panic at no pension

dooey1

Am 43, hubby 50 with no pensions set up. We have both always worked with no gaps .
My company will give 3% match up, i earn £15k. Can afford to put in more. Please sensible advice. What sensible to add in, i can live cheaply but deffo not on £110, if State Pensions even exists then!!

Truthseeker_2

dooey1 wrote: »

Am 43, hubby 50 with no pensions set up. We have both always worked with no gaps .
My company will give 3% match up, i earn £15k. Can afford to put in more. Please sensible advice. What sensible to add in, i can live cheaply but deffo not on £110, if it even exists then!!

A lot depends on your circumstances. Unless you already have ample savings, own very valuable fixed assets (e.g. house) or are set to inherit a large sum at some point, I would definitely start saving now.

McKneff

Put in as much as you both possibly can monthly.


Say thank you to your company for all the free money they will put in too.

paul5046

I would make a start for sure. You get 20% tax relief, then your company matches to 3%.

Bsically 3% is £450. You put in £450, your company puts in £450, yours costs £360 due to tax relief.
Total £900 in your pension for net cost of £360. No brainer.

(my maths may not be 100%, but roughly correct.)

Start then see how it go's. With the new rules you can take all as a lump sum.

atush

dooey1 wrote: »

Am 43, hubby 50 with no pensions set up. We have both always worked with no gaps .
My company will give 3% match up, i earn £15k. Can afford to put in more. Please sensible advice. What sensible to add in, i can live cheaply but deffo not on £110, if State Pensions even exists then!!

ideally you should put in 21-22%, your OH 25% at your ages, if you can.

As said above, having other assets will help you, and yo coudl put other assets into your pension. Ie say you had an extra 8K in cash not making much interest, you could put an extra 8K into your pension and get 10 into your pension. You'd use the cash as your daily spending money and just whack up your pension contribs from income.

Truthseeker_2

atush wrote: »

ideally you should put in 21-22%, your OH 25% at your ages, if you can.

As said above, having other assets will help you, and yo coudl put other assets into your pension. Ie say you had an extra 8K in cash not making much interest, you could put an extra 8K into your pension and get 10 into your pension. You'd use the cash as your daily spending money and just whack up your pension contribs from income.

It's all very well to say put it this and put in that, but you need to live as well. Not everyone can afford these large contributions. An ISA (or NISA as it's called now) may be a better option for someone in this situation and also give more flexibility.

atush

No, I really dont think so (apart from everyone should have emergency and other savings in general).

The OP has no pension at 43 and 50, and so not all that much time to rectify. So pension savings (which will be as flexible as ISAs from age 55- 5 years time for one above) will get a boost of TR to get them going. Certainly worth doing.

AS for amts, these were the received wisdom of half your age as % that is common knowledge (here at least). And if they had a great savings pot behind them now (esp in cash losing ground to inflation) whacking even more in (certainly for the 50 yr old) makes a whole lotta sense. I didn't say they HAD to put this much in, but if they could get there it might help them catch up a bit.

Then when a 25% TFLS is taken, that could be put into those NISAs?

xylophone

State Pension https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/181237/single-tier-pension-fact-sheet.pdf

Join the company pension scheme.

Is your husband employed or self employed? If self employed, does he intend to start a pension?

If employed, is there a company pension scheme?

PeacefulWaters

Truthseeker wrote: »

It's all very well to say put it this and put in that, but you need to live as well. Not everyone can afford these large contributions.

but the poster stated they could afford more. They wanted guidance. They got it. To be honest, I think more that 25% would be appropriate given that nothing's been done for decades.

So "as much as you legally can while still paying the bills" seems good.

An ISA (or NISA as it's called now) may be a better option for someone in this situation and also give more flexibility.

Flexibility, yes, although after the Budget the advantages on flexibility have narrowed.

Tax relief? No.
Employer contribution? No.

I accept that you said "may be better" but it almost certainly won't be better.

Bigmoney2

get a state pension forecast as you may also hve accrued S2P