be ok fingers crossed.
Money doesn’t make you happy, it only gives you options. Happiness comes from contentment and that flows from enjoying the small, over looked joys in life.

I don't know what I've got altogether - not much! When I've looked at my forecast apparently if I work til I'm 67 (not going to happen, I've got a chronic condition) then I'll have just under £8k a year.

That probably won't be worth much in another 8 years. I've worked for 42 years in total now. Some of it part time, when DC were smaller, but I've always worked.

The irony of shooing away those with salary level pensions coming, whilst planning to downsize and release equity. Still puts you amongst the most fortunate people in the country, and certainly in the world!

I've been thinking about this a lot recently as I don't have much of a pension.
I think my options are 1) downsize, which may bring around £60K whilst still living in the same area 2) I'm planning to attempt to make money from a passion and can do it at home, but impossible to know if it will be a success 3) Not spend much! I won't have a mortgage to worry about so I might not have that much less per month than I do now after bills 4) continue to work about 10 hours a week if I can.

@Summerhillsquare I realise the option of releasing equity by downsizing &/or moving to a cheaper area is not an option for everyone hence saying I am lucky to be in that position. And releasing equity won't see us living like kings but will certainly provide a few luxuries / comforts but of course see us leaving friends and family behind which isn't ideal on retirement.

Shooing away those that have big pots but are worrying how they will survive on £30k when they retire, are likely higher earners when many of us survive on that (& indeed less) whilst paying a mortgage, child care, university costs etc.

I dont have a pension pot but I'll have enough prsi credits for 80% of the contributory pension (now 265 euro per week). My civil service pension will be about 5000 e per year. I am saving 75 pw. I feel its too late to get into Avc and in fact when I looked into it I decided nothing was going to give me back 75pw for a "mere" 75 pw so I just save that with the intention of paying myself an extra few bob pw if I need it. I single but i own my house so I'm hoping I'll be OK.

House is a bit run down though so I have to tackle that too before I can even go down to 4 days pw. I'll be working hard just to have enough. But I have faith it will be enough.

I'm 52 in a minimum wage job. Got about £5000 in my nest pension and in a panic signed up for the company scheme from next week.
Mortgage will be paid off by retirement age and I don't live in a pricey part of the country.
Just seen a poster above say her mum gets £299 with top up. I only earn 340 as it is.