Pensions Planning: The NUMBER

k6chris

We have just finished the first 6 months of pre-retirement "tracking every penny we spend". This includes not only SO & DD but cash spend, adhoc credit card, savings transfers etc. It would seem that we need to either add another 10% to our 'number' or tighten our belts slightly. The main delta came with the cost of having 3 cats (!) followed by a major car bill and some private health costs. This has not changed plans but an interesting reality check on our number.

craig1912

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

I have controlled hypertension so I am sure they would use this to exclude most health conditions under a pre existing conditions clause anyway. .

they wouldn't

Triumph13

k6chris wrote: »

This includes not only SO & DD

Am I the only one who initially read that as 'Significant Other' and 'Dear Daughter'?
I'd recommend digging back through bank statements to get more data on how much you've been spending for a much longer period - no need to itemise it in detail, just split out ongoing costs from things that will cease by retirement eg commuting, mortgage costs, private pension contributions. Better to know what your average overall number has been over a period of a few years than to have detailed information for only a few months as a lot of spending tends to be in irregular lumps. I've got 4.5 years of such data now which allows me to have a high degree of confidence in how much I need.

westv

Triumph13 wrote: »

Am I the only one who initially read that as 'Significant Other' and 'Dear Daughter'?

Not me.
It just annoys me when people put those sort of abbreviations. :D

chiefie

Just trying to revive this thread a little - I'm getting within 18 months and whilst it's difficult to convince the OH to track spending my number is going down a little as I don't want to work too much longer, want to take a break and then may do some short term work. So my number for a couple is now £3,000 pcm. I can possibly do this by transferrring one of my db pensions to a sipp and living off that until the other kicks in with state pension (which I will have to top up).

jerrysimon

Depends on your living standards, mortgage etc.

The key is to track spending before you retire for 12 months or so, then you will know.

We are living off £1600/m no mortgage, no debts.

This will rise to around £2400 when we get our SPs but thats another 9 years and of course they could change that!

Jerry

Terron

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

Sounds good to me MND. We lost private health insurance when my husband retired and have not renewed it.

When I lost my job I was given the chance to continue getting health insurance from the same company privately, which I did. I trimmed the cover to cut the premiums. It covers conditions I developed whilst in the scheme through work. I have only used it once 18 years ago.

Stubod

..6 months in to "early retirement", (no income), and we are currently below budget (planned £2k/month) and are spending about £1,640 per month..but no hols yet...

jerrysimon

Stubod wrote: »

..6 months in to "early retirement", (no income), and we are currently below budget (planned £2k/month) and are spending about £1,640 per month..but no hols yet...

Same as me i.e. been retired 6 months but no big holidays. We have 45K lump sum which we could use, but will probably spend some on the house first.

Its strange the first few months I was elated and now retirement just seems the norm/new job.

One thing that is different is when I am doing the things I meant to get round to, unlike when I worked and had to do things over the weekend I now stop early (rather than keep going through Sunday) knowing if it does not get done by the end of the weekend, there is always tomorrow

Stubod

..yes its surprising how quickly "doing nothing" seems to become normal.

In fact I had had enough after a few weeks and managed to get a short term contract job.

Really enjoyed it as no real "pressure". Also any money made was outside of the "expected budget" so has all gone into the "free money" spending pot to be spent on???? don't really know yet..but at least I have something to think about when going back to "doing nothing.

If my working life had been like this I would have carried on working...very odd....