RE: First Pension aged forty

Spudsey

I have worked for the same company for almost fifteen years and never went into the pension, thinking that I wouldn’t be here that long (!). In April I will be automatically enrolled with a contribution of 1% from me, and 1% from the company. This is about £14 every four weeks.
I was thinking about joining anyway and want to enrol sooner rather than later, however the amount for my age that I should really be putting away would be 20% of my salary which works out at about £240.00 every 4 weeks. I really can’t afford to put this much in but would like to put in a bit more than £15.00.
Will it make much difference just putting in an extra £10 on top of the £15? Or does every little help!? (I actually hate Tesco but this seemed appropriate!)

Lokolo

It's going to make a difference, but £15 or £25 you are likely to get very little for it. You should either be planning to put more away, or plan to live on very little in retirement, should you ever be able to.

somethingcorporate

Try the calculator here: https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/tools/pension-calculator

Linton

Suggest you use a pension calculator (eg here) to see how much pension your very small contribution will get you by the time you retire. If you cant afford a lot more now will you be able to manage on an income of £140/week after you retire?

Dont forget that because of the tax arrangements £240 every 4 weeks would mean a reduction of about £190 in your take home pay.

atush

You should put in as much as you can, and to my mind, 25 isn't enough. Perhaps you should do an MSE makeover on your outgoings so you can afford more by lowering your outgoings?

A lot of 40 yr olds, spend more than 25 a week on sandwiches and poncy coffees. Cut that out and there is 100 a month right there.

Spudsey

atush wrote: »

You should put in as much as you can, and to my mind, 25 isn't enough. Perhaps you should do an MSE makeover on your outgoings so you can afford more by lowering your outgoings?

A lot of 40 yr olds, spend more than 25 a week on sandwiches and poncy coffees. Cut that out and there is 100 a month right there.

Thank you. I will definitely look at putting more in, I don't think I have huge outgoings, I prefer to save my money to put towards big purchases we may have to make so perhaps I need to prioritise!

Blimey I don't buy any sandwiches or coffees at all let alone £25 a weeks worth! Make everything myself me!

Spudsey

Thanks for the calculators, they were more helpful than what I looked at the other day. Will have a good think about what I want and am able to put away.

jamiefly

If you only have £25 a month spare then I (me) personally wouldn't deprive myself of living OK today just to put money away for the future at the expense of my health (cutting back on heating, eating less protein and other painful sacrifices).

Assuming you work to 65 and the pension fund exceeds all expectations and that 300x25 contributions becomes £15,000 (doubled) what kind of annuity is that going to get you? I suppose you could just take it all out for triviality but either way any future means testing is likely to undo the benefit of all that saving.

Again, if it was me with £25 a month spare then I'd look at buying 1oz of silver a month.

Now £170 a week income as opposed to £140

jamiefly

atush wrote: »

You should put in as much as you can, and to my mind, 25 isn't enough. Perhaps you should do an MSE makeover on your outgoings so you can afford more by lowering your outgoings?

A lot of 40 yr olds, spend more than 25 a week on sandwiches and poncy coffees. Cut that out and there is 100 a month right there.

Utter tosh on a man of his salary, and I doubt many of his ilk do unless they are running up debts.

Can you magic me up £100 a month please?

Pensions are all or nothing in my opinion.

atush

Utter tosh from you.

Most people in this country have/buy things that are luxuries not needs. From sky TV, to the latest gadgets to exp mobile phone contracts, take out meals etc.

Yes, they should live a life. But living today and not thinking about tomorrow will mean a retirement spent in poverty.

Spudsey

atush wrote: »

Utter tosh from you.

Most people in this country have/buy things that are luxuries not needs. From sky TV, to the latest gadgets to exp mobile phone contracts, take out meals etc.

Yes, they should live a life. But living today and not thinking about tomorrow will mean a retirement spent in poverty.

I have to agree that there are an awful lot of people who see what I would call a luxury as a neccessity. I was gobsmacked on a recent poll on mse where people defined having no internet connection as poverty.
I consider even my bed as a luxury!

I have a basic mobile, no sky tv but I have a tv , and take aways are extremely rare!