Correct Amount of Pension Contribution

[RowanTree]

Hi,
I am a 33 year old female and I am contributing 4% of my salary each month for the last 4.5 years to my pension. The company matches this amount.
The questions I have is -
For my age am I contributing enough or should I increase this amount?
How do you know how much one should put into their pension dependent on age so as to have a good pension?

Regards,

 

[ClubMan]

For my age am I contributing enough or should I increase this amount? How do you know how much one should put into their pension dependent on age so as to have a good pension?

It really depends on your target retirement fund value/income. Contributing enough to benefit from matched employer contributions is a start but chances are 8% (employee and employee contribution) of gross salary may not be enough to retire on an income anything near your likely final salary before retirement. It's difficult to be exact about things like this but there are some pension calculators (e.g. see the key posts and useful links sections) which make certain assumptions (e.g. about indexation of contributions, inflation, fund growth etc.) to give some idea of what different contributions may mean for final fund value.

 

[Blinder]

Have a look at the pensions board calculator
http://www.pensionsboard.ie/index.asp?locID=458&docID=500

At your age you can put up to 20% of your salary tax free into a pension, so you need to weigh up what you can afford within the 20% tax free limit