I'm 49 and have £200k in pensions - is there any hope of me ever having a £1million pot?

Earlier in my career I didn't focus too much on my pension. Now, aged 49, I'm trying to catch up as I am worried I haven't saved enough for later life. I've had various jobs over the years and the current value of all my pensions is around £200,000. I keep reading how people need increasingly large sums in pensions to be able to enjoy a decent retirement. Is there any chance of me being able to retire with a pension pot of £1million? Looking ahead: A This is Money reader has £200k in pensions and wants to know if he can build a £1m pension potJane Denton, of This is Money, replies: Starting saving money in pensions as early as you can while working is a good way to help shore up your finances in later life. In June a pensions trade body warned that too many people in Britain face a 'cliff-edge' drop in income when they retire. Pensions UK said more than three-quarters of people were not on course to save enough for a 'moderate' lifestyle in retirement. The report suggested what it termed a 'moderate' lifestyle cost £32,700 a year for one person and £45,400 for two. It said just 23 per cent of the working population would reach such a level.According to the report, a more frugal, 'minimum' retirement lifestyle costs around £13,900 annually for a one-person household and £22,500 for two people.Meanwhile, a 'comfortable' lifestyle with more money left over for indulgences is estimated to cost £45,400 annually for a single person and £62,700 for a couple. Pensions UK said only 9 per cent of workers were in line to get to that level.According to official figures last year, people aged between 45 to 54 typically have about £80,000 in pensions. Mounting mortgage or rental costs, high energy bills and grocery prices make it difficult for many people to up their pension contributions. In addition, some pension savers soon will face a hit to the amount of money they can put into their pension without paying national insurance (NI). From 2029, there will be a cap of £2,000 per year that can be shielded from employer and employee NI contributions by using a method called salary sacrifice.Salary sacrifice allows workers and employers to agree an amount to be taken out of pay and shifted into a pension before the salary is hit by national insurance contributions and income tax. Workers 'sacrifice' a higher salary, but receive a tax-free sum into their pot, with each payslip. I asked two experts whether your quest to build a £1million pension pot is achievable. Ed Monk is a pensions and investment expert at Fidelity InternationalEd Monk, a pensions and investment expert at Fidelity International, said: At 49 you can expect to get your state pension at age 67 - under current legislation at least - so it makes sense to target that age for your eventual retirement. That would give you 18 years to continue building your retirement fund.You’ve made great progress already. According to our analysis of official data, the median level of pension savings for someone aged 45 to 54 is £80,000, so your £200,000 puts you well above average. Can you make a million by the time you retire?To get there you’ll need some hefty contributions, a good slug of investment growth - or more likely a combination of the two. We can lay out some simple scenarios to show what it would take.Based on assumed investment growth of 5 per cent a year after all fees and charges, you would need to contribute £1,502 a month - each and every month - to hit £1million by the time you hit 67. Remember, these monthly contributions can come from you, but also from an employer.If that monthly contribution feels out of reach, what would a lower amount get you? If you paid in £500 a month, for example, your total pot would grow to around £654,000 by age 67, based on 5 per cent growth.That is the kind of growth rate you are often advised to expect from investments. It is possible, of course, to get more - although you can lose money as well. What growth rate would you need to hit £1million while paying in just £500 a month?To get there would require a much higher level of growth - more like 7.8 per cent a year after all charges. Investors will hope for that kind of return - and many have got it over recent years - but it would be unwise to expect it. And bear in mind that you may wish to de-risk your investments, and limit their growth potential, in the run-up to retirement if you don’t plan to keep your fund invested.But as I hope you can see, there is still a lot to be gained by striving towards a stretching target like this - even if you miss it, you’re likely to have greatly improved your prospects in the effort.Lloyd Gardner, financial planning director at Rathbones, said: Potentially, yes, but it depends on a number of factors and is a good reminder that retirement planning should focus on income and lifestyle rather than simply targeting a specific value.That said, a £1million pension pot is not necessarily the right objective. A more important question is: what level of income will the pension need to provide in retirement?For example, if someone retired at 65 with a £1million pension and the fund continued to achieve 7 per cent annual growth, they could theoretically withdraw around £70,000 a year while broadly maintaining the capital value. Alternatively, if they were comfortable gradually drawing on the fund and expected it to last until age 90, they could take approximately £86,000 a year, with the pension broadly exhausted at the end of that period.A £1million pension pot can be an achievable target for some people, but it shouldn't be viewed as a universal benchmark. The most effective retirement plans start with understanding the lifestyle you want, the income required to support it and then building a financial plan around those objectives. In many cases, a detailed cashflow forecast can be far more valuable than focusing solely on a pension pot figure.Using a simplified example, a 49-year-old with a £200,000 pension who retires at 65 has 16 years for their pension to grow. Assuming net investment returns of 7 per cent a year and no further contributions, the pension could grow to around £590,000 by the age of 65. That's a substantial increase, but still well short of the £1million mark.However, if they continued to save, it could make a significant difference.Under the same growth assumptions, contributing approximately £12,000 in year one, and increasing contributions by 3 per cent annually, could see the pension reach around £1million by age 65. Interestingly, the total contributions paid over that period would be around £243,000, demonstrating the powerful role investment growth and compounding can play over time.Of course, real life is rarely that straightforward. 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