Pensions Planning: The NUMBER

crv1963

Following on from the lockdown, has anyone revised their number downwards? Given how much I have left over each month through lack of going out (pub, day trips and browsing in shops) and buying essential items only I am thinking my personal spending could easily stay low.

Also Mrs CRV has decided "life is too short" so is planning moving her retirement (or at least reducing significantly her hours) from 57 to 55 and living with a lower personal spending sum. 

Has anyone elses plans been revised? 

Stubod

..have not revised our number down, but we are keeping track of everything we "don't" spend so that we can spend it all when the world starts turning again....just not sure when that may be?.....but the longer it is the more money we will have available to "waste", probably by paying more for holidays than we would have? 

Bravepants

I generally stash half my take home in cash savings and/or S&S ISA and then, after paying my monthly contribution to our household bills and necessities into my partner's and mine joint bank account, I have personal money left over, which I split into "pocket money" for general day-to-day use, and cash savings in case I need to buy clothes, get my car serviced etc.

So while my contribution to the household hasn't changed, we still need food and bills paying etc., I have quit smoking, taken up cycling and spent a lot less on petrol because I'm working from home, AND I have spent much less money buying rounds in pubs at £3 plus a pint (not counting Wetherspoons, which is still more expensive than a bottle of Adnams from ASDA)!

Yet I'm still enjoying life reading, cycling, playing my piano, watching TV and I have just started playing computer games again because of a few cheap offers on the SteamPC gaming emporium! All that and I have more cash in my personal account!

So yeah, if my retirement goes as well as this I can certainly revise my number down. BUT it's good to have the extra buffer for the "just-in-case" times.

Anonymous101

We run our household finances in a similar way to Bravepants and have found the same. The house account has risen slightly as we usually go out for the odd meal or have a takeaway which hasn't been the case this last few months. If this had happened through winter i'm sure our energy bills would have more than offset this. So with regards to household costs I wouldn't lower our number.

With regards personal spending, I wouldn't necessarily revise my number down now (still several years from retirement) however it does give me confidence that as I near my FI number I do have some room for manoeuvre. If I was working a particularly unpleasant job or an opportunity arose to perhaps do something a little different for much less money I wouldn't be too hung up on maintaining my preCovid number. So in that respect it has benefited me in understanding where the floor of my personal spending might be.

Amateurretiree

Ours hasn’t really gone down as we don’t do a lot of takeaways( always disappointing) or meals out( maybe one a month) so haven’t saved on that. We have cancelled two long haul holidays, Canada and Florida, but have brought forward some pretty big home improvements that we had intended doing over the next couple of years so haven’t saved that money. But I suppose we won’t spend that money in the coming years, ( I feel a bit like the government using money from the future!)
Food bill still £100 a week for two of us, and we don’t drink! I have been stocking up on consumables though in the event of future shortages, I sleep better knowing I have a good supply of Yorkshire tea, Ariel and Dishwasher tablets!

Our monthly spend is pretty low though, approx £1200pcm for routine bills and food, so we are fortunate that way .

bigfer

"Following on from the lockdown, has anyone revised their number downwards?"..........with both kids back living full time at home?hold my beer........oh wait, there is none left in the fridge......

MallyGirl

our spend has definitely gone down but it is just a delay really rather than a lifestyle change. This year's big Africa holiday is cancelled but we will do it next year instead if it is safe to by then. Food is more expensive as I have 3 adults at home all day but we haven't eaten out and daughter has been cooking alternate Friday curries when we would have gone out/got a takeaway every week. We have had some significant events during lockdown that would have meant meals out / presents but we kept everything low key for now. There will be a catchup later. All gigs and festivals have been cancelled.
We have redecorated the bathroom and done some garden work but nothing expensive yet.

tigerspill

Peterrr said:

In answer to the original post, my number (for a couple and using today's prices)
Food £6,800 (includes a cheeky takeaway or two each week)
Car/transport £7,000 (two cars, includes £3k depreciation/contribution to replacements)
Bills/Utilities £7,200 (includes house insurance, council tax, elec/gas, TV/broadband, mobiles)
Holidays/Leisure £15,000 (includes club/gym memberships, weekend breaks, pub visits & holidays)
Clothing/Cash/Xmas/Other £2,000
Repairs/replacements £2,000 (does this include haircuts and dentistry?)
Total £40,000
Oh dear, that won't be happening anytime soon!

It's probably worth splitting the 40k into must haves and wants.  That way you can make better decisions - work longer to have more wants or work shorter and have less of these.

cfw1994

tigerspill said:

Peterrr said:

In answer to the original post, my number (for a couple and using today's prices)
Food £6,800 (includes a cheeky takeaway or two each week)
Car/transport £7,000 (two cars, includes £3k depreciation/contribution to replacements)
Bills/Utilities £7,200 (includes house insurance, council tax, elec/gas, TV/broadband, mobiles)
Holidays/Leisure £15,000 (includes club/gym memberships, weekend breaks, pub visits & holidays)
Clothing/Cash/Xmas/Other £2,000
Repairs/replacements £2,000 (does this include haircuts and dentistry?)
Total £40,000
Oh dear, that won't be happening anytime soon!

It's probably worth splitting the 40k into must haves and wants.  That way you can make better decisions - work longer to have more wants or work shorter and have less of these.

That is a great suggestion.  I have 3 versions of this: Luxury, Acceptable, Frugal.
The Frugal one would be perhaps how I expect us to spend during a time where markets take a big downturn (2020 anyone?!).  The Luxury would be your £40k “all-in business as usual”.....the Acceptable somewhere in between with a few things pared down.

Clearly target the income needed for Luxury 

Anonymous101

cfw1994 said:

tigerspill said:

Peterrr said:

In answer to the original post, my number (for a couple and using today's prices)
Food £6,800 (includes a cheeky takeaway or two each week)
Car/transport £7,000 (two cars, includes £3k depreciation/contribution to replacements)
Bills/Utilities £7,200 (includes house insurance, council tax, elec/gas, TV/broadband, mobiles)
Holidays/Leisure £15,000 (includes club/gym memberships, weekend breaks, pub visits & holidays)
Clothing/Cash/Xmas/Other £2,000
Repairs/replacements £2,000 (does this include haircuts and dentistry?)
Total £40,000
Oh dear, that won't be happening anytime soon!

It's probably worth splitting the 40k into must haves and wants.  That way you can make better decisions - work longer to have more wants or work shorter and have less of these.

That is a great suggestion.  I have 3 versions of this: Luxury, Acceptable, Frugal.
The Frugal one would be perhaps how I expect us to spend during a time where markets take a big downturn (2020 anyone?!).  The Luxury would be your £40k “all-in business as usual”.....the Acceptable somewhere in between with a few things pared down.

Clearly target the income needed for Luxury 

I have an additional category for "Luxury" which is above my "Current" spending.
Current would be £40k (£30k once mortgage is paid), Luxury might be maintaining the £40k once the mortgage has been paid.
To my mind if there's an option to have more money when I retire than now (I'll have more free time so could happily find ways to spend it) then I wouldn't rule that out. If I'm looking to be FI in my late 40's then there's certainly the possibility I'd want to work another year or two's for plenty of icing on my retirement cake!

*** Edit - I said my, I meant our. The £40k spending is for a family not just me personally.