Pensions Planning: The NUMBER

westv

michaels said:

TywysogLloegr said:

The 2024 PLSA Retirement Living Standards is out, it says what anyone doing their budget knows. Everything is now more expensive. Interesting the moderate level has increased so much.

About 3k of price inflation and 6k of lifestyle inflation....did someone say vested interest?

A vested interest in getting people thinking about retirement and their pensions when many do neither.

Lindlou

m_c_s said:

Best to work out your number based on your own lifestyle.

Based on PLSA data for a comfortable lifestyle a couple spends:
£264 per week on food
£27 per week on alcohol
£71 per week on household goods
£48 per week on clothes
£338 per week on social and cultural participation (holidays)
£382 other costs (council tax, house services, motoring etc)
Total of £1130 per week (£59000 pa outside London)
No rent or mortgage. 

This looks more like our monthly spend! 

Roger175

These PLSA figures are quite frankly ridiculous. Having accurately monitored our spending for the last couple of years we know exactly what our 'Number' is and we live more than comfortably for a fraction of what they are suggesting. I posted our figures on Page 240 of this thread for those interested. Our number includes running a good size house in the country with a separate annex, running 3 cars and various holidays per year (typically one foreign). We could cut our expenditure further if push came to shove. 

Stubod

..£264 per week on food, (not including alcohol) for a couple is frankly obscene....I get worried if we spend £100 (including alcohol) ....we would struggle to get anywhere near that even if we just shopped at Waitrose!?

westv

Stubod said:

..£264 per week on food, (not including alcohol) for a couple is frankly obscene....I get worried if we spend £100 (including alcohol) ....we would struggle to get anywhere near that even if we just shopped at Waitrose!?

It is a lot but "obscene" is a bit of an exaggeration I think. 

Stubod

..probably, but that spend represents well over double what I would consider to be the "normal"....so are most people eating 2.5 times as much as us???....they must either excercise a lot or be slightly on the "obese" side of things...

MallyGirl

It probably depends on what is included. If pet food is in there and also eating out then I could see the figure being bigger than you might first think. If it is groceries rather than food then there are cleaning products, toilet roll, all that sort of thing. 

Stubod

...with the exception of eating out, all the above are included in our monthly total. But yes, (but no), if eating out is included then the world is your oyster...particularly if you eat them as well...??

westv

MallyGirl said:

It probably depends on what is included. If pet food is in there and also eating out then I could see the figure being bigger than you might first think. If it is groceries rather than food then there are cleaning products, toilet roll, all that sort of thing. 

It includes 
£125 Sainsbury food shopping
£80 eating out
£30 takeaway
£23 food for friends and family.

Ganga

Stubod said:

..probably, but that spend represents well over double what I would consider to be the "normal"....so are most people eating 2.5 times as much as us???....they must either excercise a lot or be slightly on the "obese" side of things...

You are presuming  that high cost means high volume ,they could be buying premium price products .