Pensions...

highgiant1985

Right taking a leaf from a certain tv ad..**stands up**. I don't know how a pension works!

I'm 23 just starting working for a private company in my first real job. & basically I'd just like a simplistic overview of things, I've tried googling but I'm finding sites which are to informative when what I need is something simple like me :P Currently I dont make any pension contributions to either a company or private scheme just paying my PAYE and PRSI thats all. So i guess what I want to know is -

Currently - When I retire at the age of 65 (though I know theyre looking at increasing the age limit) what pension would I get currently? I think Id get a state pension or am I mistaken, Is everyone elgible to this or do I need to work for a certain period,

if I then started making contributions to a private/company pension fund would this then be an extra amount on top of my state pension? or would it negitivly affect my state pension amount?

Also whats a realistic amount to be looking to contribut for a pension say salary around the 30k mark (hoping itll increase of course but for now) and how many yrs contribution would I need to make at a realistic point of view (obv the more years the better but at a minimum what would people say)

what else should I know about pensions? Please correct me on anything Ive said wrong above I'm only going on my assumptions and the little Ive read that I think I understand!

Thanks for any replys

stepbar

http://www.boi.ie/personal/savings_and_investment/pensions/index.html

Ogham

Maybe the Financial Regulator would be less biased than the banks whoe are trying to sell pensions?

highgiant1985

thanks for the replys Ill look at the two of these,