Yes. I mean it makes sense: this is supposed to be your main source of income after retirement. A £100k pension, if you retire at 67 and start using it to pay yourself an income, comes to £6ish K a year if you live into your mid eighties. Less if you live longer obvs.

That’s if you leave it invested and simply pay yourself out of it; buying an annuity would be different.

So with state pension you’re looking at living off something like £15-18k per year in today’s money. Best make sure you’re not still renting / paying off a mortgage eh?

Personal pensions start to get interesting around the £200k mark. Which a tiny fraction of working adults has. Pensions bomb is going to explode soon enough.

Funkstain wrote:

Yes. I mean it makes sense: this is supposed to be your main source of income after retirement. A £100k pension, if you retire at 67 and start using it to pay yourself an income, comes to £6ish K a year if you live into your mid eighties. Less if you live longer obvs. That’s if you leave it invested and simply pay yourself out of it; buying an annuity would be different. So with state pension you’re looking at living off something like £15-18k per year in today’s money. Best make sure you’re not still renting / paying off a mortgage eh? Personal pensions start to get interesting around the £200k mark. Which a tiny fraction of working adults has. Pensions bomb is going to explode soon enough.

This scares me more than anything. My gen went through a boom time and many didnt take advantage and have no property (still renting) and no major savings. Future gens seem to have less chance to get onto property lader or build up pensions (obviously not all, some people have done very well). I dread whats coming because I dont think there is a solution.

I don't know much about equity release. Does it involve selling off a a portion of your home to release the cash? I'd always assumed I would just move somewhere cheaper / downsize instead, but good to know options.

LivDiv wrote:

The days of buying a brand new Jag and setting off on a cruise around the tropics are certainly over for us regular folk.

I've just learnt to sail, so gonna go for a cheap boat and a Ford Fiesta.

Equity release works so long as you stay in the house. If you want to move you’re quite fucked.

I don't have a single penny of savings. Am gonna be fucked by the time I'm older. Give a fuck anyhoo.

acemuzzy wrote:

It's pretty depressing that 25 grand in a pension pot seemingly translates to getting 70 quid a month. You really do need quite a big pot to be able to live off it, huh?

Your pension is almost certainly invested mostly in the UK and that'll not end well post-Brexit. You should think about doing it yourself to an extent which is what this thread is about.

acemuzzy wrote:

It's pretty depressing that 25 grand in a pension pot seemingly translates to getting 70 quid a month. You really do need quite a big pot to be able to live off it, huh?

Is that all you have right now? When did you start saving? I started late. At age 35 I think. Before that, I literally needed every penny I earned in order to stay afloat so couldn’t put anything away. Mine is sitting at £120k right now. I used to make extra contributions a month but not anymore. Will start again as doing better financially now.

That’s not diversification. It’s probably paying too much in fees for at least one of your pots, and not taking advantage of lower platform fees at certain pot values (most providers of SIPPs will charge lower % annual fee over a certain amount of ££ saved)

Get everything into one pot if you can, or everything old / side into one pot plus your current employer (often not massively flexible), then choose the right low cost diversified investment tracker fund

But that sounds like hassle to arrange. I barely know the account details for each let alone how to move stuff between them or which of them would be the best one to put stuff in. And what if one like goes bust or something?

acemuzzy wrote:

But that sounds like hassle to arrange. I barely know the account details for each let alone how to move stuff between them or which of them would be the best one to put stuff in. And what if one like goes bust or something?

 
You could get an advisor to sort it out and consolidate onto one platform (then cut them loose afterwards). I did this.

hylian_elf wrote:

I started late. At age 35 I think. Before that, I literally needed every penny I earned in order to stay afloat so couldn’t put anything away. Mine is sitting at £120k right now. I used to make extra contributions a month but not anymore. Will start again as doing better financially now.

Sounds like good going! How long had you paid in to get to that figure? I am going to go hard for the next 3 years, after which I'm not sure what will happen with my contract situation at work. At least if I have a break after that I will have accounted for a gap in payments. I figure better to pay in sooner and benefit from any compounding interest.

Yeah, that's a good employer contribution. Sounds like you are in a decent position going forwards.

I'm self-employed at the mo so have to pay it all myself. All tax-free though obvs.

Yeah. Agree. It would be the main thing I’d look for after salary in a perm role. It’s free money after all!

Yeah, just tell e.g. Pension Bee who you have your pensions with that you want to combine, give them your personal details and written authority to deal on your behalf, and they'll sort the rest.  Or something like that.  I've never done it myself.

Ace, I can tell you that and will just charge you £450 for it.

Ace-hole, maybe.