Pensions Planning: The NUMBER

AnotherJoe

jerrysimon wrote: »

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

Ditto!! My philosophy exactly, rather than having to crack on and get it done by a particular date I have no rush.

frugal90

looking forward to joining you guys next summer

we are going to use savings and sipps to see us through to taking db pensions

we have budgeted £30 k per year until db pensions kick in , but will probably have a bit more than that

when we both have our db pension it'll jump to £35K then the state pension after that


it has been a long tunnel to dig, with a few collapses along the way

however we are outside the wire, could probably make a run for the trees if we needed to but are definetely going summer 2018 - yippeee:j

crv1963

Stubod wrote: »

..

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

We too are looking to join you on this journey starting next year- our number is 2k pm or 24k pa.


We intend arriving incrementally- DB pension starts next year and we intend stepping down working to part time and my wife is currently starting re-training for a change in career, which will also be part time, then as we get older SPs will start in 12 and 15 years time respectively.


It will take some saving and investing of income to tide the gap between DB starting and SPs starting but we think 2k pm is possible and that we can manage to live ok on this and as SPs start income rises as we age!


CRV

Gatser

It's great to see the occassional revival of this thread and encouraging that the topic remains so relevent to retirement planners
I have been semi retired since 2013 and our underspends against budgetted NUMBER (currently £27k) get rolled over to make increased future spends possible.
We spend more time these days planning our time and making as much from that valuable and limited resource while our health permits.
I am not interested in big spend holidays just for the sake of it, but prefer to research and listen to ideas about "mini adventures" that will give new experiences in our retirement freedom
As commented elsewhere, I share that great feeling that retirement brings... a release from deadlines and restricted timescales.

Stubod

..now I don't need to work I find the work I am doing more enjoyable, (more like a hobby). I did not really like "not working" (although I would never go back to 5 day working. A good balance for me would be 2 may be 3 days a week).

The other "problem" we have found is breaking the "savings" habit as we have saved all our lives and never been in debt, (apart from mortgage we we paid off ASAP). In general we have spent what we need to live and saved the rest as we planned to retire as soon as we could, and we also budgeted to spend more in retirement as we have more time. However we are now struggling with the concept on spending money on things other than the "essentials". I am sure I will overcome this problem at some point, its just odd to see the spreadsheet showing reductions every month rather than increases!

chiefie

Gatser wrote: »

It's great to see the occassional revival of this thread and encouraging that the topic remains so relevent to retirement planners
I have been semi retired since 2013 and our underspends against budgetted NUMBER (currently £27k) get rolled over to make increased future spends possible.
We spend more time these days planning our time and making as much from that valuable and limited resource while our health permits.
I am not interested in big spend holidays just for the sake of it, but prefer to research and listen to ideas about "mini adventures" that will give new experiences in our retirement freedom
As commented elsewhere, I share that great feeling that retirement brings... a release from deadlines and restricted timescales.

The main issue I am dealing with is managing the OH expectations. She is keen to maintain the lifestyle while not working. But this involves mucho support to kids which we really need to tone down. It gives her pleasure to spoil the grandkids too. So the result is I have to work for longer or she gives away less - an interesting conversation as I am not at all keen to keep working to fund those who I love be dearly too much longer - I need a rest 🍼

Ganga

chiefie wrote: »

The main issue I am dealing with is managing the OH expectations. She is keen to maintain the lifestyle while not working. But this involves mucho support to kids which we really need to tone down. It gives her pleasure to spoil the grandkids too. So the result is I have to work for longer or she gives away less - an interesting conversation as I am not at all keen to keep working to fund those who I love be dearly too much longer - I need a rest 🍼

We noticed the other week when the" family" were not popping round on saturday for lunch or coming on sunday for lunch that the price of the "big shop" dropped dramatically bearing in mind that there is only two of us at home, i am sure we spend more on the kids and grandchildren than we spend on ourselves.
I have warned them jokeingly that if my wife goes before me they will all starve:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Mathes00n

It's somewhat comforting to see our number not being wildly different to some others. We are tracking a target of £1,600 a month, excluding work expenses, with a small hols fund (for the occasional drive to France) - so around £20k per year.

We are fixing the house ready for sale, gradually downsizing (to the charity shop's benefit), getting the motorhome ready and hope this time next year to be three months from retirement.

enthusiasticsaver

Stubod wrote: »

..now I don't need to work I find the work I am doing more enjoyable, (more like a hobby). I did not really like "not working" (although I would never go back to 5 day working. A good balance for me would be 2 may be 3 days a week).

The other "problem" we have found is breaking the "savings" habit as we have saved all our lives and never been in debt, (apart from mortgage we we paid off ASAP). In general we have spent what we need to live and saved the rest as we planned to retire as soon as we could, and we also budgeted to spend more in retirement as we have more time. However we are now struggling with the concept on spending money on things other than the "essentials". I am sure I will overcome this problem at some point, its just odd to see the spreadsheet showing reductions every month rather than increases!

This is something I think we will struggle with too.

My husband retired early (age 58)at the end of last year and his DB pension amounts to around 70% of his net income and I have continued to work part time and retire at the end of this year. We have found we have managed to live within my DHs pension and my part time salary but not been saving as we were up until last year.

Next year when I am retired we will in fact have to drawdown as my DB pension only amounts to around 40% of my salary so there is a shortfall. Watching our savings going down instead of up will be hard but we have to remind ourselves that this is why we saved.

It is also only temporary as I have another DB pension which pays out in 2 years time and then our state pensions kick in 4 and 6 years after that. We have also just moved some of our investments over to monthly income distribution units rather than accumulation funds so I am hoping this helps bridge the gap without drawing on the capital too much.

Our number is £30k net per annum or £2500 per month.

ianthy

enthusiasticsaver wrote: »

This is something I think we will struggle with too.

Interesting. We saw a financial adviser about 17 years ago as a check on our plans - were we saving enough for the lifestyle that we wanted in retirement etc., His reply was absolutely you are saving more than enough but your big problem will be how you stop saving as much and start spending and enjoying your money.