Saving for pension - any regrets?

[PCTNN]

I'd say he doesn't have that option open right now. He takes this gig at 52 when he's paid his mortgage off and then goes perm he's going to take a marked drop in income for a start. Lets say he get's a 70k job. Even at 8% self and 10% employer that's only going to be £660 a month. For 10 years that's still only going to be 76K. Total pension would be just over 100k. That's a pension pot of about 4k a year.

Yes ok I see, with those numbers then no, it's not a good option. I was just thinking based on what I'm planning to do, which is finding a cushy job at the Scottish Government where the employer's contribution is 27%. But yeah, as you said at 10% it's just not feasible nor worth it.

[clembot]

I'm very surprised that as contractors making £400+ a day that not manythe start of the thread are contributing much.

You could easily put £20k pa away at £400+pd.
At £600pd you could fill a pension allowance annually.
Also there's the conmpany just literally paying this for you, it's not even out of your pocket.
Also there's a reduction in corp tax.

£1m in retirement for you or your partner is pretty handy ~£30k+ a year plus a 25% lump sum for the 911.

[northernladuk]

Also there's the conmpany just literally paying this for you, it's not even out of your pocket.

Erm.. Explain please. All the income from your LTD eventually ends up in your pocket so how is it not coming out of your pocket? You mean because we keep it in the business account as a warchest or accumulating it needlessly?

For me warchest and cashflow are paramount. As it's possible to pay three years back I'd rather keep it in the account until it either gets too much or starts pushing teh FCSA limits and then put a lump sum in as and when. It doesn't need to be done monthly or anually. Just because a contractor isn't contributing regurlarly it doesn't mean the pension will be used at some point.

[ladymuck]

I'm very surprised that as contractors making £400+ a day that not manythe start of the thread are contributing much.

You could easily put £20k pa away at £400+pd.
At £600pd you could fill a pension allowance annually.
Also there's the conmpany just literally paying this for you, it's not even out of your pocket.
Also there's a reduction in corp tax.

£1m in retirement for you or your partner is pretty handy ~£30k+ a year plus a 25% lump sum for the 911.

There's a myriad of reasons why people don't contribute to a pension. Some of it is basic human nature - a lot of people are no good at delayed gratification and saving now for something that is 50 years away just doesn't seem important. Usually the sense of mortality starts to kick in around the 40's and that's when they start playing catch up.

[Rabotnik]

Erm.. Explain please. All the income from your LTD eventually ends up in your pocket so how is it not coming out of your pocket?

I interpreted it as paying the money directly from the company account instead of taking it as dividends and then paying into the pension. I just pay it directly from the company like this so I don't have to worry about hitting the annual personal contribution limit.

[GitMaster69]

I'm very surprised that as contractors making £400+ a day that not manythe start of the thread are contributing much.

You could easily put £20k pa away at £400+pd.
At £600pd you could fill a pension allowance annually.
Also there's the conmpany just literally paying this for you, it's not even out of your pocket.
Also there's a reduction in corp tax.

£1m in retirement for you or your partner is pretty handy ~£30k+ a year plus a 25% lump sum for the 911.

and then there's people, like me, that don't trust government (and tax regime) that can tap into that money whenever they want

Whereas property ownership is (almost) human right