Scottish Widows would love to hear your concerns about retirement: share now and you could win a £250 voucher! NOW CLOSED

[KathrynMumsnet]

Claire Stracey, Head of Marketing Communications at Scottish Widows says:

"We know thinking about retirement is probably not front of mind, especially when you have more pressing tasks to take care of as a busy mum. Whether you’re in full-time employment or you’ve taken a career break, we’d love to hear any retirement planning questions that keep you awake at night. Have you had trouble finding clear information on your pension options? Are you confident that you’re setting yourself up for the best possible retirement?

We want to make retirement planning less daunting so we’ll be sharing stories and suggestions from our pensions specialists to help you get - or stay - on track.

So what are your biggest concerns when it comes to retirement? Let us know on the thread below and look out for pensions information for mums here; on Facebook and on ScottishWidows.co.uk."

By leaving your comment below, you’ll be entered into a prize draw where one lucky Mumsnetter will win a £250 John Lewis voucher*. Standard T&Cs apply and can be viewed here.

Thanks and good luck!

MNHQ

*Scottish Widows and The Lloyds Banking Group are not affiliated to the prize draw and accept no liability in respect of the prize draw.

I worry about not having enough money, hopefully by then the mortgage will be paid off. I have a small pension that I put into each month but I don't think it will be worth very much when I retire. I am very careful with money and I do save but how much is enough! I'll only find out when I retire!

No pension but own house outright (quite large so could downsize) & have substantial savings. I would like to know whether there will be any decent equity release schemes available by the time I retire as I don't think they offer very good value at the moment. I'm 48.

Whether to emigrate or not

I think my worry is the same as everyone else's - not being able to afford to retire. My company do not offer a workplace pension scheme, and even if they did I wouldn't be able to afford to pay into it out of my wages. I work for minimum wage for a tiny family run business, and paying into a pension is not something I'm financially able to do.

I have a work pension. Dp has nothing, having been a house husband and then working part time, and currently out of work.

I think we'll cope (hope!). My biggest worry is being bored or getting on each other's nerves.

I have a good occupational pension so I am not worried about my income but we rent our house and see no way of ever saving enough deposit to purchase one so I am worried about renting my home in retirement

I know that I am paying into a pension through work, but don't understand what to expect out of it when I retire. I don't think it will be enough, so need to either pay more in or save in other ways to spread the risk.

Definitely hospital care since a few elderly friends now have caught viruses in hospitals and died from that. Also, I don't think care is of a consistant standard when you are retired either in hospitals or care homes. I am also concerned about running out of money since even though I have paid into the system, seems like I won't be getting much out. Often think everything was available for elderly people years ago much more than it is today!

I have 2 concerns, the first being what state the NHS will be in in 20 years time and if it will still be free, generally the older we get the more you need the NHS. Secondly, what sort of pension/retirement money I will have...

not having enough money.

Im worried about retirement because I ahve no pension, but Im working oin it

Paying Long Term Residential Care Home fees is a major worry. My mother spent 7 years in a nursing home, the total bill for her care was approximately £300,000. The Scottish Government contributed about £80,000 towards her care which left £220,000 to be financed from her savings and pensions. We were fortunate to find a Lifetime Care annuity provider in 2007 which financed approximately 50% of the shortfall for an initial investment of £70,000. There are only a few companies that sell these annuity style Long Term Care Plans, there is no competition in the market and annuity rates are not as good as they were 8 years ago so the initial outlay would be considerably higher than in 2007. Current monthly fees for Care Homes in Scotland are approximately £4000/month. The Scottish Government pays approximately £1000/month towards Care and Nursing which leaves £3000/month or £36000/year to self finance. My pensions amount to about £24,000/year. The only other options appear to be selling the family home or releasing equity. However, these options would only be appropriate where there is no partner that needs to stay in the family home.

My concern is not having enough money to live on, and to be able to afford doing some of the things that we do now

Not having enough money to live on

I thought that I would be fine as my husband had a great pension,,,,until he left me.....and I got nothing from it as he wanted to take the house in return....so I am left with no pension and it is a worry.

I am worried about having to retire early and not being able to access my pension. I love my job as a special education teacher, but is mentally, physically and emotionally draining. Yet the goalposts on retirement age keep changing. I am struggling now, I cannot imagine doing this at 67/68.

I actually had to retire when I was 44 due to ill health & disability. Luckily I had a good pension scheme &, despite the fact that my employers were just going to sack me on 3 months' salary after 28 years employment, I fought with the unions to get my maximum pension. My employers said they would never pension someone off who was under the age of 55 which was ridiculous, age shouldn't matter when you're doctors & specialists say you're unable to work again so my advice is, if this happens to you, don't give up fighting till you get what you deserve & make sure you have a good pension scheme. If I hadn't fought for mine I would have lost my house which I had spent a fortune on adapting it for my disabilities.

That I've left it too late to make it worth my while

It would be healthcare - with an ageing population and the prevalence of dementia, is there going to be sufficient support to help sufferers with this condition live in their own homes as long as possible

I worry about where we will live. I love my house ( and its memories ) but realistically it is too big for two of us to maintain

Not being able to afford the basics

My concern about retirement is that the Government are continuously hitting those at the bottom of the financial asset world so by the time I have retired they will have purposely devalued any pension that I may have been entitled to so meaning that those at the bottom like me will have no retirement and have to work until death.

Concerned that I will not be able to maintain a reasonable standard of living when I come to retire. Having been out from work to look after my son for the past 10 years and not having paid much in the way of NI contributions I dont think I will have a very large pension amount or not be eligible for anything, especially with all the new rules that keep being implemented for pensions.

Not having enough money to live without worry / how to spend my time!

That I wont have enough to live on