Best of Question Time: Is 15% of my salary going in a pension enough? I'm finally debt free, what now? What should we call you?

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0:30School ready at Whole Foods Market. What they've done is absolutely within the sad fart rules. Every day that passes is a day that you could be closer to your debt free day. It is not a hard and fast rule. Many people do not do it. I listened to the podcast and cried with relief that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

0:48Martin Lewis:I think you're inspirational and I think you will help a lot of people by making this call. I hope I've helped you a little bit. Hello and welcome to the cunningly named The Martin Lewis Podcast. I do wonder what that's going to be about. And this is a special Best of Question Time episode where the curator of questions himself, Professor Sir Matthew Burnham Esquire, has chosen his favourite questions that you are Esquire's extremely savvy questioners have asked me on absolutely anything and everything, open brackets within reason, closed brackets. In this Best of Question Time episode, you've asked me, I'm 23 and saving 15 % of my salary into my pension.

1:25Martin Lewis:Is that enough? My five-year-old TV is faulty. Can I get a refund? We also hear from Robert, who's finally debt-free after making poor financial decisions when he was younger and wants to know what he should do now. I remember that and I love that one. Then we hear from Carly, who after hearing Robert's story on the podcast, decided to seek help with her debt. I love that one too. Plus, how we, or you, decided what we should call you when you come on the podcast. Play the theme tune.

2:06Isaac's emailed this one in to martinlewispodcast at bbc.co.uk. He just says Dear Martin, which I don't know if I'm happy with or not.

2:13Martin Lewis:I like it. Okay. Is it because I've been off for so long? You've been off for six weeks. You're not going to get the Dear Martin and Mats when you decide to go gallivanting around. I know. Anyway, he says, I've got a question about pension savings. I'm aware of the general rule of thumb that to maintain a similar standard of living in retirement, you should contribute roughly half your age as a percentage of your salary into your pension from when you start working. Well, that's brilliant. That is my rough rule of thumb. Yeah, you take your age. So if you start your pension at 30, half it, 15 % of your total of your salary should be going into a pension to give you a decent income at retirement.

2:48Martin Lewis:It is not a hard and fast rule. Many people do not do it, but it is a nice intuitive rule that helps and also makes the point very strongly. Start at 20, it's 10 percent. Start at 30, it's 15 percent. Start at 40, it's 20 percent. The earlier you start, the better. Do carry on. He goes, I'm currently 23 and I've just started my first job after university. I'm contributing 9 percent of my salary into my pension and my employer is also contributing 6 percent. so in total 15 % is going in is that good? Very good, brilliant well done you he says what I'm not sure about is whether the half your age figure so about 11.5 % for me refers to my personal contribution only or the total including employer contributions, I'm trying to understand whether I should be increasing my own contributions he then says love the podcast it's saved me plenty of money since I've started saving.

3:40Well let me

3:41Martin Lewis:wonderful Liza and it's so brilliant that you've listened and you've been thinking about your pension at such a young age, it's really important because the earlier you start putting money in the pension, the reason it's beneficial is you'll have it in an investment, but you effectively have that investment can compound over so many years. And I'm making this number up now. I used to have an actual figure, but I'm going to sort of make it up so see it as a conceptual, not a numerical idea. But for every pound you put in in your early 20s, you're going to have to put in 30 quid in your 50s to get the same result.

4:12Martin Lewis:So it's so worthwhile doing it early when you've got disposable income. Maybe you're living at home. I don't know. Now, the general rule of thumb is about the total going in. So it includes your employer contribution. So you are over the rule of thumb. That is not me saying not to. It's brilliant to get a head start, especially at this age. If you do not need that money, don't lower your contributions. And why I find our pension rules so frustrating, I am a supporter of pension auto-enrolment. Just to say here, we're talking private pensions here. Workplace pensions are a private pension. Generally, you're building up the money purchase pensions or defined contributions.

4:49Martin Lewis:You're building up a pot of money. You're putting money in. It's being invested and you'll have that when you retire. And you can take it out currently age 55. The rule is changing to age 57. Probably when Isaac retires, it'll be somewhere around age 60. And if you put money in your workplace pension, your employer has to contribute. The minimum figures are you put 5 % in, they put 3 % in. I'm glad to see it's higher in this particular case. Here's my problem, Matt. Go on. The rules say auto-enrolment only starts once you're aged 22 and earning£10 ,000. pounds. If you earn£6 ,240, you can ask to be in your firm's pension scheme and it can't refuse and it must contribute too.

5:34Martin Lewis:And you can do that when you're 18, 19, 20, 21. Why don't we just make it automatic if you're earning 10 grand at 18 that it goes into your pension? Because it means people are starting even earlier. And often at that age, funnily enough, they do have disposable income because many people are living at home and it will be tougher later on when they have many more costs to put money away in their pensions. And the law actually changed. So this is really complex now. The law changed a couple of years ago, giving the government the ability to change the rules so that auto enrolment started at a younger age.

6:09Martin Lewis:But they have never enacted that. And I think it's a shame. I think far more people should be more like Isaac. Well done, Isaac. Look, hopefully this will bear huge fruit. And if you really want to get complicated, grandparents, there's actually a rule that says you can contribute£3 ,600 to a pension even for a non-taxpayer or the non-taxpayer can do it themselves and they still get relief. So you can put£2 ,880 a year in a pension. The pension company, the relief will come in in a private pension. That will mean they actually have£3 ,600 saved on the back of putting£2 ,880 in. and you can do that for a child.

6:46Martin Lewis:You can do it for a baby. Of course, not only grandparents can do it, parents can do it, aunties and uncles can do it, but it's often a great way for grandparents to put money away for their grandchildren and be remembered once they're age 16 and get their pension. You go, oh, my grandpa, my grandma started this off. It's quite nice. OK, curator of questions, let's do a question. It's what you're here for. That's why you've got questions. Literally, the only reason I'm here. And you produce it. Oh, and I produce it as well. That's the reason you're here, but it's not the reason you stay afterwards and do all your wonderful tweaks and edits to make us both sound really cool.

7:18But the reason I'm speaking to you now is to ask a question. Correct. So this is from Belena, the VMarder in to Martin Lewis podcast at bbc.co.uk. Dear Martin and Matt, my daughter purchased an OLED TV for£1 ,299 on the 13th of December 2019. Last December, the television developed horizontal lines across the screen. She contacted the retailer on the 12th of December 2025. I'm hoping it's just not the horizontal lines

7:44Martin Lewis:aren't just that she's watching my show and I've aged and got wrinkles. I'm hoping that's not what it's just a close-up shot and I've got wrinkles on my face and then she's anyway carry on. On the 12th of December she contacted the retailer to arrange a collection for assessment at their repair centre. The retailer has since advised that the TV is beyond economical repair and has offered a partial refund of £130. So my question is how does this outcome align with your sad fart criteria? Is it fair for the retailer to only offer£130 in these circumstances? Fascinating question. So I think many people will be surprised that as your telly is nearly, what is it, nearly six years old, you've been offered anything at all when it goes faulty.

8:29Martin Lewis:Costs£1 ,300, you've been offered 10 % of its value. So let's just go into it. What are the sad fart rules for those who don't know? Most Question Time listeners will know, but let's do it anyway. when you buy something it must be of satisfactory quality as described that's your sad fit for purpose and last a reasonable length of time that's your fart so sad fart reasonable length of time is the key here i always describe it by talking about you know you bought a 1200 pound mobile phone and it stops working even though you've not done anything wrong after 13 months has it lasted a reasonable length of time most people would say no you bought a 20p plastic whistle and it stops working after 13 months, would most people say it's lasted a reasonable length of time?

9:13Martin Lewis:Yes, most people would. And reasonable is just that. It is a subjected definition of what, you know, what they used to say in the old days, that the man on the clap-a-momnibus, that's when it was a man on the clap-a-momnibus, and there was a clap-a-momnibus, that was the original legal definition. You know, that's how they describe it. What would the man on the clap-a-momnibus say? But I move on. So it's what a reasonable person would say was reasonable. So where are we here? When you buy something, you have a right to a full refund if you return it within 30 days. After that, if the proof is that the item was faulty when you bought it, and faulty when you bought it includes that it was not built in a way to last a reasonable length of time, which is how a fault that develops later can be a fault when you bought it, because so if you see what I mean, because it didn't come from the beginning, then you are entitled to a repair, a like-for-like replacement or a partial refund or price reduction.

10:08Martin Lewis:So now we've established that everybody understands what the sad fart rules are. These are your statutory consumer rights and you understand what a reasonable length of time is. We can start to move into more detail on this question. This£1 ,300 OLED TV that's lasted not quite six years yet. So when you take an item back within the first 30 days, you are entitled to a full refund if it was faulty at the point at which you bought it. Faulty includes was not built in a way that it lasts a reasonable length of time. After the 30 days, then the store can give you a repair, a like-for-like replacement, or a partial refund or price reduction.

10:49Martin Lewis:And clearly, they're giving you a partial refund. So the question here, I think it really stems down to what do we think a reasonable lifespan of an expensive OLED TV is. If the lifespan is five or six years, then you're not entitled to anything. If it's 10 or 15 years, then you're entitled to a rather big sum. So we're getting down to a sort of attitudinal question here of how long you think it should last. You could only ultimately test this in court and it would be done based on reasonable definitions, although you could put arguments of how long a typical lifespan would be. You're not going to do any of that.

11:25Martin Lewis:You're not going to go to court with this. it's just it's not worth your time I suspect so in my view I would expect an OLED TV to last six seven eight years so I think this is on the short side of it breaking I think they are right to offer you a partial refund I think the partial refund they're offering you for me because you've had five let's say you've had five years of seven years usage so we could say that you get a two seventh refund of the 1200 quid so i think that 130 is a little bit on the tight side i would be quite happy if i were you to get 250 i think to push it to 250 would work reasonably well so you might want to go back and counter offer them but if you're honestly asking me is this within the sad fart rules yes what they've done is absolutely within the sad fart rules this is just a question of how much they're giving you so it becomes a negotiation Robert in Glasgow is here Hello Robert Hello Martin, hello Matt, our lovely curator of questions Oh yeah, well done It's stuck, it's stuck Yeah, it is stuck, that is who you now are And Robert, a Robert with a Scottish accent As a pun man, I'm just going to try and grit my teeth and not say anything What's your question?

12:39Martin Lewis:Thank you There's always been a focus, quite rightly, on reducing costs of debt But my question's about what to do once you're out of debt I'm 42 just now, I live with my wife and my 10-year-old daughter I work in the civil service by day and have done so since I was 18 Now during that time I've been promoted a few times And I could probably say that I earn a reasonable salary when compared with some Good for you However, when I was 18, I made quite a few poor financial decisions, I'll say, and debt began to build up. I refinanced this several times and things just got worse and worse. I then got used to living in credit and having that revolving credit and never actually having access to my full salary.

13:34And that situation continued until my mid-30s. and really around about then I began to get sick of it and I decided to do something about it because I was really struggling quite significantly. So I took your advice and contacted StepChange who then helped me through some things and basically for the last five years or so I have been using a significant proportion of my salary every month to pay down my debts and next week is my final payment.

14:04Martin Lewis:Oh, your debt-free day! my debt free day yes will be next week and I'm very much looking forward to it thank you so really I will have I don't have just now any credit cards any car payments, any loans anything like that, the only thing that's there now is my mortgage which is fine so really my question is what now, what do I do when I have no unsecured debt how much should I save or invest should I allow myself luxuries I know that these might to some people sound like some kind of silly questions but literally at no point in my adult life have I worked and had no debt and perhaps my family background money was always a problem as a child for my parents and so I've never really seen that positive financial situation so how do I go about living the rest of my life enjoying this kind of newfound freedom whilst building a future for my family and perhaps most importantly for me being a positive role model financially for my 10 year old daughter for the future so that she doesn't have to go through what i haven't through first of all if it's not patronizing to say well done you're you're at a wonderful part now but i know it won't have been easy to get there and it takes discipline and self-control and a change of your brain set and i think that will already make you a good role model for your daughter and i would be honest and opener with her I would go next week and I you know I think the three of you should mark this as an occasion and you should actually say and you should explain to her what debt means and what it was and you made mistakes young and it's and now and that this means life is going to be better for all of us so huge huge congratulations from me I genuinely my eyes watered when you said you were going to have your debt free day because I know just how big a moment that is and my ultimate but philosophy about money.

15:58Martin Lewis:I mean, people always think that I'm about being tight. It's absolutely not that. I am about getting the most happiness out of your life by looking after your money in the right way. And being in debt is a misery. And it's a misery that is so much bigger than whatever you materially buy with what you've borrowed from, especially the unsecured debt. So getting out of it is a real joy, and it's a joy to hear. But you're right, those are important questions. so it sounds to me like it's almost like someone who's been on a diet and when you finish on the diet you still feel nervous about eating things because you've trained yourself so hard not to eat and that you're in that brain set at the moment is that fair?

16:36I think it is and actually it's funny we have it at my car just now it's been paid off it's been paid off for about a year because that wasn't part of the arrangement when I first made it and I'm now thinking it's now getting to the point where I'm having to pay significant amounts of money to keep it on the road but I'm too scared to actually go and buy another car on credit because I don't want to have that over me. I've enjoyed not having the car payments. So really, I don't mind paying relatively large repair bills for the car because that's maybe only worth two, three, four months of a car payment and so I'll end up better off in the long run.

17:11But at some point, the car will become unrepairable and so really, there's things like that which have kind of get in the way of my mindset. I'm scared to want to go and do anything now.

17:23Martin Lewis:So the first thing I'd say to you is that actually, genuinely, when we look at the psychology of money, one of the problem money casts is miserliness. Now, I'm not accusing you of that. You've done exactly the right thing. But it's important to understand that money and the money that you earn has a purpose. And that purpose is to give you the best life possible. Now, if I were looking at it and saying, you've been putting away£850 a month, you need to make a decision. I think you certainly because you've got that wonderful discipline that you've set up you could still be putting aside 400 pounds a month and using that to build or 500 pounds a month and using that to build a sound financial future and the rest of that money you need to and I'm not made only you can make the decision of where you are on that so you know you might decide it's 600 pounds a month 700 you want to put away but the rest of that money you need to actually give yourself permission to spend to enjoy and to improve your quality of life now because you're doing very well on it so you know and if that's going well maybe i can put that to a new car payment then you can put it to a new car payment if that's what would give you the maximum amount of utility the maximum amount of happiness in your life and i think you actually need to sit down do a budget and work through what am i allowed to spend and what am i not allowed to spend and funnily enough for someone with your mindset who's had to rigidly put themselves into that mindset i think a budget would be really helpful so that you i don't know if you do do you do piggy banking or jam jarring where you have separate accounts for different things yes right so that's still fine and then of course the advantage of that is if you have if you give yourself a discretionary spend account yeah and you have one an account which and then you look in that and it's got a thousand pounds in then you can spend a thousand pounds guilt-free on something that makes you happy i mean you do all the money mantras is it worth it will i use it all of those things but on something that's going to enhance your life you have to give yourself permission to do that and you can still do that and be a good role model to your daughter because you're going to be saving a lot for her future and for your future so i think it is time to do a budget but from a good reason to give yourself permission to spend and to have an account where the money in it is it's almost your guilt-free spending account yeah because would that help absolutely it's very exciting even the thought of it because what we've tried to do with my daughter so far is to show how you get money by working you know and you and you and you get hopefully a good job by studying well at school i mean she is still at primary school but trying to get this into her head just now that things don't appear from nowhere and you only get things by working for it so this all ties into that same thing and we will get nice things because mummy and daddy have worked you know for it and we have saved our money and so i'm looking forward to be able to show that and as a practical example and i have to say my daughter's 13 so i'm a few years down the path and the difference in perception and understanding about these things is going to be massive over the next three years because i've seen it changed and she will get more interested and be more inquisitive about what's going on so the timing is perfect i think it's perfect let's talk about the rest of the money okay so the rest of the money you've got a mortgage do you know what your mortgage rate is oh it's yes we i'm currently on 1.99 and it's that that was a five year fix and it expired on july 27 i mean talk about talk about some i timed it nicely yeah i timed it nicely yeah it's brilliant so i mean i there's no point going on to mortgage there is no point in you overpaying that mortgage at the moment but there is point you having potentially having money put aside to be able to mean that you when you remortgage in 2027 yeah that you can get a smaller mortgage at that point to reach it because mortgage rates are going to be a lot higher and that's something that's going to change so you could certainly be putting money away for that you would want to save in the highest interest rate savings account you can work out how to go and get those yourself i'm sure and you'll be wanting to put that money aside i would also say at your age you need to be contributing to a pension and you've got civil service pensions that would be good and you probably want to start investing and you know you've got sounds to me like you've got money that you do not need to touch for at least five years and that will be spare money so going to get yourself an investment account not a savings account for the money that is spare money and you won't need to use your mortgage to put put a certain amount in each month I'm not let's say a nominal 150 pounds I'm not saying 150 pounds I'm giving it you is and you go and you put that in a broad spread of assets you get yourself this is not advice These are examples.

22:00Martin Lewis:It could be you get a global tracker fund. It could be you get an S &P 500 tracker fund and a FTSE 100 tracker fund and you split it between those. That type of thing. Go and do some reading on that. I'm not regulated to give you any advice or help on that, but that's the type of thing. And you put the money aside and hopefully in 10 years time that will substantially outperform savings. Also, for your daughter in a junior ISA, you could do the same and you could do an investment junior ISA for her when she's 18, which will hopefully, if she does have university costs, I mean, if she's not going to university in Scotland, that could happen, that you might want to put aside then.

22:35Martin Lewis:But you need to see this as a glorious opportunity. The one caution I would give you is you've built up the discipline and actually, unless you have millions and millions of pounds a year income, financial discipline is still a really important skill for giving yourself happiness. So I would stick to the path that you've had but give yourself a certain amount of permission for some spending but take the advantage of, you know, you are habitually good at budgeting now to put some money aside and protect yourself for the future because, and I hope this doesn't happen to you and I hope this is wasted information, but one of the biggest causes of debt and one of the biggest causes of money problems is change of circumstance.

23:19Martin Lewis:And we are all potential victims to change of circumstance. I mean, I always remember Matt talking to a man who lost his leg and it stopped him working and it changed everything and he said to me, I never knew I was going to lose my leg. Well, of course you didn't. So that's why I would still keep some of that discipline together. Anything else you want from me, I'm so excited for you. I'm very excited. And probably the thing that excites me the most is being able to give my daughter the childhood and adolescence that I didn't have. And giving her the chance to go on those school trips and to do those things.

23:50The things I never even dared ask about as a child because I just knew we couldn't do it. and I'm excited for her but actually the main thing I'd like to take out of this call is for anyone else listening who finds himself in that situation to just make the leap and make the call. I found that there have been lots of interactions with StepChange. They've been incredibly helpful never judge you they're just there to help. They sorted everything out for me, made it a plan that plan has varied over the five years as things have gone up and down in life and just to go out and do it I understand that it's scary I've been there with my head in the sand that doesn't work and just go out and do it because every day that passes there are a day that you could be closer to your debt free day.

24:32Martin Lewis:Robert wonderful but let me ask you one thing I'm interested in this from your psychology I mean it's great now to look back at the path that you have trodden and that it's worked for you when you first started and you got onto the debt management plan with StepChange and there's also I should say Citizens Advice and National Debtline they're all brilliant organisations, we'll do something similar and do go and get help. If you're concerned about your debts, get help soon. But when you started and you had, did you know how long it was going to take you to get to this point? And how did you mentally cope with that sort of knowing you were in the tunnel for quite a period of time?

25:09I did know that. And at that time, five years seems a long time away. But actually, things have flown by. when I started this, Covid was just around the corner when this kicked off for me. That might have helped you a little actually. I think it did. I think there was an element that certainly did help. But no, I just had that attitude of, well, it might seem a long way away, but there is no way to deal with this other than to deal with it. And to start the journey, and every great journey starts with one step. And we just have to take that first step and just go with it. because what I didn't want, I didn't want to get into my mid 40s, 50s, 60s and so on, living the same way that I was in my 20s and 30s.

25:54A lot of my kind of early life, it's not been happy during that time. I've been so constrained and I just wanted life to be different.

26:03Martin Lewis:I think you're inspirational and I think you will help a lot of people by making this call. I hope I've helped you a little bit, but I'm genuinely so appreciative for you calling up and talking to us. Well done, mate. I'm wishing you and your family a glorious, still somewhat frugal life going forward. And to you. Thank you. This is off the back of Robert. So loads of people got in touch with their stories. One that I liked was from Carly. So she emailed it in. She said, hi team, just listened to Monday's podcast and the last caller in his story. This is me. I'm mid-30s and I've never not been in debt.

26:39My childhood was spent seeing my family just use credit to buy whatever they want and then have to make some heartbreaking decisions later in life. My grandparents split as one had remortgaged the house to the hilt, leaving them homeless in their 80s. This week, I contacted StepChange and set up a debt management plan. I'm over£60 ,000 in debt. I reached the point where I could no longer refinance and the interest was as much as the multiple repayments. I listened to the podcast and cried with relief that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Thank you for having this caller on. I've never, ever been taught or thought about seeking budgeting advice or education.

27:16I feel silly for only just starting to think about it now at the age of 35, but appreciate him and you so much. I can't wait till my debt-free day is in sight. But I know it's a long way away, seven years away, but at least it's realistic now.

27:33Martin Lewis:Oh, Carly, thank you so much for getting in touch. I think I'm moved by it. I'm sure Robert will be listening and he will be moved by it too. And it's so important that you've taken, like anything else in life where you're having difficulties, taking that first step is the most important. You're now dealing with it and you've now got a plan. And I think back to my early days when I used to do money makeover television programmes and I'd go into someone's house who had debt. And one of the things, no one who was in a lot of debt, they never add it up. They never want to know what the total figure is.

28:07Martin Lewis:They actually forget, often forget some of the debts they've got. And I would go in and I would compile it all. And I would say, OK, we've now got the figure. In your case, it's£60 ,000 worth of debt. And you would see people's faces go white and you would see them looking scared and intimidated. And they'd go, oh, gosh, it's so much worse than I thought. And what I would always say at that point and mean at that point was, it's not. the debt was always there all we've done is work out exactly what your debts are so that we can start to deal with it this isn't the bottom point the bottom point was yesterday when you weren't tackling it when we weren't thinking about how do we get you out of it today now that we actually know what the debt is the total this isn't the bottom point this is the start of the journey out of your debt.