What X day rate do you stick in a pension?

[scooterscot]

Nothing at all. That's what the BTL's are for.

[mudskipper]

Do you mean monthly or annually - DP's poll was the former but for pensions, annually makes more sense as we typically don't do it each month. Do I need to amortise?

I meant monthly, but I realised my poll is crap - because you can't have more than about 21 days / month. Duh.

[d000hg]

It's still basically 0 I opened a pension 2 years back and stuck in £4-5k, then keep forgetting or have no money left over after ISAs, holidays, mortgage overpayments and buying a house to have a mortgage on. Next year Rodders...

[cojak]

Martin Lewis says that you should take your age, half it and then use the figure as a percentage of your salary for pension contribution.

I'm not sure if it's simple enough just to use this percentage against your day rate since you can't rely on being in contract throughout out the year. You probably need to calculate expected yearly income and work from that.

(But if you put a lump sum in at the beginning of the year...)

[SimonMac]

Martin Lewis says that you should take your age, half it and then use the figure as a percentage of your salary for pension contribution.

As we are only on £10k a year I don't think that works for us

[lukemg]

What Cojak Says - Half your age as a percentage and yes this means your full revenue, not wage.
Note - See this is as a reserve, not just a pension, so I would be very tempted to max out ISA allowance each year first, unless you need to get coin out of the business, which a SIPP will defo help with.
Oh and NOT cash ISA, waste of time.
Trust me – Once this starts to compound up and you find yourself with a decent pot and immune from the vagaries of having to work miles away or for total nobbers, it feels great.
To avoid charges I have just finished switching a big chunk into VWRL - all world ETF (exchange traded fund) as a nice foundation. This is with a view to an allocation along these lines across the lot.
US+Canada 15% VWRL
Eur 12% VEUX
AsiaPac 13% VAPX
UK 50% VWRL + HYP of individual shares
REIT 4.0% VWRL + FCPT
Emerging 6.0% VWRL + Aberdeen emerging markets fund.

I will then look to rebalance annually alongside monthly PCA payments, hopefully meaning I am buying whichever is looking lower to avoid buying too much at the top.
If this all seems too much trouble – consider a Vanguard 80/20 lifestyle fund, this is a one-stop shop, setup a SIPP, put the lot in this and start automatic monthly payments (or an ISA). They do the rebalance and if you can hold your nerve for 10 years (minimum) you will do fine.
Oh – check out Monevator for someone who talks sense and thinks like you should....
GLA

[scooterscot]

Martin Lewis says that you should take your age, half it and then use the figure as a percentage of your salary for pension contribution.

I'm not sure if it's simple enough just to use this percentage against your day rate since you can't rely on being in contract throughout out the year. You probably need to calculate expected yearly income and work from that.

(But if you put a lump sum in at the beginning of the year...)

It would seem quite a conservative approach to use a sliding scale with age with the only downside your net contributions are indeed stifling your ability to live beyond your means, which so many of us currently do.

[northernladuk]

Martin Lewis says that you should take your age, half it and then use the figure as a percentage of your salary for pension contribution.

I'm not sure if it's simple enough just to use this percentage against your day rate since you can't rely on being in contract throughout out the year. You probably need to calculate expected yearly income and work from that.

(But if you put a lump sum in at the beginning of the year...)

Do we take is this assumes you have no other savings or investments such as BTL's?

[Troll]

Martin Lewis says that you should take your age, half it and then use the figure as a percentage of your salary for pension contribution.

I'm not sure if it's simple enough just to use this percentage against your day rate since you can't rely on being in contract throughout out the year. You probably need to calculate expected yearly income and work from that.

(But if you put a lump sum in at the beginning of the year...)

Just as an aside.. does anyone still trust Money Saving Expert since it was sold to Money Supermarket group

[doodab]

Just as an aside.. does anyone still trust Money Saving Expert since it was sold to Money Supermarket group

I think I might have to register moneyspunkingexpert as I have a lot of useful advice to give on the subject.