Pensions Planning: The NUMBER

Pobby

peterg1965 wrote: »

One assumes you mean £840 per year? Else you are paying over £10K a year for Sky, broadband and phone

I think you assume well there. Will edit.

grastgirl

I think our joint "number" would currently be ~£15600, which with inflation on fuel and such like might need to be upped to about £20k, which we should comfortably manage to achieve if our pensions contributions stay the same.

Pobby

grastgirl wrote: »

I think our joint "number" would currently be ~£15600, which with inflation on fuel and such like might need to be upped to about £20k, which we should comfortably manage to achieve if our pensions contributions stay the same.

I think it is often the bits and pieces that add up. Free medicines, I have a number of those. Bus pass, heating allowance, all on the plus side. Not having to put so much away each month in pensions and savings. Now that frees up £100s a month for me. Like a lot of self employed people, although we were wise enough to have pensions on the downside we never could afford to put in what we needed.

Gatser

Pobby wrote: »

What I think is nice is that if you have enough coming in without work then a bit of part time would surely buy a good few luxuries.

Cannot agree more.
It's good to get to your NUMBER .... based on savings and pensions, then do oddjobs to earn pocket money for the little luxuries.

Gatser

Pobby wrote: »

...... Now when I take all this out of the number equation my figure £24,000 a year could be taken back to closer to £16k a year which is a couple of grand short of what our state pension will provide.
That`s nice, as over the last number of years I have really developed the savings habit. So it will be nice to put, hopefully a good bit away each month. Oh and no more pension payments.

Thanks...encouraged feedback.
We can all have a happy existence at around £16-24k .... anything more is luxury.
BTW: Malcolm McClaren sadly passed away at 64.
Another influence on our "Life Planning spreadsheets" ... let's not go chasing sky high NUMBER's and not live to enjoy it!

Pobby

Interesting. It seems that the political parties are realising that a lot of their future is based on the grey vote. Almost, to a man, they are promising better state pensions. That even includes the loony BNP.

Once in power, who ever it is, we will have to see. After all, G. Brown said he wouldn`t allow the housing market to over heat !

Cap_Scarlet

Interesting thread.

One of the things I was thinking about was the extent of the drop one is prepared to take, for some people that will be significantly less than others. If I take my own case:

I am a brit living in Europe so all figures are in EUR (€). I have taken the approach of working down from current take home pay to where I expect to need to be in retirement.

Monthly take home €18,000 (I know - its a lot - but I was good at school)
Currently saving per month €5,000
Mortgage (hopefully gone by retirement) €2,500
School fees (!!! also hopefully gone by retirement) €3,500

That leaves a net of €6,500 which is currently for living (including everything), I probably spend less than that though.

So I am estimating that in retirement I probably need about €5,000 per month net :eek:

Pobby

grastgirl wrote: »

I think our joint "number" would currently be ~£15600, which with inflation on fuel and such like might need to be upped to about £20k, which we should comfortably manage to achieve if our pensions contributions stay the same.

If I am right in saying, the basic pension ( tax credits added ) would add up to £13,500. We would n`t get that as for many year we were employed ( before self employment ) and we have a bit of serps that I hope will take us to around £14,000. Bit of private and a bit of company pensions should take us to about £19,500.

What is becoming the issue is our savings that we are getting very little on. This is very frustrating. At some point a big decision will have to be made.

Do we eat into that amount at say £5,000 per year or do we do the unthinkable. Grab a couple of buy to let flats. It goes against my better judgement. However I can`t see many options right now that I can use that would give a yield of about 7%. A net income of around about £8,000 per annum.

I must admit, I am a bit of a champion of the young `uns in my family who either have stupidly high mortgages or can`t even get out of the parental home. I would be going back on my beliefs.

Gatser

Cap_Scarlet wrote: »

........................
So I am estimating that in retirement I probably need about €5,000 per month net :eek:

Certainly the highest NUMBER to date!
But I just say WELL DONE to you!

It's all about knowing how much you need/want to spend and making sure
you can generate enough income to cover that.

All feedback on your NUMBER is interesting...thanks!

Gatser

Once you have some idea of what your NUMBER is,

it can be interesting to split it out into:
NEEDS (What you NEED to live on, the basics)
WANTS (What you WANT to have a comfortable existence)
DESIRES (What you DESIRE as treats in a happy retirement)

It will again be a personal decision about which category you put things in
but it could be useful if (say) pension returns take a dive and you have to
reduce your overall NUMBER during retirement.