05 March 2024 , 09:31
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Martin Lewis has shared a "golden rule" when it comes to saving for your pension.
The MoneySavingExpert.com founder hosted his first episode of ITV's This Morning yesterday after appearing as a guest star for over 20 years. Despite taking the reigns of the show - alongside co-host Josie Gibson - Martin of course slipped in a few finance tips.
During a This Morning call in., one viewer called Tanya rang to ask Martin whether she was putting enough money into her pension pot. This prompter Martin to share his "golden rule" to make pension saving a little easier. He noted that "nobody ever puts enough in their pension" but urged people to listen to his "scariest pants rule of thumb."
Explaining the rule, Martin said that you take your age when you start putting money into your pension. As an example, Martin took co-host Sian Welby's age of 37 and halved it to 18.5. This figure would now be how much of your earnings you need to put away in your pension - so 18.5%, which includes anything your company has put in - if you were to start your pension at 37 years old.
That means if you are 40 years old, you should put 20% of your annual income into your pension to make sure you have enough. Again Martin noted that "nobody does that", telling listeners not to worry and that the earlier you start putting away, the better.
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Martin shared another pensions tip on the show yesterday and told viewers how they could track down past pensions from previous employers. The MSE founder explained the Government's pension tracer tool on Gov.uk. This tool tells you who the pension from your previous employer should be with and who to contact.
He added that he had discussed old pensions previously and heard how some people who got in touch have found over £100,000 in pensions. He said: "If you've worked in multiple places and you're not sure whether you had a pension or not, it's absolutely worth doing that, I mean you could be sitting on a pension gold mine without realising it."