Salary is £35k

atush

Justagardener wrote: »

Iam dead against pensions. I know to many people who didn't end up with what they expected. After being widowed in my early 30's it made me think what If I get Ill and need to get to my money. Far better to be in charge of your own money

Kinda rubbish.

If your spouse (sorry for your loss) had a pension, it would have gone to you. Tax free (as a pension) or taxed as cash. With the changes, newly widowed get it tax free as cash.

If you are ill, and liely to die, again you get it tax free. as cash. And some employers have death ins ervice benefits for you to leave behind.

atush

MrBroccoli wrote: »

I'm closing in on 40 and don't have a pension at the moment

My company is starting a pension scheme with peoples pension and I'm trying to decide how much I should pay in. I generally have around £500-700 left over each month.

I was thinking I would put in around £150-200 a month - does that sound sensible? Are there any online calculators that will help me work out how much I should put in each month?

Thanks

If you have 500-700 left over, whey only 150-200 into pension? What do you do with the extra cash now? Have you got an emergency savings pot? have you been using your S&S isa allowance?

Drp8713

Justagardener wrote: »

Iam dead against pensions. I know to many people who didn't end up with what they expected. After being widowed in my early 30's it made me think what If I get Ill and need to get to my money. Far better to be in charge of your own money

I am 28, and if I die tomorrow my wife will get a tax free £120k, plus £10k a year index linked for life, plus my son, 6, will get £5k a year until he is 18. All for paying £200 a month into a pension.

If I paid the same £200 a month into a savings account since I started instead of a pension, she would get a one-off £10k and thats it.

Spreadsheetman

maximumgardener wrote: »

to OP
you should try to put in about 20% of your salary or a little more into Pension if you can squeeze that?

ie £7000 per year for now ( 20 % of 35 = 7)

its a long game (with ups and downs) ......your funds should be invested for decades all going well

I thought that would be a reasonable starting point too - at least 20% starting from 40 to retire at 68 and counting on the £8k basic state pension.

Should be a workable plan.

jerrysimon

Also depends if you are debt free by then i.e. paid off the mortgage etc.

Jerry