Retirement income

dunstonh

My own target is £2,000 (in today's money) a month for me and my OH when we're both 65 in 17 years time. We've already reached this with a combination of company, personal and state pensions and savings

You may need to adjust your planning. Your state pension age is 66. Not 65.

Pensions salesmen will always try to persuade you that you need an absolute fortune to live on in retirement. It's in their interests to do so.

Not many pension salesmen left nowadays. Many blame that fact on why people are not saving as much as they used to. The salesmen used to offer low quality, expensive products but at least they got people buying them. Perhaps that is why the Govt is looking to find a way to bring them back.

My elderly relatives are managing fine on a takehome income of under £1,000 a month each. They go on holiday more often than I do!

£1000 would be far to low for me and that is not far off what is considered the breadline to survive.

EdInvestor

If you don't run a car and live in an area where there is good bus service and decent train links, you will save a lot with your free bus pass and senior railcard

Holidays tend to be a major expense.

Jennifer_Jane

For me heating and the ever-increasing Council Tax are the scary things. Holidays are a choice.

With Council Tax there's nothing you can do but pay it (and who can downsize at the moment). I will be trying to survive on about £800 a month (after tax) in September 09. All very scary.

Jen
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exil

dunstonh wrote: »

You may need to adjust your planning. Your state pension age is 66. Not 65.

actually I'm 2 years older than OH so it's 65 for me - but you're correct it's 66 for her. She has 17 years 9 months to go!

Not many pension salesmen left nowadays. Many blame that fact on why people are not saving as much as they used to. The salesmen used to offer low quality, expensive products but at least they got people buying them. Perhaps that is why the Govt is looking to find a way to bring them back.

I well remember the Abbey Life (I think) advert featuring a happy early retiree on a sit-upon lawn mower!

People are not saving, full stop. What puts ME off saving is the fact my ISAs cost us more this year than my OH's salary brought in and my only other asset - my house - has dropped even more. Had I spent the same money on holidays I'd have the same money in my bank account but might have been a bit happier!

1000 would be far to low for me and that is not far off what is considered the breadline to survive.

The income support level for a single person is £60.50 a week, that is, £270 a month.Someone on a minimum wage job of 30 hours takes home £800 per month
even after tax credits and has to meet all work expenses. Admittedly they may get their council tax paid and have some help with rent - but nothing towards a mortage.
Even someone on the median salary of about 20k only takes home £1,300 a month and would have to pay all housing costs.

Pension credit level for a single person is £124 per week, or £540 a month. State pension is £400 a month.

I wonder if we're talking about the same planet ...... for many people £1,000 a month without having to find commuting costs, mortgage or rent is going to sound like a lot of money. Just have a look at the DFW section or any of the benefits threads to see what I mean.

Errata

Interesting piece of research on what pensioners need to live on here
http://www.financemarkets.co.uk/2009/01/05/state-pension-should-be-doubled-finds-research/

JayZed

exil wrote: »

People are not saving, full stop. What puts ME off saving is the fact my ISAs cost us more this year than my OH's salary brought in and my only other asset - my house - has dropped even more.

You're talking about a stocks & shares ISA, so you're talking about investing, not saving. Investments do go down sometimes, which is why they're for the long term, not the short term. The fact that asset prices (e.g. share prices) are cheap at the moment shouldn't put you off investing - quite the contrary.

The target I have in mind is considerably more than £1,000 net per month - that's more or less what we're living on now (after pension contributions, mortgage and childcare), and while it's manageable it certainly doesn't involve taking holidays as frequently as I plan to when I'm retired.

Lokolo

I know I'm very young and not going to retire anywhere in the near future, but I am surprised by the amounts.

Personally I can't see myself needing more than £1,000 a month to live by. especially without mortgage etc.

Although I can see where dunston is coming from, what will you fill your day with, and that usually involves spending, I think maybe volunteering during the winter, then in the summer you can do things like redecorate the house, gardening etc which is going to cost very little, will actually help in the long term scheme of things.

I guess its also dependant on the actual person, if you are female shop-o-holic I can imagine when you retire you will need more than £1000 a month to keep your hands busy.

But theres also things like, as said earlier, free public transport.

Also exil, even though the average person takes home the £1,300 a month or whatever, dunstonh is nowhere near average :rotfl:

Pobby

I am still working but have done some research into this. In fact have tried living on an income which is a less than we are earning currently. It works! Right, due to the slow down, I earn a lot less than I did a few years ago. My wife didn`t work at that time and my pre tax income was about 40k. Out of that I could save £15 to £20k a year, we have no mortgage and still holiday abroad, go to the pub and run 2 cars.

We now have a joint income of about £33k a year before tax, my wife working part time and we still save a goodly amount, perhaps between £500 to £1k a month and we are not deprived.

We are on target for around £500 per week in retirement. About a year ago we were closer to £650 per week but with the drop in interest rates and the stock market I am being a little more conservative. I think we would live very well on that a week.

I know of many with a lot less than that to live on and they do fine. I guess it`s what you do in your spare time. I enjoy reading and writing which is hardly expensive. Holidays are nice but not exactly essential. Living in one of the tourist areas in the UK there are great beaches to enjoy with a packed lunch.

By the way Margaretclare, I do hope your husband is well on the mend.

Jennifer_Jane

£500 a week - congratulations, I think that's loads.
Well done, even between two of you, I think that's pretty good.

Jen
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margaretclare

£1000 would be far to low for me and that is not far off what is considered the breadline to survive.

Our total, from all sources for both of us, is a little over double that amount. But then, we do live comfortably although modestly, and we need our car or we'd be housebound, so free bus passes are useless to us. And also, as I wrote earlier, we are still saving from income - mainly because we don't know what we may need in time to come. After our wonderful holiday in September which cost approx £2,500, a few weeks later I spent £2K on improvements to the bathroom.

Pobby, thanks for the good wishes. DH is still on daily intravenous antibiotics given by the District Nurses, and he goes back on 18th February to have his knee reconstructed, either with another joint replacement (the 4th in a little over 5 years!) or to have the joint fused and knee stiffened, if there isn't enough bone left to anchor another replacement joint. So we're not out of the woods yet. However, DH is getting stronger and we're building up his immune system with all this healthy food and going out for little car-rides in the sunshine.