Pensions Planning: The NUMBER

Vespaboy

As a long time lurker on here I would echo the sentiments above, this thread is worth a read. I will be re reading it as I am in the last 4/5 years so need to start really understanding the next steps of retirement planning and available and realistic income  

robrit61

A few years before I took early retirement I decided to put as much as I could into my pension making my income similar to what I knew I would be getting in retirement. It worked for me. I had a good period of time to give it a trial run. I found I could manage fine so took the plunge when the opportunity came. Had I been struggling I may well have carried on for a bit longer.

gadgetmind

If by "hoarding money" you mean diverting some income to build up a pot of capital from which to take an income in your dotage, then maybe. Those without defined benefit pensions, and who would like to retire before they are nearing their 70s, have no other choice than to "hoard money". 

enthusiasticsaver

crv1963 said:

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? 

We are already retired so have not revised plans but like you we spent less during the lockdown although we have started going out again for meals etc and have booked a few UK holidays.  The only plan we revised was we did not withdraw from our investment portfolio as planned as that is for long haul holidays which have been moved forward a year due to the international travel restrictions and the fact I do not really want to wear a mask for the 8 hour flight to Canada.  I think your wife is probably being quite sensible in prioritising early retirement over more spending money.  We have noticed how little we need to survive if we are just staying home.  Our savings account is looking really healthy. 

Over the lockdown our essential utility bills came to  just over £500 a month (with no gym/leisure club subscription). We used our bikes or walked mainly so no diesel/petrol and food was increased as we bought more treats/alcohol but we could have got it down to £200 per month if we had been more careful.  Stick on maybe £25 a month for gifts  and £725 a month could provide a basic level retirement.  We also have £200 each personal spends although I spent virtually nothing over lockdown (DH still spent his  online with tools, materials for his hobby etc etc). If we cancelled the sky sub and got rid of the landline we could get rid of another £75. Holidays, car expenses,  increased gifts and meals out though  and gym/leisure club sub add another £500 to our monthly costs.  

IAMIAM

I currently have an old Defined Benefit Pension of £5000 PA and current Defined Benefit Pension of £4000, accruing around £800 year. 
I am aiming for around £2500+ per month age 60-68 and hopefully £3000 plus a month when SP kicks in. 
This is for in around 25 years from now. 

Stubod

..we stopped our "draw down" (from our S&S ISA's), during lockdown as we did not need the money and our shares tanked anyway so it seemed sensible to let them recover a bit. However we have now re-started them as it seemed a good idea to build up a bit of cash to stock up on toilet roles before the next lockdown....

LULULU1

What a great thread. Still working out our number but thought Id ask if anybody is doing what we are doing.

My wife and I will both have DB pensions so whilst the interest rates are low we are paying much less into our mortgage now and the mortgage will last until Im 80. I will have the cash to pay it off when I retire but I would prefer to keep making lower payments and have more money now and leave more money invested. If rates rise we will just pay it off.

To me paying off the mortgage is the last thing I want to do as its literally dead money doing that. I know of course everyone is different and we may be way off the mark..

Thanks for any thoughts.......

barnstar2077

LULULU1 said:

What a great thread. Still working out our number but thought Id ask if anybody is doing what we are doing.

My wife and I will both have DB pensions so whilst the interest rates are low we are paying much less into our mortgage now and the mortgage will last until Im 80. I will have the cash to pay it off when I retire but I would prefer to keep making lower payments and have more money now and leave more money invested. If rates rise we will just pay it off.

To me paying off the mortgage is the last thing I want to do as its literally dead money doing that. I know of course everyone is different and we may be way off the mark..

Thanks for any thoughts.......

I extended my mortgage term, from eight years back up to twenty five, as not paying it off will let me retire earlier (hopefully.) 

I can definitely see why most people prefer to get rid of it though.   It does not rest easy with me,  having spent so many years previously paying it down before I realised it made more financial sense not to. 

MallyGirl

In theory we need to pay off our Offset mortgage off in 5 years aged 58. We are on plan to do that but I suspect we will remortgage to a conventional one before the end to give us some flexibility - probably a 5 yr low rate fix.

Gatser

As you say LULULU1, we all have different views on the best way to plan forward... I can appreciate the financial wisdom of keeping a low interest mortgage in place.  However, for us, we just wanted to clear that debt to minimise liabilities and having a debt free balance sheet... so whatever income is available, is all ours!