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.

My biggest concern is whether the my State pension will ever get paid. The date when it's due has already been pushed back by 8 years, so I have my doubts!

I worry about not being able to enjoy my retirement by being poor and not being able to help my children out.

Financial security

i think being a burden on my family is my biggest fear

I am worried I won't have enough to live on as I have never paid into a pension as I couldn't afford it. I worked in a job paying minimum wage and gave up work due to the cost of childcare. I am currently a SAHM so still can't afford to put anything away.

Being lonely and infirm

I think my biggest dilemma is wondering what the best way to boost my retirement income would be. I do have a private pension but it will be quite modest so I don't know whether to pay more into it or invest any spare cash elsewhere. I suppose my worry would be that I'm reluctant to commit more to a pension in case I need extra cash in an emergency at any point before retirement.

My biggest concern is that we won't have enough money to get by

not having enough money!

What keeps me awake at night is that the University Superannuation Scheme is being revalued in a way that will cap my benefits at my current salary. This is being done in a way that will never let me make up the lost ground from before the law change in 2000, where part-timers were often prevented from joining pension schemes, something that affected women a lot more than men. This matters because I used to work F/T but over different P/T jobs as that was all I could get, and I lost years of pension as a consequence, while my employers were brazenly able to save significant superannuation costs. Since then I appear to have been paying indirectly for (mainly male) retirees in the field to enjoy handsome final salary pensions based on their last three years' salary average, a perk that will be denied to me because of my age. This represents a double whammy - fewer years pension, and at a lower rate. Using the calculator on the union website I now find I am worse off than if I had never paid into a scheme at all, even though I will still have accrued 30+ years of contributions, as I will be denied benefits but still won't have enough to live on at the new lower rates of return. So I have no confidence in pensions, I feel thoroughly shafted, and more importantly, I no longer trust financial institutions to do the right thing by women.

We both have DC pensions so I worry about the uncertainty of that and what the fund will actually equate to by the time we get to retirement.

I also worry I'm not paying enough in but having a young family makes it hard right now. I do think about pensions a lot and keep an eye on it every month.

I worry about a depleted NHS and getting ill in y old age without having the finances to pay for treatment.

I'm worried I won't have enough pension to live on.I have an NHS pension but don't think I will have enough to live on by the time i retire.

My husband and I are both self employed so our worry is that our pension fund won't be large enough! I expect we'll be working til we drop.

I worry about finances in retirement and about having to give things up in order to make ends meet.

My biggest concern is that I won't have enough money to able to enjoy my retirement.

I am concerned - now in my late 50s and I bitterly regret giving up a very well paid job, with pension etc to be a SAHM for 15 years. I have now returned to work part time but in a NMW job - I save a substantial porton of my earnings. I have checked that I have paid enough into my state pension - fortunately I did as DH and I also have a small company and I always ensured my NI contributions were up to date. I do have a small work pension from years ago but that will hardly pay anything. DH has various work pensions plus a more generous personal one that he has pays into substantially each month. We have paid off our mortgage and also have a small buy to let property. The reality is that we can down size to release equity, but we won't have anything like the decent pension and lifestyle that my parents currently enjoy. I cannot see either of retiring for a long time, DH has even taken on a new job in his late 50s.

I am worried that we will not have enough money to live day to day. Having retired, both of my parents have gone back to work to get by. I hate seeing them scrimping when they should be enjoying this time of life. I don't want to be like this (nor them to be but they are stubborn and won't accept help).

Our concerns over retirement are that we have fallen into the gap created by the recent changes in the state pension age. Having worked for 35 expecting to retire at 60, my wife found out first that she would have to wait till 65 , then later 66. With failing health and appetite for work and technology overtaking us, we still hope to retire at 60. We will have to sell our house to fund the gap, but we worry if this will be enough.

That I won't have enough money to live a comfortable life where I don't have to watch the pennies all the time.

I am concerned that my pension contributions won't be enough for me to live on in retirement. Neither my Husband or I have ever been very highly paid and I have been a SAHM for the past 7 years. I am interested to know what other preparations can you make to help when you don't have high incomes.

I am worried that the age for retirement will just keep rising and rising and that people will be forced to worker longer than they are really capable of. This is especially difficult for any older people looking for work as they may struggle to compete with younger people, and the number of jobs for newly qualified workers are then restricted.

I have a local government pension. It is now tied to state pension age. I am worried I wont live long enough to retire.

I've been paying into a teachers pension for about 20 years. It has recently changed and I'm not even sure what age I can retire at now as I think it was changed from 60 to maybe 67? I have several frozen pensions (small) which I had before becoming a teacher. I'm not sure how to track them down and they are in my maiden name so I'm not sure if this would be a problem.

Not actually making it that far