I believe there’s the basic pension and then an extra one for those not ‘contracted out’ – is that right? How much is the extra one likely to be worth – how can it be worked out? Just wondering what I’ve got on top of my company pension as people tell me I need to contribute a lot each month or I risk poverty in my old age….

You can apply (online?) for a state pension forecast, should be on the Directgov website.

no

either way a simple calc is that you should save (every month) half your age as a percentage of your salary:

If you are aged 40, save 20%…

does that formula take into account the incompetance of the investing company in managing your money?

either way a simple calc is that you should save (every month) half your age as a percentage of your salary:

If you are aged 40, save 20%…
Yeah right.

I am gonna buy my kids some guitars and nurture them to be rich rock stars so they can keep me in money, alcohol and hard drugs into my old age.

either way a simple calc is that you should save (every month) half your age as a percentage of your salary:

If you are aged 40, save 20%…

Nice, if you can afford it. A lot of peole can’t I’d imagine.

I work in Pensions for one of Britain’s biggest insurance companies.

However when planning my own pension, i use this interactive calculator provided by Hargreaves Lansdown.

This can be quite an eye opener.

http://www.hl.co.uk/pensions/interactive-calculators/pension-calculator

Great post thehillsofsomerset, thanks for that link 🙂

Yes. Thanks. I now know for sure that Im going to have to kill myself riding downhill before retirement age as A) I can save about a tuppence a month and B) by the time I get to retirement age (about 105 by the time I get there!) there isn’t going to be much if any state pension.

thats good link, cheers

thats actually put any fears I had to bed. curently will receive a nice sum a year, and as my employer increases its contributions the older I get, and I expect to get more money as I get older I can relax a bit. (that is, of course if I live to 68)

I’ve applied for that state pension forecast so will be interested to see what that tells me. Got the private pension covered – I have a SIPP with H-L and a company pension where I choose my own funds.