Have you saved enough for retirement?

Can I just point out that divorce does change things pension-wise. Pre-divorce I had one pension forecast but post-divorce had another which was far more generous. Worth double-checking your latest forecast if you think this might apply to you.

How does the government expect people to save for their retirement when so many are being made redundant,these days?

Hello, I too faced the daunting prospect of not having enough money to get through my retirement. I went for a more radical approach to money problems, and I started my own online marketing company.

If you have the desire, it can always be achieved.

Like you sneetch I'm freelance and still working, although there's less work around than there used to be. I am lucky enough to have some savings but putting them in the bank is about as constructive as tearing up £5 notes. My husband retired early through ill health and does not have a pension and hasn't yet reached 65. I have bought a bit of property with my savings, we have done it up and some is now rented out. That is what constitutes our pension. The income isn't a lot, but I think we might scrape by. Otherwise, we shall have to sell up and live on the capital – and hope it lasts out. I think almost everyone these days is pretty worried, except millionaire politicians and overpaid CEOs.

like crimson i was divorced and stayed at home with them until they where older. im still working, im 56. and have never earned enough to save! resigned myself to working as long as im fit enough, and try not to worry about retirement. my DD says she will look after me bless

My husband retired 7 years ago and by then, his pension pot (which had seemed reasonably healthy to start with) had shrunk a good bit. He's 11 years older than me, and we decided that if we could manage by my dropping a couple of days at work, we'd have that extra time together each week and also get used to a lesser amount of money coming in each month. I retired last year. I have a minute personal pension and he also has a small occupational pension. I always paid the 'full stamp' thankfully, or things would really be very tight indeed. Come next winter, things are going to be tighter still, because of the gas and electricity price rises. Time was, we could go outside and chop up a bit of wood for the fire - we don't have that option now!

About four years before my husband retired we started to make a note of every penny which we spent - and I do mean every penny. My husband produced a spread sheet and it was quite interesting seeing where the money actually went - and so helpful when it actually came to sorting out his pension. We still make a note of expenditure now - and it is quite fascinating to see how our expenditure has changed.

I know, however, that we are fortunate with my husband's pension. I could have retired at 60 but chose to stay on until I was 62 without drawing my pension which actually meant that I receive an enhanced one when I did draw it. To be honest, if my work situation hadn't altered I would probably still be working now - I do miss it.

Fortunately my husband has an adequate pension, and I have the state pension and we have money from the sale of his parent's house. I know so many women especially who are struggling, and that after bringing up large families. No wonder younger women in good jobs think twice about having children.
Crimson - if you join the u3a there are holidays which even people on a small pension can manage to go on.

We simply worked and paid our taxes for decades (we are in Australia) and when we retired we were given our state pensions. Ours is a bit more than most as I get a carer's pension and allowance, as my husband has a couple of medical problems and I have to be there for him most of the time. We also get UKP 50 a week based on what we paid in before we came here.

We manage fine, and often save up and buy things we need cash. For instance, we are buying a big TV for a wedding present for our eldest lad shortly.

We could not save for our retirement as bringing up and educating two sons took all we had.

Myself and my husband both paid money into a private pension , my husband was made redundant a few years ago and so I became the only one working, but my hours were reduced to 16 hours a week and it became impossible to manage on my wage alone so we applied for some sort of benefits only to be told we had to cash our pensions in and live on that.
As my husband now nears the state pension age most of the money we had put away to top up the state pension has gone, and because I am one of the many ladies out there whose pension age has been moved to 66 I have another 10 years before I get my pension.
I have been told by a few friends who work in the benefits office that on the whole if you are not able to save very large amounts of money for your old age, having a modest amount of money in the bank is no better than someone who has spent their wages as soon as they have had them.
I do wonder why we bothered to save at all as most of it has gone on paying bills

I wasn't expecting to be divorced and stayed at home to look after the children. Always thought I lived in a country that would look after me when I was old. Had I realised how life would be I would have planned my life differently. The future looks quite bleak [and I'm probably in a better position financially than a lot of people]. Just read about the latest gas/electricity increase as well. All very frightening. I can live on fresh air pretty much [not a great foodie or drinker] but would like to be able to afford holidays. And, surely, with more people having less and less expendable income, there will be a huge knock on effect.

DH and myself have only the state pension coming in. We jointly managed hotels and the companies we worked for did not run any sort of pension scheme - this is quite normal in parts of the hospitality industry. We also ran our own hotels and restaurants and at that time couldn't afford to put anything by for later.
We would have been really struggling if my parents hadn't left us something. We consider ourselves to be very fortunate.

I dropped from 5 days to 4 in the six months before I retired to give me an idea how I could manage on what I would be getting.

In the few years prior to retirment I did a budget as if we were retired so I knew how much just living would cost. Of course thats too late for savings but its a good exercise to see how much you would need for day to day expenses and bills.