I’m 27 and a personal finance reporter. This should mean that I have the know-how that will enable me to set up a sensible pension, and the time to watch it grow.

Sadly, however I seem to have lacked motivation. My generation — Gen Z, generally described as those born between 1997 and 2012 — find ourselves in bleak economic circumstances, locked out of homeownership and trapped with stagnant wages (if employed at all) as we try to at least pay off some of the interest on our student loans.

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Retirement can feel like a pipe dream when other more pressing financial concerns demand our focus. But as women, our retirement planning is critical. On the whole, we still earn less than men and are more likely to take time out of the workforce to bring up children — one of the biggest hits that a pension can take. Women retire with an average pension is a third lower than men’s, according to the latest HM Revenue & Customs figures.

How to start getting your pension on track

Without better support for young people and mothers, our best defence is to start pension planning as early as possible. And that’s why I offered three friends an aubergine parmigiana and wine bribe as a way of persuading them to come over and spend an evening dedicated to our pensions. I figured that this would help them — and me — to feel more in control of our finances.

We had three goals: to log into our workplace pensions, to understand our pension contributions and what they were invested in, and to check whether we were on track for a comfortable retirement. 

Despite not having registered for online access before that evening we all managed to get into our pensions easily. You usually just need your name, employer and one piece of identifying information such as your plan number or national insurance number. So if you lost that pension pack of information that you were given when you started your first job, don’t panic. 

My friends and I have been in work for five years. For some of us, our pensions were looking more positive than we expected — for others, the situation was rather worse.

One gasped at what she considered to be a puny sum and immediately increased her contribution rate by one percentage point. “I want to have more money when I’m a little old lady,” she said as she swiftly clicked through. 

We started with the basics: understanding what a pension is, the age at which you can access it (57 was much lower than the group thought), how auto-enrolment works and the benefits of tax relief. 

At the moment you can withdraw money from workplace and private pensions once you turn 55 but that is rising to 57 from April 2028. Since October 2012 everyone over age 22 working for an employer and earning more than £10,000 has been automatically enrolled in a workplace pension. The minimum employee contribution is 5 per cent of your qualifying salary (over £6,240 and under £50,270)while your employer pays in 3 per cent.

All pension contributions benefit from tax relief. Under salary sacrifice schemes you give up a portion of your salary in exchange for a pension contribution from your employer. This saves you income tax upfront and national insurance as well.

With net pay pensions your employer will take your contributions from your pay before your wages are taxed, giving you full tax relief at your income tax rate, but without the national insurance saving.

On relief at source pensions, your contribution is made from income you have paid tax on and your pension scheme will claim 20 per cent basic rate tax relief direct from the government, which it will add to your pension pot. So if you pay in £80, the government will top it up to £100. If you are a higher or additional rate taxpayer you have to claim the remaining 20 per cent or 25 per cent relief back through a tax return.

Finding out that using your pension contributions to lower your taxable income can also reduce your student loan payments was of particular interest to my friends, who lose 9 per cent of their salary above certain thresholds to service their debt. It is, after all, more palatable to see your money paid into your pension than to have it sacrificed to the black hole that is the Student Loans Company.

What you should be investing in

Next we made sure to name our beneficiaries in case we die before claiming our cash, then got down the serious business: poring over our investments to see how much of our savings fund was invested in stocks and shares compared with bonds and cash.

We checked to see what lifestyling plans our workplaces had put us in too. Lifestyling is where a pension scheme automatically moves your investments into “safer” assets, such as cash and bonds rather than stock market funds or stocks, as you get closer to retirement. De-risking too early could cost you dearly because the returns from the stock market tend to beat cash or bonds over the long term. My friends and I can reasonably expect to live until our nineties, and so we will need to stay invested for longer than previous generations if we want our money to live as long as we hope to.

When it comes to investing your pension most firms offer ready-made portfolios of stocks and other assets, chosen by their teams of analysts. You can fill in a questionnaire to determine your appetite for risk, which will also determine the types of assets in your fund. The riskier your profile, the more of your portfolio will be invested in the market.

During our financial catch-up I decided to change my risk profile from “balanced” to “adventurous” because I have decades to ride out any volatility (such as that caused over the past few weeks since the war in Iran began), and so I’m happy to take greater risk.

Tracking down forgotten funds

Our next task really piqued my friends’ interest — could there be missing pots of money with our names on them?

One, who had worked since she was 16, as a lifeguard, waitress and shop assistant, jumped at the chance to use Aviva’s free pension tracing service. She sent off inquiries for four potential missing pensions that could give her growing pot a substantial boost. 

Being someone who is not always on top of admin, I decided to move my previous workplace pension into my new pot so that it is easier to keep an eye on the fees I’m paying. It could not have been easier — it took five minutes to check my fees, make sure there were no exit penalties on my previous plan and type in the information. The pension firm will take care of the rest. 

My friends and I also used the government’s retirement calculator to see if we were on track for a comfortable retirement. It decided that we were all facing significant shortfalls if we continued saving at these rates, even with reasonable investment returns and regular pay rises. Knowing this has motivated us to increase our contributions by one percentage point with each pay rise. Hopefully this will boost our savings without us really feeling the difference. 

What we learnt

Taking these small steps towards closing the gaps in our saving could make our slightly boozy night of admin some of the most important power hours of our lives.

By the end of the evening two of my friends had joined me in paying in more than the 5 per cent auto-enrolment minimum, I had consolidated two pensions and upped my investment risk and another had sent off for four potential missing pots. We all felt more empowered and in control of our finances. 

You don’t need much information to get started — open a bottle of wine and have your friends over. I promise you won’t regret it.