Early-retirement wannabe

gadgetmind

Marine_life wrote: »

Total monthly expenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,955.17

I get a similar figure but mine includes car depreciation/replacement, which I can't see in your list, and we also have a large figure for house maintenance.

I've decided to aim for North of £50kpa in today's money, after tax and before state pension, which is non-trivial but achievable.

atush

My wife and I have talked about this over recent months and both come to the conclusion that, God willing, age 50 is when we will aim to make the big change in our lives. This would tie in with our youngest child leaving school and starting university, and our potential liberation from the routines which currently dictate the ebb and flow of each day.

Racing Blue I enjoyed reading your post and look forwards to hearing mroe from you. I have reached the stage you have set for your freedom (my twins start Uni in the fall) but given we are paying for them, our freedom will have to wait 5 years I am afraid lol. But I am really looking forwards to travelling out of school holidays now and for longer periods. My OH has just transferred jobs somewhere sunnier so looking forwards to joining hem more often oand for longer too once I am no longer required to look after them.

Cooking lessons have already started for Uni lol. One has decided to live on Chicken chowmain and eggs, and the other will probably live on Porridge and sandwiches like his older brother ;-)

gadgetmind

atush wrote: »

Cooking lessons have already started for Uni lol.

Our daughter did a cooking course (Junior chefs) on Saturdays at a local technical college, and then did a follow-on baking course. There is now almost nothing that she can't turn her hand to, but she does keep complaining that we don't have a blast chiller.

Linton

Some of the things in the budget look much too high

1) Why are you paying £175/month car tax? How many cars do you have?
2) £75/month water - suggest a water meter!
3) £25/month internet is very expensive
4) £90/month on phone calls?

Personally I think it's a mistake working from the bottom up. You end up over estimating as you allow for contingency in everything. More realistic IMHO is to determine accurately how much you are spending now, remove things that will no longer apply, and use that as a basis for expenditure after retirement.

Our planned annual expenditure, which does not include car replacement which is budgetted separately, is currently about £44K, increasing with CPI. That includes running a narrowboat. Except for years with major house maintenance expenditure we are finding it difficult to spend close to that amount. There is no pleasure buying stuff just for the sake of it - the house is full of stuff. And too much eating out/drinking out/visits to theatre etc can lose its attraction. Even frequent expensive holidays pall - after all life in retirement is one long holiday.

atush

gadgetmind wrote: »

Our daughter did a cooking course (Junior chefs) on Saturdays at a local technical college, and then did a follow-on baking course. There is no almost nothing that she can't turn her hand to, but she does keep complaining that we don't have a blast chiller.

see, that is where you went wrong lol. Sending them to those fancy courses ;-) Then they want to try out for Master chef.

I learned from TV, Julia Child, Ken Hom were my favs.

atush

Some of the things in the budget look much too high

1) Why are you paying £175/month car tax? How many cars do you have?
2) £75/month water - suggest a water meter!
3) £25/month internet is very expensive
4) £90/month on phone calls?

I agree with Linton, these items are far too high- how long since you shopped around?

gadgetmind

atush wrote: »

see, that is where you went wrong lol. Sending them to those fancy courses ;-) Then they want to try out for Master chef.

She was *very* keen on doing it, and it taught her the basic preparation and cooking techniques, and also how to use the equipment and knife skills.

I learned from TV, Julia Child, Ken Hom were my favs.

I was more of a Keith Floyd man myself!

Linton

My favourites are Jamie and Nigel Slater, but am tempted by Heston Blumenthal. Unfortunately our local Tesco doesnt stock the liquid nitrogen yet. Have to try Waitrose.

atush

I used to get Liq N at my work (I was in viruses ;-) but didn't knwo abt heston then (well in fact he wasn't heston then he was a student I expect lol).

I watched Keith too, usually with a glass in hand having a laugh. I like Jaime and Nigel too- Nige is getting a bit healthy though with all those veggie recepies- he is getting quite skinny i fear. Nigella, Lorraine- they are all good. I even cook some of the stuff I see ;-)

Gadget, I have a son who wantys to go on a cooking course, but he gets these enthusiams that cost me oney (like 140 quid on an aquarium the other day). I try to discourage expensive enthusiams but it doesn't always work. I figure they can learn cheaper by wathing TV like I did lol.

Marine_life

Linton wrote: »

Some of the things in the budget look much too high

1) Why are you paying £175/month car tax? How many cars do you have?
2) £75/month water - suggest a water meter!
3) £25/month internet is very expensive
4) £90/month on phone calls?

Personally I think it's a mistake working from the bottom up. You end up over estimating as you allow for contingency in everything. More realistic IMHO is to determine accurately how much you are spending now, remove things that will no longer apply, and use that as a basis for expenditure after retirement.

Our planned annual expenditure, which does not include car replacement which is budgetted separately, is currently about £44K, increasing with CPI. That includes running a narrowboat. Except for years with major house maintenance expenditure we are finding it difficult to spend close to that amount. There is no pleasure buying stuff just for the sake of it - the house is full of stuff. And too much eating out/drinking out/visits to theatre etc can lose its attraction. Even frequent expensive holidays pall - after all life in retirement is one long holiday.

To be honest you are right - I was just having a random play around. Its actually difficult to start with what we spend today as we intend to move house when we retire to another country so our spend will change.

I have a feeling that we need to plan for 40-50,000 and that is what i am allowing for with a bit of headroom.

I love your comment "There is no pleasure buying stuff just for the sake of it". You are so right. when i look around our house today we have everything we need / want and anything else will just be more "stuff".

I am convinced we could live on less but I want to plan for a comfortable retirement.