Employer chosen, always.
I amalgamate the old ones into one one pension plan (Peopleās Pension) so everything is in one place. One thing Iāve never looked at is whether one of the companies is better than the others somehow - assume that would just come down to the fees.
Thanks for that.
Iāve always gone with the same employer option (since 1996) but recently discovered that the current employer plan, after it had changed hands, did not align with my interests at all.
So after a tense but reasonable discussion about it, my employer now contributes the same employer-contribution into a personal pension plan which I control.
And my pension value is increasing way more than before.
You canāt teach this in schools. You canāt discuss this in the pub. You generally canāt even get your own head around it. But it is massively important.
Not financial advice - but it needs to be!
Interesting, never thought of this as an option.
My current employer contributes to the Peopleās Pension which is where all my others have been held for a long time anyway.
In terms of investments, I also control this quite carefully / manually and Iāve also had good results, but Iām cautious about saying this because itās obviously not replicable advice. I will admit my holdings are quite high risk (almost all shares).
Really, youāve ever heard?
Quite a lot of what Iāve read online talks about the average UK pension pot being rather low and that in general, lots of people donāt plan enough for retirement. Just a google search away.
Of course there isnāt. Point?
I donāt know if youāre serious or trolling but since you donāt seem to worry/care either way, good for you. Not exactly the common situation so for the rest of us mere mortals, we have to think about these things.
My point was simply that putting every penny you can afford into a pension pot is not everybodyās priority.
You donāt say how far off retirement you are, which is the key thing! Right now you have over 30% going in, thatās very substantial and over time should quickly make up for periods without contributing.
Thereās a rule of thumb that you should take the age you start contributing, divide it by two and thatās the percentage you should contribute in total. Itās not a perfect rule by but can give an indication of āis this enoughā.
Pensions confuse me tbh. I have always had one over the years with various public sector roles Iāve had.
Current job I pay 4.5% and they pay 29.5% in - comes to roughly Ā£1,600 a month from their side. They do have a fairly easy pension calculator so I know how long I need to work to get a decent annual āsalaryā and lump sum when I retire.
The lump sum is quite large, so roll on retirement.
Ah well. Carry on being confused youāll be fine 
This really is a huge bonus of working in the public sector that not everyone understands or appreciates. Someone that does a modestly paid public sector role all their life will generally be looked after in retirement. The difference vs someone who worked a modestly paid private sector role is huge.
Youāll be retiring several years early at this rate, congrats!
I am in the got a pension but donāt think there is enough in it. Started with the pension way too late so trying to catch up now. Trying to make sure the kids donāt make the same mistake so they both got a pension setup when they were 13
I have one, there isnāt as much in it as Iād like. Vastly less than some of the numbers in here of people who are also looking to increase!
Iām not overly worried, I know I should increase my contributions but I also want/need that money in there here and now. There is a good argument to make that I could put any money I save now, into my pension instead, but that leaves me a bit light in the day-to-day.
I could drop dead a day before retirement and never get to that rainy day, but I could also live for 30 years after.
I was lucky in that one the [many] employers I had in my working life offered all employees a free [paid for by them] pension planning review. I was so grateful especially as I had so many very small pension pots [and one final salary one] and it was all in a terrible muddle in my head. The adviser advised a consolidation into one place, Scottish Widows in my case, and they did all the leg work. It also transpired that one FSAVC had not been correctly āsoldā and after the Ombudsman intervened I got a nice return of funds and and even nicer lump of compensation. That didnāt go into the fund. I blew it on a holiday to Oz. 
Iām not sure I agree with this:
I wouldnāt bother too much with looking at annuities though to work out how much you might get, these days most people use investments / drawdown. Every time I looked at annuities, even the most pessimisstic assumptions using drawdown were better*
Annuities are telling you what the market rate is for guaranteed income in retirement. I donāt really see how you can personally expect to beat that, except by taking on additional risk, which is the opposite of what you want.
Good idea in principle, however I gather that Peopleās Pension are one of the worst schemes in the UK (on many measures e.g. performance, admin, etc.).
Performance is sort of negligible because Iām not in the default fund, Iām using vanguard funds which I think you can invest in from any of the pension wrappers.
Not had any issues with admin, fees though - I still have no idea on those but if they are high then yeah I should switch
I use PensionBee for this, each time I change jobs I sweep the employee Pension into it. Iām 39 and have probably way less than I ought to (Ā£40.5k) but Iām ok with it.
With life as it is, I donāt really see me ever retiring (Iām way too active for that) and even if I did, by the time I reach pension age itāll probably be 100 or something.
I donāt think it has the same importance as it did in my grandparents generation - retire at 60 and swan around the world on a final salary pension for 20+ years.
Iād rather spend more of that money on the here and now, and enjoy visiting places while Iām still able to.
In this we are pretty similar
But not in this! Iād retire tomorrow if I could 
Whatās happening in practice in our place is interesting. Thanks to COVID and WFH, we have essentially two groups that act quite differently when they hit retirement age.
Those that donāt and didnāt get to do WFH (generally speaking manual labour people) are, by and large, retiring when they can. The WFH people generally arenāt unless they have a specific reason to, although many are going for partial retirement.
Also worth noting is that you donāt have to take that 25% tax free cash in one go. Essentially what happens these days at retirement is that your pension becomes, in practical terms, a really big ISA.
Way less. At 60 that would be worth something like Ā£100k, not counting anything you add to it over the next 20 years.
A lot of newer schemes allow flexible drawdown so you donāt have to take the (usually) 25% as a lump sum all at once.
Iām 59 and over the last 2.5 years have consolidated all mine (except one defined benefit scheme) into a joint SIPP with my wifeās pensions (except her DB scheme). The allowances are still calculated separately (and could be split out again if needed) but it simplifies things if one of us dies and thereās only one set of management fees.
I can take the taxable 75% and the non-taxable 25% in pretty much any amount at any time. So for example as my wife is younger, I might retire before 67, take out taxable pension funds of Ā£12570 per year (or whatever the personal allowance is, on which I would not pay tax). My wife could continue to make contributions into the SIPPās bank account which could be paid to me as non-taxable contributions as my allowance with the invested funds just rebalanced to compensate her (avoiding the trading fees to buy and resell investment units/products).
I think as with any financial product good advice is key. The SIPP has also allowed us to diversify the investments and risks. SIPP is also exempt from inheritance tax and can be passed on tax-efficiently to a partner or the next generation - if thereās anything left 
Edit. Having said that although Iāve just gone to a compressed week with slightly reduced hours I enjoy what I do and donāt plan to retire yet. Which as in the comments above my parents donāt understand.
Iām one of the people who put all their leftover income into paying off the mortgage early and then adding it to my pension (USS). I retired in my late 50s and have a disposable income close to that when I was working and paying a mortgage, so I feel it was very much worth it. Iāll be close to my actual salary when I start getting the state pension in addition.