PwC recently stated that the private sector needs to contribute a massive 37% of pay to match the pension of a long-serving career civil servant.

They took expected defined benefit Civil Service pension payouts as the starting point and took into account expected movements in asset prices that would influence the eventual pension paid by a defined contribution scheme.

Now we can moan all we like about the unfairness of public sector pensions that the rest of us private sector tax payers subsidise, and I’ve certainly done my fair share, but that gets us nowhere.  What we defined contribution payers must also reflect upon is how much really needs to be set aside for our future if we want to secure a reasonable standard of living in our golden years.

Some are currently contributing nothing for their future.  In a recent survey the BBC found that half of Britons aged 20 to 60 are not putting any savings into a pension.  For many, the personal disaster of poverty during old age is slowly creeping up on them.

So how would it feel to go from contributing 0% to say, 25% of income ? How does that feel? Probably not that great.

Or how’s going from 0% to 5% to 10% to 15% to 20% to 25% ? More palatable this time?

The key is, you have got to start somewhere and reassess, reassess, reassess.

Ideally, identify what a good retirement looks like, how much it costs and work backwards to see how much you need to save. Then reassess, reassess, reassess.