Why do posters here have disproportionately higher than average pension funds...

antdon

Ok.  I am just 60 and have just had my 1st pension start paying (superannuation).....
So for a while now I have been trying to follow the posts on this forum to attempt to gain a little knowledge.....

But,  my question is...
Why do the majority of posters in this forum appear to have much larger pension pots than the average person in the UK???
(Lost count of the number of times I have read 'Can I survive on my £1 million pension pot.")....
Oh! And surely if your pot is so large you should be speaking to an IFA?

ElephantBoy57

People that take in interest in managing their money/pension are likely to have more. I am 59 and if I retired now my pension would be less than £3k per year, I have around £5k in savings and still have £28k to pay on my mortgage, so not your 'average' poster 

Sea_Shell

Mostly for all the usual reasons why some people have more money than others.

Albermarle

Why do the majority of posters in this forum appear to have much larger pension pots than the average person in the UK???

Well the average person has no idea about pensions and no interest in them ( until they retire with a very small one ) so unlikely to come onto a pensions forum , not as a regular poster anyway.

In any case a lot of the bigger numbers you hear are people who have final salary schemes and looking to cash them in , as opposed to building up a pot of money from scratch , although that does happen as well.

Oh! And surely if your pot is so large you should be speaking to an IFA? 
The size of your pot and the need to see an IFA are not directly related .
IFA's are probably most useful for people who do not understand ( or want to understand ) personal finance , or can not be bothered DIY. Also where your personal situation is more complicated than normal and/or you have a lot more than a Million .
If you are in the 'hundreds of thousands ' to a 'Million' bracket and everything is in straightforward pensions, S&S ISA;'s ; savings , then it is debatable ( and is debated on this forum very regularly ) whether you need an IFA or not . Also down to personal preference .

princeofpounds

ElephantBoy57 said:

People that take in interest in managing their money/pension are likely to have more. I am 59 and if I retired now my pension would be less than £3k per year, I have around £5k in savings and still have £28k to pay on my mortgage, so not your 'average' poster 

This is basically it - it's a self-selecting community. It's a bit like going to an angling forum and being surprised that people catch big fish.There's a portion of people who like to invest (in fact psychological research suggests it can be quite a fundamental aspect of personality), and within that there's an even small portion of people who actually like to discuss and write about investment!

Doesn't mean everyone else isn't welcome. Part of the reason people post on board like this probably is to encourage the less-involved lurker to learn a little more. 

If you're very educated about personal finance and your affairs are simple there is relatively little an IFA can do for you that you can't do yourself. That's not to say they can't be useful for a whole variety of reasons, but they aren't necessary for many people.

antdon

Some good replies...... thanks all

crv1963

All of the above and for me personally when my/ our retirement planning journey began to learn as much as I could, accepting that I was aware of some of the good points I am fortunate to have but accepting that we're not going to make as much as others. As in all walks of life there is always someone with more and someone with less. Both can offer valuable insight and help.

More recently I find that encouraging others such as my sons, work colleagues and friends (when asked) to at least think about alternatives to working until they reach SPA and directing them towards this forum. If they actually post I don't know because no one sensibly uses their own name.

tigerspill

I think it is about priorities.  People with an interest in pensions and saving - recognising their importance - will general save much more, and come on forums like this.
Others less (or not) interested plough on not realising they will suffer later with much less finance available to them.

Grumpy_chap

The OP refers to posters having larger than average pension funds. 

I have always found it difficult to establish what an average pension fund is, in either absolute terms or relative to annual income.  Presumably, any average also need to be age related, so someone earnings £30k age 30 will have a smaller pot than someone earning the same age 60.

Is this type of information available anywhere?

Bravepants

Of my peers at work, some are more into owning big cars and big houses, some have gone through a divorce and some have no idea how their pension even works, some don't think about how much higher rate tax they are wasting and can't be bothered to think about it. I like to think that I have taken the middle ground of all of these, and I am likely to retire earlier than them. :-) Horses for courses.

JoeCrystal

Grumpy_chap said:

The OP refers to posters having larger than average pension funds. 

I have always found it difficult to establish what an average pension fund is, in either absolute terms or relative to annual income.  Presumably, any average also need to be age related, so someone earnings £30k age 30 will have a smaller pot than someone earning the same age 60.

Is this type of information available anywhere?

ONS does have the statistics. I always have that bookmarked in case anyone ask about the average pension pot.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/datasets/pensionwealthwealthingreatbritain