{"id":773741,"date":"2026-07-20T11:19:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T11:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/773741\/"},"modified":"2026-07-20T11:19:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T11:19:08","slug":"how-big-should-your-pension-pot-be-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/773741\/","title":{"rendered":"How big should your pension pot be? \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Workers who are beginning to put money into their pension <\/a>should put a financial plan in place as soon as possible and establish what is an achievable proportion of their income that they can put away now amid soaring living costs<\/a>, according to pension advisers. <\/p>\n

A survey by Royal London Ireland, published last week, suggests Irish workers believe they will need almost \u20ac41,000 per year<\/a> for a comfortable retirement. <\/p>\n

Workers frequently underestimate the savings they will need to guarantee a comfortable retirement, says Mark Reilly, pension proposition lead at the firm. However, he says the \u20ac40,860 average is not far off the mark, given that research in 2024 established that a single person would need \u20ac33,600 a year in retirement and a couple \u20ac43,200.<\/p>\n

Royal London Ireland calculates that to secure \u20ac40,860 a year on retirement, assuming they qualify for the State pension, someone earning \u20ac61,908 who starts saving at 30 would need to put away \u20ac1,135 per month. That is 22 per cent of their income.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Women, take control to ensure you have enough income in retirementOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Paul Merriman, chief executive of financial planning firm Fairstone, says that for most people beginning to save for their pension in their 30s, putting away 22 per cent of their income is \u201cmadness\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to be talking to people about what\u2019s achievable for them,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you could put in 5 per cent of your salary today, you might be able to put in 30 per cent when you\u2019re 60, when there are no kids [in the house] and your mortgage is cleared. That\u2019s probably achievable.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, Merriman says his message to people beginning to save is that by the time they reach retirement age, \u201cthe State pension ain\u2019t going to be there\u201d. <\/p>\n

He says people consistently undervalue the State\u2019s offering, which is about \u20ac15,500 annually at the moment. For people retiring today, that is \u201ca good chunk of change\u201d, but for people in their 30s or 40s, it is likely to be reduced or pushed out to later in life by the time they retire. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Married and saving for retirement? Here\u2019s how to get more from your pensionsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Inflation also needs to be taken into account, says Alan Fearon, a financial adviser with LHK Group.<\/p>\n

\u201cA retirement today could easily last 25 or even 30 years,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n

\u201cDuring that time, the cost of living won\u2019t stand still. Even inflation of 2 per cent or 3 per cent a year gradually eats away at purchasing power, so any retirement plan has to take rising prices into account rather than simply looking at today\u2019s cost of living.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0I have a full state pension and \u20ac1.25m in my private pension funds. How much will I get?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Fearon says: \u201cPeople often worry about whether they\u2019ll have enough saved to retire. In reality, the better question is whether they\u2019ll have enough income to live the life they want throughout retirement. That\u2019s the conversation people should be having with a financial adviser.\u201d<\/p>\n

Claire Battersby, senior employee benefits consultant at NFP Ireland, says the \u20ac40,860 figure \u201cis useful because it starts the conversation\u201d. However, she says: \u201cThe real question is whether someone knows what income they personally need in retirement, based on their housing costs, lifestyle, health, family commitments and other sources of income.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u200a\u2018My pension has grown by 69% in 3\u00bd years\u2019 \u2013 here\u2019s how to maximise yoursOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Employers should also play a role by investing in pension and financial wellbeing education for their employees, she says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Workers who are beginning to put money into their pension should put a financial plan in place as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":773742,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[28,12586,7617,147,530,126774],"class_list":["post-773741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-business","tag-cost-of-living","tag-pension","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-royal-london"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=773741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}