Big4 Offer Holders - Pension or not?

I would wait until you are settled before you start your pension. At the start I imagine you would need the extra cash to get started in life. Personally, I would not do it until after put a deposit down on a house.

Yeah thats what I was thinking, but it wouldn't be worth taking one ever if you were planning on being self employed right? Because you need 40 years worth of contributions to be clogged up in order to get one I think....

Yeah thats what I was thinking, but it wouldn't be worth taking one ever if you were planning on being self employed right? Because you need 40 years worth of contributions to be clogged up in order to get one I think....

Each scheme will be different, so I guess you would need to read the small print on it. If you want to become self-employed though, I imagine you would need that money as start-up capital. I think in early career days, every small amount of money is much more important to keep in your pocket than in a pension. As your salary and wealth rises, you can afford to put money in a pension. Most retirement money would come from smart investments like property anyway

To all the people with offers, will you be opting in for the pension or not? Is it wise to? I don't really want to as its a decent chunk out of the not so big salary (Deloitte) and not to mention student loans being taken out also and I think I am likely to have other sources of income when im older, but can't be sure. My parents are telling me to opt in, but I was thinking maybe I could set a private one up if/when I earn a bit more say post qualification?

Current big4'ers or anyone else, have you opted in? Reasons?

Cheers

I strongly encourage both of you, and anyone else who are in the same position, to opt IN from the very start. Research has shown that if you save into a pension between the ages of 18 and 65, then half of the overall pot you get at retirement will come from the money invested between the ages of 18 and 25.

The best way to do it is to contribute the same percentage of your salary that your employer will match, whether this be 3, 4, 5% etc. If you delay for 5 years, you don't just miss out on the contributions that you would make, you also miss out on your employers' contribution, and any returns over the full term of your pension, which compound to make this loss a decent size.

At current annuity rates, to have a pension of 20k per year you need to have a pension pot of around 400k, which translates to over 500k if you decide to take your tax-free cash. With people living longer, and markets looking uncertain, this will probably mean that this amount will significantly increase over our lifetimes.

No idea as I haven't received any info on the pension schemes yet. Sorry.

I'm also joining Deloitte (London - Audit), may I ask where you are joining? You mentioned the salary, have you been told a definite figure for yours yet? I was still under the impression that it was to be confirmed at a later date. You probably are basing it on previous years, but thought it was worth asking in case you knew!

Thanks for this, what you've said is clearly the sensible thing to do - is it still worth taking one (when you start at age 21/22) if you plan on being self employed in, say 30 years?

Yeah thats what I was thinking, but it wouldn't be worth taking one ever if you were planning on being self employed right? Because you need 40 years worth of contributions to be clogged up in order to get one I think....

You're referring to the state pension. Self employed people build up their state pension contributions via NIC Class 4 and Class 2.

Yourself and employers contribute into a private pension scheme with an external provider which you can take elsewhere.