With little chance of retiring, should I bother with a pension?

Silian

Sucks to be you. I'm also 34 and I plan to retire before I'm 45. It is possible.

Please do not stop paying into your pension.

AnotherJoe

Goldiegirl wrote: »

I used the term 'working until you drop' as the OP seems to think he won't ever retire. It was just to illustrate the point that, even if he never stops work, he can still access the pension.

Not 'ludicrous scaremongering', just a comment in the context of the original question.

Sorry GG, my comment wasn't aimed at you at all, but at whatever ridiculous article OP had read. I didn't even realise you'd written "work til you drop"


We are on the same page

Spidernick

Silian wrote: »

Sucks to be you. I'm also 34 and I plan to retire before I'm 45. It is possible.

If you're Zlatan Ibrahimović, I suppose. Are you?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zlatan_Ibrahimovi%C4%87

For most of us nearer 60 is more likely to be the norm, but I agree with all the advice to date and feel that everyone should pay into a pension (even Zlatan!).

ttaaffeedd

You have all convinced me to stick with paying into my pension as it will give me more options/benefits/security in the future. Thank you! :T:T:T:T

atush

To boil this down to shrt and simple, you are getting free money and saving tax. And you can usee this money (retired or not) at 55+.

So you put in 80, the govt gives you 20 (ie tax relief)= 100. Then your employer (in your case) is adding twice as much more, so you are getting 300 at a cost of 80. Where else can you get this kind of deal?

Stay in the pension.

Snakey

When I was 27 I had the chance to start a pension. The thing that convinced me was the forecasts I was given that showed it would be easily possible to retire at 50! Although that was incorrect advice as it happened, I do sympathise with how different it must feel today with all the doom and gloom about the place. If I'd been told that I'd be lucky to retire at 70 no matter what I did then I probably wouldn't have bothered since I think my employer put in something lousy like 1% on my behalf.

As a result of prioritising it, at 44 my pension pot is of a size where I can cross "how will I manage when I'm old?" off my list of things to worry about.

Your forties are the years where you first start to hear unsettling news about old schoolfriends or friends of your older siblings having heart attacks and other scary "old people" health issues. Suddenly, life's short and the people who used to shrug and say pensions didn't matter because they'd "just" work until they were 70 are looking thoughtful - and here sits lucky me counting down what could be the last few years of my working life if I can get together enough non-pension savings to bridge the gap to 55 or 57.

You only have to click through a few threads on this forum to see people asking awful questions like "I'm [49/52/58] with no pension, how much will I have to pay in if I want to retire at [60/65/all]?" and the depressing but realistic answers they're given. It's good to see that you are doing the necessary to save Future Ttaaffeedd from that fate.

uk1

ttaaffeedd wrote: »

You have all convinced me to stick with paying into my pension as it will give me more options/benefits/security in the future. Thank you! :T:T:T:T

Well done!

The way that this now inevitably goes is that you will continually grumble about that line on your payslip whenever there is some bit of immediate self-gratification that has been foregone, but at some point in the future you will feel extremely thankful, and perhaps even smug about how clever you were today. You might never feel actually rich but you will feel the double benefit from a lifestyle lived on today with the minus 4% reducing the difference and shock of the lower income made that bit bigger, in later years!

You may be young, but today you have shown mature wisdom!



Jeff

Silian

Spidernick wrote: »

If you're Zlatan Ibrahimović, I suppose. Are you?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zlatan_Ibrahimovi%C4%87

For most of us nearer 60 is more likely to be the norm, but I agree with all the advice to date and feel that everyone should pay into a pension (even Zlatan!).

If you save 50% of your salary you can retire in 17 years time. Granted this is easier on a big salary, but it should be within reach for a lot of people.

In other words, stop worrying what other people tell you can or can't do and take control of your own retirement.

kingrulzuk

Silian wrote: »

Sucks to be you. I'm also 34 and I plan to retire before I'm 45. It is possible.

Please do not stop paying into your pension.

You want to retire before u r 45 and u r saying to OP don't stop paying into a pension. do you realise that u cant take it out till u r 55 and it can change in the later future.

Malthusian

kingrulzuk wrote: »

You want to retire before u r 45 and u r saying to OP don't stop paying into a pension. do you realise that u cant take it out till u r 55 and it can change in the later future.

Spidernick is only pointing out that the assertion (spread by the media) that no-one who is 34 today will ever retire is nonsense, by giving an extreme counterexample. Obviously the OP is not planning on retiring at 45.

If you are planning to retire at 45, it can still make sense to pay into a pension. The same benefits of tax relief, free money from the employer and tax-free growth will still apply. You just need to make sure you have enough non-pension savings to live on from 45 to 55 - which is unlikely to be a problem.