40 and no pension, where do i start?

First of all check your state pension forecast and make sure you have Home responsibilities credits recorded for your years at home.

https://www.thepensionservice.gov.uk

There are 2 state pensions so getting an idea of how much you will get from there is an excellent starting point for your pension provision.

Does your company offer a pension?

Agree with Edinvestor, start off by getting a State Pension forecast, you may be pleasnatly surprised (I was). You need 30 years NI paid/credited to get a full State Pension. Your eight years of childcare should be credited as Home Responsibilities (providing you were claiming Child Benefit).

Then join your Company Pension if they also contribute to it.

I am not a Pensions professional.

camso69,
time is not in your favour, but timing may be...
I think I read on here somewhere that you should look to put half your age as a percentage of your salary into your pension. So 20% would be the minimum you should start tucking away. Realistically you will be looking for at least 15 years of contributions. The compounding effect should not be underestimated.

As has been stated already, equities (look at the FTSE100 as a crude measure) are relatively cheap and offer good buying opportunities.

Best wishes. It's seldom too late.

I did some calculations on this a couple of years ago and worked out that a man starting retirement savings at age 40 would need to put aside about 32% of salary in order to retire on half their final income (increasing at RPI and with allowance for a spouse's pension). A woman would need slightly more.

So ideally, put aiside as much as you can afford.

bristol_pilot wrote: »

At 40 starting a pension can still be worth it if you are a high earner and prepared to pay 50% or more of salary into said pension (before tax relief). Many people think that now is actually a good time to start a pension as the stock market is still quite low. If not, plan to throw yourself on the mercy of the state instead. The worst thing to have is a small pension - just enough to mean that you are not entitled to any benefits in retirement, or have your pension income deducted pound-for-pound from your benefits.

No need to pay as much as 50% of salary! It would hardly be worth working if you are going to contribute this much. :rolleyes:

The key thing is contribute what you can afford - I would suggest 25% of salary between your contribution and your employer's. That should be enough to provide a reasonable pension at 65 - probably only around 35-40% of your final salary, but you have to be realistic about expectations at this stage of your life. You need to balance earning enough to make work worthwhile, and building up a reasonable retirement fund. Even at 40, retirement is still a long way off and you are still relatively young. Aim to enjoy your current life, not just plan for old age.

I also recommend not putting all your money into the stockmarket, regardless of what the 'gurus' say. Spread your investments across shares and bonds.