Share your thoughts on saving for retirement with Scottish Widows - chance to win £300 voucher!

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We all know that it’s important to be organised when it comes to saving for our retirement. Some of us are pension savvy and have been making regular payment since starting work. Others find it all a bit confusing and scary so bury our heads in the sand. Scottish Widows are interested in finding out how you feel when it comes to saving for your retirement and whether you think women face more challenges when it comes to saving for their retirement?

Here’s what Scottish Widows has to say: “For many, sorting out their pension is at the bottom of the to do list with lots of other day to day priorities to consider. We understand life is different for everyone and a lot depends on what age and stage you’re at in life. Each stage comes with its own set of financial challenges to think about – job hunting, paying rent and student loans, mortgages, marriage, and careers. So when does retirement make the list?

Our latest research shows that many women aren’t planning their pension early enough with women in their 20s far less likely than men of the same age to be saving enough, or anything, for their future. This is worrying given that women statistically live longer than men and earn less.

We want to empower women to take control of their pension whatever their age. We’d love to hear your thoughts as we examine these issues in more depth, so that we can continue to ensure more women take ownership of their financial futures and look forward to retirement.”

So how do you feel when it comes to saving for retirement? Do you feel organised or unprepared? If you’re already retired do you have any tips to share about your experience? What challenges, if any, do you think women face in particular when it comes to saving for retirement? Do you think that parental leave has a big effect on stalling pension payments for women?

Whatever your thoughts are when it comes to saving for retirement please share them below to be entered into a prize draw to win a £300 voucher of your choice (from a list).

Thanks and good luck

MNHQ

Terms and conditions apply

My parents always told me save for a pension as soon as I started my career - I have a great occupational pension but am still concerned there'll be no state pension for the likes of me so am planning a private pension too, although I'm a bit worried about the lifetime savings limit... It's a real minefield, whether to invest in a pension that might be subject to a tax grab or go for investment in capital assets. And then I worry about my DS - should I start a pension for him or invest in property? Or save for university fees?

I have always paid in to a workplace pension but it's depressing how little that is likely to give me. I do have multiple small pots for various reasons and my current main provider gives me a great option to provide them with basic info on my other pots so I can get a combined estimate. It was enough to make me increase my contribution last time I got a pay rise!

Just started my pension, had to fight with my employer to get a decent workplace pension sorted, got there in the end. Want to have a choice at retirement age as to whether I want to work or not

How do you feel when it comes to saving for retirement?
We were dead skint when we first married and the children were small. When I did a degree as a mature student and started earning decent money it was money we weren't used to having and spending so eventually managed to overpay on our mortgage until we repaid it early. All our savings then went into ISAs and regular savings for retirement.

Do you feel organised or unprepared?
Ah, now here's the rub... Thought we had a while yet, but I've recently taken ill-health retirement. Didn't see that coming...

If you’re already retired do you have any tips to share about your experience?
Teachers' Pension website is awful! Regularly crashes and phones go unanswered.

What challenges, if any, do you think women face in particular when it comes to saving for retirement?
Career breaks for caring roles.
Not taken seriously as savers.
Constantly changing goal-posts. (Thanks all those whining men who couldn't handle us ladies having any perks!)

Do you think that parental leave has a big effect on stalling pension payments for women? Yes

I'd love to but struggle to have spare money which worries me a lot. Work pension is quite poor

It's very hard with a family

Completely fed up with retirement saving. I'm a senior manager at a council and in LGPS.
I got a promotion and significant pay rise and as a consequence a massive pension hit for exceeding the annual allowance . Have opted out if lgps and stopped AVCs now just when I should be ratcheting up my retirement saving . I'm not a mega high earner- £100k plus but only just and think it's ridiculous to hit people in my position in this way.

I think older age and pensions are one of those things I postpone thinking about - there are so many other things to do, and other pressures on my resources. However, I have a good workplace pension so perhaps that allows me to not think too actively about it.

I do think the plethora of sources of information makes the task feel overwhelming though. It is confusing, and I am not sure where I would turn in the first instance for advice.

I do think about ways in which we could supplement our income more directly when the children are adult - perhaps things like having a lodger or downsizing our property - but we are late 40s, have teenage children contemplating university and still have a massive mortgage. So there's not much resource around to be putting into a mortgage. I also think the much later age that we will retire makes thinking about a pension also seem more of a 'luxury'.

Sadly, I don't think we will enjoy a retirement in

Ooops. Pressed send too quickly.
Meant to say, don't think we will enjoy a retirement in the same way the current generations are - I think we will face a much later retirement age, a tax on social care (which I think is necessary by the way) and a much reduced level of state support.

As well as the usual structural problems for women around years out of the workplace and the impact of part time working, there is the additional difficulty of making sense of what impact that will have on my pensions. My pension statements arrive with a predicted income based on a series of assumptions. The problem is there is no mechanism for me to fiddle about with these to see the impact of changing those assumptions, and therefore the outcome of different decisions I might make. Online calculators might help with this. However, they need to be trustworthy and useful (e.g. compare a mortgage calculator from a bank, which might give a more unrealistic idea of what is borrowable, compared to Money Saving Expert, which is independent and consumer focused). This would definitely help women particularly for whom the standard set of assumptions may not apply.

Not actually saving for our pension as such, but we have held on to our previous property we had before children and hoping that once the mortgages are paid off, the equity would be used to fund a modest retirement. Well that is unless the children go to Uni / get married etc.

I must admit it’s not high up my list of priorities, however I feel fortunate that I work in the public sector so have a local government pension which I think is pretty good compared to other things, plus I probably am hoping to be able to rely on property equity though that may turn out not to be such a good plan!

something I should think about but avoid

i have an NHS pension, I started paying it at 18, am now 50. I am as prepared as I can be, never had any spare to overpay a pension.I do worry about my old age, might be working a loooong time. Aim to pay off my mortgage at 60 .wish me luck.

I save what I can afford mopping up higher rate tax if I ever earn enough 😁

I used to change jobs on a regular basis and gave up work when our DS was born 7 years ago. Subsequently I have a few bits of pension provision but nothing to write home about. I'm relying on possible inheritance and my DP's pension to see us OK in our old age (he's been with the same company for 30 years!)

I have a teacher's pension.

I have 3 different workplace pensions with different providers and had several years out of the workplace as a sahm so feel a bit unsure about what my private pension might eventually be. I have another 19 years of work before I reach state pension age.

I'm very lucky to have worked for the past 8 years for a company that looks after its employees regarding retirement. They give a 10% contributory pension so by now I have over £40,000 saved and I'm only in my early thirties and planning on another 40 years of work ahead of me. There are some aspects of my financial situation that keep me up at night - my retirement isn't one of them!

I dont have a pension. My employment history is very uneven due to complex health issues and I'm currently trying to set up my own small business, but not making any money yet. The future is something I worry about a lot, but I'm not in a position to do anything about it. I worry more about getting my sons through university than I do about my old age.

I do feel prepared to an extent because I have a good workplace pension. Where I am less comfortable is with a lack of savings, I feel everyone needs a good solid block of savings underneath them for retirement and I can’t envisage that happening for me which is a big concern. I also have concerns with changes in the workplace pension. Years ago I made choices about my pension which would have meant I was well provided for. At the time of making the choice we were told that no changes could be made by employees or the business. Of course that turned out not to be true and the pension plan I am on now is not as good as the one I chose. I may need to look at added contributions in future but there is a ceiling of how many years you can work/put in and I am likely to reach that before statutory retirement age anyway so added years would only benefit me if I was to leave my employer prior to retirement age

I have had a pension since 19, been with the same company since 18. Only started contributions which are now mandatory when they became that way. I don't have disposable income to contribute any more to it. Maybe when the kids have grown up.

I started my private pension at the age of 26 and that was only down to my husband persuading me to start, otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered. I’m so glad I did as I feel so much more positive about retirement. It’s so much harder these days to save. I do think women have it harder in terms of saving, maternity leave and then reducing working hours to look after children both have a big impact.

I've been saving since 21 and am now 50. However, I started out my career with large national companies with good pension arrangements and share offers etc but for the last 18 I've worked for a small local family business so the pension contributions from my employers have been poor. I have a happy work life balance though so I was prepared to trade this off for the time with my DC now. Luckily my DH has a really good pension.

Would have been fine if pension scheme hadn't changed rules, moving it from a final salary to career average to general cuts which means a loss of thousands because of a dodgy valuation. Why bother eh! Have bought property instead.