Student unable to pay into pension

svines1

I didn’t post on here to be condescended, I asked for advice. And some of you have been great. I don’t need anybody telling me to get a job when my university day (including travel time) is 6am-8pm 5 days a week, plus the extra work I have to do outside of contact hours. So telling me to get a job is not helpful.

Our education system has taught me nothing about pensions schemes or financial issues, so I’m looking for people with more knowledge and experience to help me. So if you can help - great! But if you’re trolling these forums just trying to make people seeking genuine advice feel stupid, you can jog on.

dunstonh

Our education system has taught me nothing about pensions schemes or financial issues

But it did teach you about percentages.

You have yet to state why you believe the charges will reduce the value over time as asked in #2. The clue is that you are wrong. However, we need to know why you think that so we can put you right.

kidmugsy

svines1 wrote: »

by the time I begin paying back in to it in about a years time when my course is over, I will have nothing left.

You have given us no reason to believe this. Show your working.

Aretnap

As above, these days virtually all workplace pensions charge fees in the form of a percentage of your total value each year, rather than a fixed fee of £X per year. So if your pension is very small, the fee is also very small, and it is impossible under any circumstances for the fee to reduce the value of a pension to zero.

If it was an auto-enrolement pension and your money was in the default fund (this is likely to be the case if you don't know much about pensions) then the fees are capped by law at 0.75% annually - which means that if you're out of employment for 3 years, the maximum that the fee can add up to is 2.25% of the pension's value - in fact a little less than that because if the pension is a bit smaller in year 2, so is the fee. And in practice (1) many pensions have lower fees - 0.75% is the maximum, not the standard and (2) the investment growth over 3 years will probably be greater than the fees anyway.

In other words, stop worrying, you're fine to leave it where it is. When you get another job you can transfer it to your new pension then if you don't want to keep track of more than one pension for the next however many years.

atush

No one is insulting you. Read the replies more carefully

Brynsam

Maybe answer the question several people have asked about charges, instead of stamping your little feet in rage that someone dares to point out that most students manage to go to university and hold down a job.

bugslet

svines1 wrote: »

I didn’t post on here to be condescended, I asked for advice. And some of you have been great. I don’t need anybody telling me to get a job when my university day (including travel time) is 6am-8pm 5 days a week, plus the extra work I have to do outside of contact hours. So telling me to get a job is not helpful.

Our education system has taught me nothing about pensions schemes or financial issues, so I’m looking for people with more knowledge and experience to help me. So if you can help - great! But if you’re trolling these forums just trying to make people seeking genuine advice feel stupid, you can jog on.

But it is pertinent because if you work you could make a contribution and ease your concerns on management fees eroding the value, though those fears are unlikely to be realised.

I'm not being condescending when I say that in my late 20s I worked 100-120 hours a week, reducing to 80 over the following years. And no holidays bar Xmas shutdown. Even if it was for a few hours a week, a bit of extra cash is bound to help.

BucksLady

svines1 wrote: »

Our education system has taught me nothing about pensions schemes or financial issues,.

Some schools are better than others . However, there are so many websites with excellent information about a whole range of financial matters, that means anyone can become informed if they are really keen to do so.


OP, I accept that finding work may be difficult during term times, but there are always the holiday periods where it might be possible. Small sums could then be added to your pension pot.
Anyway, I wish you luck

Alexland

svines1 wrote: »

Our education system has taught me nothing about pensions schemes or financial issues

You might be interested in a new personal finance textbook which is available for free download on the below page.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2018/11/financial-education-textbooks-funded-by-martin-land-in-english-s/

Alex

marlot

svines1 wrote: »

... by the time I begin paying back in to it in about a years time when my course is over, I will have nothing left...

svines1 wrote: »

...I could lose a significant proportion of this money over the course of the year through these management fees.

What management fee are they saying you'll incur? These days it's normally less than 1%.