Is everyone's pension better than mine,

geelamch

Avid reader of this page ,actually thought I was doing ok, need to do more home work,.
Current annual contributions £16209 inc employer,
Final salary 2/3
Salary£44200
Brass member est £120000
Thought doing ok, but looking at the average on here I'm !!!!ed !

Turtle

I often feel I'm lagging well behind but I don't have a DB pension, it's a DC. My contributions are 23.5% with a salary of £31k. So if you want someone that's got a pension that's not as good as yours then here I am!

I'm 40 now, and would like to take early retirement at 55 (though I appreciate we wouldn't be able to afford to retire completely). Looking at most people on here and the figures that get bandied around it seems like a complete pipedream. Still, we'll keep plodding on. If we don't try to achieve it, we'll definitely fail.

What's a 'brass member'?

atush

Given you have a DB pension gee, you are doing better than most?

JoeCrystal

No, I am afraid not. By the very virtue of your DB pension, your income is almost iron clad and based on whatever your final salary with the cost to your employer much higher than whatever you are currently paying. How much of your annual contribution is actually yours. In the long run, it is quite cheaply for the employee (expensive maybe, but generally, cheap). I am guessing the employee contribution is between 5% to 10% of your salary?

In my case, I am on £21,000 salary and pay 25% of my salary into a personal pension since my employer didn't offer a good pension scheme at the time and after the auto enrolment, only pay 1% into work pension scheme.

Since starting my private pension five years ago (aged 29 now), I managed to have a fund which worth £35,000 and will keep paying 25% since I am so desperate not to rely only on state pension.

And yet... all the contribution and at such large percentage and assuming middle growth rate, and if I retire at 65, the calculator on my pension provider is saying an pension of £4,920 per year without any lump sum. Of course, that is based on the market and outside events so it could be almost much worse or better.

I just have to hope that it may be better at that point in life.

You on the other hand, are far more certain on what is your income from DB pension is going to be, either deferred or still contributing to it by the time you retire. So you are doing well with that kind of DB pension.

Joe

hugheskevi

If you ever need reassurance, just look at the Total Wealth statistics on the Wealth and Assets survey.

Median private pension wealth across all adults...under £50,000 and that is excluding those with no pension.

ajbell

And 42% have nothing according to those figures.

ajbell

How old are you?. Looks OK to me.
16k going in annually.

PlymouthMaid

Well, I can make you feel better as I only take home about 12 K a year and so cant afford any contributions and will be opting out next month when auto enrolled as although I may not notice this years's one percent too much, I cannot afford the 5% which it will increase to as I am very unlikely to get any payrises to speak of. The employer's contributions only work out at less than a hundred quid a year I think so although I do understand that I am giving up 'free money', I can't afford to do it and since I am relatively old, I won't benefit from years of growth either (if they dont lose it all or eat it up in fees).

atush

So opt out when it gets to 5% if you can't afford it. But if my employer wasnt going to give me a pay rise, i'd be looking for another job.

It is short termism to throw away free money now when you can afford it.

arthurdick

geelamch wrote: »

Avid reader of this page ,actually thought I was doing ok, need to do more home work,.
Current annual contributions £16209 inc employer,
Final salary 2/3
Salary£44200
Brass member est £120000
Thought doing ok, but looking at the average on here I'm !!!!ed !

Well, if you are !!!!ed, I would hate to know what I am.
You are contributing more P/A, than I earn P/A, plus I am almost 55 now and only been paying into an LGPS for 7.5 years, due to some very serious accidents over the years, I was out of work for two very long spells(6years & 8years), and when I did manage to get work, it was so low paid, there was no way that I could afford to contribute anything, well to tell the truth, as I was out of work for so long, I had no idea about pensions at all.
There is no way that I can catch up with where I need to be, but I am glad that I started with the LGPS 7.5 years ago, because a little of something is better than a lot of nothing.

In the meantime until I retire, I will be trying to have at least one holiday abroad per year, in case I die young and I am trying to save £300 p/m into an AVC, incase I don't die young.

That might make you feel a little better off.;)

PasturesNew

Don't worry, I've not got one at all and I'm near to the age of retirement. Not everybody's got a pension you know.

You're ferkin loaded.