Pensions Planning: The NUMBER

SomeMadeUpName

DairyQueen said:

Am I the only person in England with a wet radiator/electric boiler heating system? 

We have one in our business unit, with solar panels on the roof to help feed.
In my house I have gas blown air heating, in my holiday apt electric hot water tank and wall mounted leccy convectors, my partner in the business unit has solar electric powered ground source heating and water in his home.
So not a single 'conventional' system in sight!

DairyQueen

SomeMadeUpName said:

DairyQueen said:

Am I the only person in England with a wet radiator/electric boiler heating system? 

We have one in our business unit, with solar panels on the roof to help feed.
In my house I have gas blown air heating, in my holiday apt electric hot water tank and wall mounted leccy convectors, my partner in the business unit has solar electric powered ground source heating and water in his home.
So not a single 'conventional' system in sight!

That's a relief

bownyboy

bownyboy said:

When I first read this thread many years ago we were aiming for £24k for a couple so £600k in investments.

We’re now at £630k and from analysing our spending in Money Dashboard I think £2.5k to £3k per month or £30k to £36k a year is more realistic.

Last few months in lockdown has validated how much we would need for bare bones retirement which is around £1.8k a month.

The one thing I wish money dashboard would do is show your categories of spending over a 12 month period, seems only to do it for current and last month.

An update after a year in lockdown:

Our investments are now at £710k and expected to be around £780k in September when my current contract finishes. 

Our ideal number is around £38k a year, but about 50% of that is discrectionary so we will follow the variable rate withdrawal approach when we start deaccumulating. 

I found Moneyhub much better for analysing monthly spending and it allows you to do a month on month comparison which is great. 

Is anyone concerned about inflation? I've already seen some eye watering increases this year, most of which I will be doing site comparisons to get best prices along with cash back (looking at you Virgin Media). 

Stubod

..ref inflation, yes way over inflation increases for electric and council tax again this year. For longer term planning I always have a higher inflation figure factored in for electric, and will now do the same for council tax (ours went up 9% last year as well 5% this year).

lisyloo

savingmore said:

I love this pensions thread.......funny how it’s morphing into an energy thread 🤣🤣😢😢😢.   

Anyone revising their number now that we have a roadmap out of lockdown?  anyone retiring sooner, or delaying?

DH may be retiring a bit earlier due to concerns about BCE 2 (at 75).
the tax regime is looking less favourable e.g. tax bands, LTA, although I completely understand why.
not sure how many others feel the same but completely disincentivized to pay higher rate in retirement.
speaking to IFA to get a better feel tomorrow but it’s hard planning for a limit 20 years ahead.

bownyboy

Don't get me started on council tax  ours is £300 a month now for a 1100 sqft 3 bed semi. Nothing we can do about it except move I guess.

Electric and gas I managed to get a decent 18month fix with EDF which runs out in November. I've already done some comparisons now and it looks like we will be paying 10% to 15% more. 

Virgin Media up 9% 

Netflix up 15%

Thames Water up 5%

Sea_Shell

We'd set our "number" at £15,000 pa.   We've yet to get anywhere near it.  So I don't think we need to be worrying about inflation just yet.    Once we manage to actually spend our £15k, then we'll re-evaluate things.

westv

bownyboy said:

Don't get me started on council tax  ours is £300 a month now for a 1100 sqft 3 bed semi. Nothing we can do about it except move I guess.

£ 3,600 a year sounds awfully high. What band is that? 

MallyGirl

Mine is £280 per month over 12 months - band G

SouthCoastBoy

Yes I am very concerned about inflation, all the money pumped into the economy recently will I think result inflation over the next few years. I'm not convinced cpi is an accurate indication of my inflation number. Council tax increases are horrendous, no accountability, not based on whether you can pay and nothing discretionary about it. Mine is around 2200 a year for a band d property.
In some ways the govt need inflation to go higher to help inflate the massive govt debt away