{"id":416349,"date":"2026-05-07T14:09:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T14:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/416349\/"},"modified":"2026-05-07T14:09:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-07T14:09:12","slug":"martin-lewis-has-a-simple-but-scary-pension-contribution-formula","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/416349\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin Lewis Has A Simple But ‘Scary’ Pension Contribution Formula"},"content":{"rendered":"

Do you feel secure about your pension? A 2025 survey by the Financial Conduct Authority<\/a> found that one-third of people have less than \u00a310,000 saved in their plans, which has been described as<\/a> \u201cworrying\u201d.<\/p>\n

And in a recent pension special of the Martin Lewis Money Show,<\/a> the expert said he has a \u201crule of thumb\u201d for pensions that \u201cscares the pants off everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s Martin Lewis\u2019 formula for pensions? <\/p>\n

A viewer asked, \u201cWhilst I want to put more into my pension, I don\u2019t want it to affect my quality of life in the here and now. Is doing 15% contributions as someone in [their] mid-30s enough?\u201d<\/p>\n

Lewis replied that the viewer was doing \u201creally well\u201d with that percentage.<\/p>\n

Then, he added, \u201clet me give you the rule of thumb that scares the pants off everybody\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cTake the age when you start putting into your pension, so in your case, we\u2019ll say 30,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHalve it, that\u2019s 15 [percent contribution]. That\u2019s how much of your income you want going in for the rest of your life for a decent retirement. Very few people ever get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201creal reason\u201d for the advice, he continued, is to illustrate that \u201cthe earlier you start, the better… retirement… you\u2019re going to have\u201d.<\/p>\n

Of course, he explained, this is in tandem with your State Pension.<\/p>\n

How can I tell if I have enough saved in my pension? <\/p>\n

The government has a State Pension Forecast,<\/a> which will tell you how much you may be entitled to from the government when you reach retirement age.<\/p>\n

You can also check<\/a> what your private pension may be worth when you retire.<\/p>\n

These combined figures should tell you roughly what you can expect to bring in a year once you get your pension.<\/p>\n

Legal & General suggested<\/a> \u201cthe happiest retirees\u201d have an average total monthly income of \u00a31,700.<\/p>\n

Related…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Do you feel secure about your pension? A 2025 survey by the Financial Conduct Authority found that one-third…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":416350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[138,246,37980,33343,164275,111,139,69,244,245,3452],"class_list":["post-416349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-finance","tag-financial-conduct-authority","tag-martin-lewis","tag-martin-lewis-money-show","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-state-pension"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=416349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/416349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/416350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=416349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=416349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=416349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}