If you want to learn more about pensions, I highly recommend listening to the PensionBee Pension Confident podcast.
I recently joined their expert panel for a bonus podcast episode on a subject very close to my heart: what to do if you have no pension at 50. It wasn’t until I was aged 47, with around just £1,000 in a pension, that I got serious about saving for my retirement. (You can read here how I’ve saved more than half a million pounds since.)
My own experience of starting a pension late, and educating myself on how best to prepare for retirement helped inspire me to launch Rich Retiree. And my mission is to help one million women in the UK over the age of 45 start actively planning their retirement.
Women are saving less for their retirement than men
It’s common knowledge that women are lagging far behind men when it comes to financial planning and investment – and this includes retirement saving. Government data on the gender pension gap in 2022 discovered that, on average, women in the UK had just £81,000 in their private pensions, compared to £156,000 for men.
A recent interim report from The Pensions Commission also revealed that at least 15 million people in the UK are currently not saving enough to retire. Worryingly, 45% of working-age adults are not saving into a pension at all, and just 4% of wholly self-employed people are saving for retirement.
It’s scary enough to realise that you haven’t saved enough for your retirement if you’re still relatively young, but what about if you are already in your 50s? Combine the fear of thinking you’ve left it too late to do anything with the worry that pension planning is too complicated to master, and you can see why many women put off dealing with the issue and taking action.
Why it’s not too late to start a pension in your 50s
The good news is that even if you have nothing saved in your pension pot at 50 or even 55, there are still steps you can take right now to make a difference to your retirement. And they are less difficult than you might think.
And that is what this PensionBee podcast episode is all about! Here’s a quick summary of what you will learn when you listen to it:
- It’s not too late to start at age 50 – someone saving £400 a month from 50 years old with nothing saved could build a pot of around £200,000 in 20 years, thanks to the government’s 25% tax top-up and investment growth.
- Small contributions still count – even £40 a month (topped up to £50 with tax relief) could grow to around £16,200 over 15 years, with £6,200 of that being pure growth.
- Opting out of your pension costs more than you’d think – taking a 3-year break from pension contributions between ages 30 and 33 could reduce your pot at retirement by over £17,000.
- Women are disproportionately affected – career breaks, the gender pay gap, and Pension Sharing Orders (PSO) in divorce all quietly erode retirement savings.
The episode is just 29 minutes long, but could potentially change your life if you make changes after listening to it. So please do have a listen. You’ll find it in all the usual places you listen to podcasts.
