40 y/o no pension, work place 1% pension, or ISA, or?

I really should be more engaged with my pension than i am. I contribute 4% and my employer doubles my contribution so at the moment im getting effectively 12%.

My default cap is upto 6% but i know i can pay in another 6% through our salary sacrifice scheme. Not sure though if they only double the first 6% and exclude anything over that or if they would double up their contribution on the next 6% too.
 
Something I need to put some thought into really - in the past moving around jobs a lot company pensions seemed like a lot of hassle and I had my own investments - but in the last few years the performance has gone from good to woeful :s
 
10 years in a Sainsburys pension which has been locked since 1998 (Around £15,000). A gap of 5 years and for the last 15 years I've been paying £120(ish) a month into a work pension which is matched pound for pound by the company. I hope to retire when i'm 60 (14 years time), so God knows how much pension i'll get back. I don't trust them, buy hey, what do you do? ..
 
If I remember correctly I have been paying about 7% and that is at least matched by the company (at times it has been more than matched for a few years for various reasons). I've been doing that since I was ~22 although the original pension I was in was closed by the company and I'm now paying into a different one.

I keep and eye on the current one but I really need to find out how to access the old one online as I'm not sure of it's value (I know you can but I'm not set up for it).
 
If your company matches contributions then pay in whatever the max is they match, it's affectively free money.

Contributions are always a hard thing to decide, do you make them now hoping it will pay off in the long run (i.e. you live long enough to utilise it), or do you spend/enjoy now.

Now self-employed I no longer have the perk of matched contributions so trying to build up something by putting £1-2k month into a pension for myself and the missus. As to whether it's the correct approach only time and hindsight well tell, if I knew then what I know now I'd have stuck a load into Bitcoin. :p
 
Pensions are a wired one.

The state pension age is never going to come down, but it is likely to increase. Soon enough it will be 67 and I can see it being 75 before I retire. As if that is not enough Governments have even targeted private (personal) pensions. So these will rise from 55 to 58, then probably 60. Probably 65 before I can retire.

Interestingly I've had a look at the LISA, and it doesn't work out for me. I'm better off investing in my SIP as it earns me double the bonus of the LISA.
 
I put in 7%, company puts in 14%, I make AVCs of anywhere between £50 and £1,500 per month.

And I don't think it'll be enough.

:(
 
albert said:
10 years in a Sainsburys pension which has been locked since 1998 (Around £15,000). A gap of 5 years and for the last 15 years I've been paying £120(ish) a month into a work pension which is matched pound for pound by the company. I hope to retire when i'm 60 (14 years time), so God knows how much pension i'll get back. I don't trust them, buy hey, what do you do? ..
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What you do is start by understanding what you have, what it is worth and what you think you'll need to save. It is pretty lazy just to trot out the 'I don't trust them' line when you don't even know what you have but you're happy to trust the tax relief you get alongside the matched employer contributions.
 
englishpremier said:
Pensions are a wired one.

The state pension age is never going to come down, but it is likely to increase. Soon enough it will be 67 and I can see it being 75 before I retire. As if that is not enough Governments have even targeted private (personal) pensions. So these will rise from 55 to 58, then probably 60. Probably 65 before I can retire.
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The age at which you can take a private pension is hard-linked to the age at which you can take the state pension - set at 10 years earlier. As long as you know your state pension retirement age then you know you can start to take your private pension 10 years earlier.
 
Mr^B said:
I put in 7%, company puts in 14%, I make AVCs of anywhere between £50 and £1,500 per month.

And I don't think it'll be enough.

:(
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That's a very good company contribution! I think my wife's new job has a similar amount. We've been looking at futures etc. and it never seems like it'll be enough. We don't think we'll be able to rely on just the pensions and ours should be good. We're now looking at other investments to help us maximise our passive income when we're older.
 
englishpremier said:
Surely this also needs "and for how long" added to the end of it too.

Living until 100+ which is feasible, places a different burden on finances than keeling over at 80.
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Not only how much and for how long, but also for when. This is especially important for people who plan to try and retire before the state pension pays, and for couples who do not have equal retirement dates.

I've mentioned them before (and I don't work for them) - 7IM have a great free app (yes, you're giving them personal information in return) called 7Imagine. That's a really good tool for showing you your staged income retirement needs, bringing together a number of different income sources.

With resources like this at people's disposal, ignorance really is no defence against poor retirement planning. Lack of available funding certainly is though, but at least you can be aware and plan as best you can.
 
Yeah with 10pc and 10pc matched Ar 33k and 32yo I don' t I'll have eno myself either.

Bitcoin/ethereum will get to 100k then I'll be ok lol
 
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