Help for 51 year old

Mutton_Geoff wrote: »

Too true. I was 38 and realised I hadn't done very much pension saving. Some friends helped switch on the "lightbulb". I was fortunate to join a company with a DB scheme but I still opted for max accrual rate (costing me 13% of my salary). I also topped this up by paying into AVCs a toal of 30% then later 50% of my salary. At first it was painful, I had lodgers to help with my mortgage, I started a small business that provided extra income but after a while, I just got used to my level of income and lived within it.


22 years later, I am 60 and can see the benefit of that so I would say the OP still has a chance but it is going to take a serious onward commitment to achieve anything decent.


Fag packet sums. If a decent pension is say, £2k a month (£24k a year), the state should provide £8k of that, so you need £16k additional. If you believe in 4% drawdown, then you'll need a pot of £400k at retirement.


You need to save around £1,200 a month to achieve that. If you are a high rate tax payer, the good news is that will cost you "only" £700 a month in lost income. Can you afford that?


There are plenty of spreadsheets online to help you work out your needs now and in retirement. The SOA forms here help too. Do two, one for now and one for how you think life will be in retirement to gain an idea of your needs.


I have many friends from middle management type jobs, now retired and they all seem to say around £2k a month is needed for a comfortable retirement, holidays abroad, replacement (not new) car every few years.



If your income is lower, then you just have to do what you can, but as dunstonh says, you have to take it seriously.