I am financially comfortable. Inflation is biting me hard. What next?

Farway

I consider myself "comfortable", my income [state pension + serps, or it's replacement only] exceeds my outgoings every month. My house is my own, no mortgage, thus only expenses are normal ones, like food, fuel etc

My savings are enough to live on for at least 10 years, should I ever need to.

I have recently decided to get spending some of it on me [holidays] and my grown up children. IMO no point in letting my cash sit a bank losing capital due to inflation, I doubt I will live to be 100, and if I do, tough on me

jennifernil

Yes, exactly our thoughts.

We are enjoying ourselves AND helping our children as much as possible.

pollypenny

Downsizing is not a practical option for us. We moved for a good school and are within walking distance of the town, with bank, library, shops, doctor etc.

We could manage when we can't drive.

Errata

pollypenny wrote: »

Good thread.

WE are wondering whether it's feasible to buy a condo near DS and DIl in Florida. We would use it, but I'm not sure whether the gulf beaches would be as easily rental as near Disney

Can't make a sensible comment on that one Polly, other than it looks like the world economy is going to get a lot worse before it slowly starts to get better. Are the rental prices holding up there?

Savvy_Sue

pollypenny wrote: »

We could manage when we can't drive.

I think that's the single most important question which we should ask as and when we consider downsizing: I've had two spells when I wasn't able to drive in the last 6 years, and it wasn't too much of a problem because we have very good transport links, including both a bus and a train service 5-10 minutes level walk away, and a more frequent bus slightly further away but uphill! There's a few shops also a level walk away, and a Sainsbury's two stops away on the train. Pretty much everything else is uphill, because we live in a river valley, but we could survive.

Sadly there's not much we could downsize to in this road: large houses are the order of the day. I could be tempted by the nearby flats, which have their own swimming pool, but I'm told the service charge is very high (unsurprisingly with pool maintenance!) and you have to go up the hill and down their drive to get at them, so any walking would be more of an effort!

maryb

Not being able to drive will be a real issue for me in the hopefully reasonably far distant future as I have (well controlled) glaucoma. However it is progressive so we have decided that moving to the country is not going to be possible. We will downsize at some point but where we move to will depend on where our DDs end up when they get their careers off the ground. If we stay in our current London borough it's like countryside with pavements - lots of National Trust countryside within 10 minutes walk, plus I would get a Freedom Pass when I can no longer drive or when I eventually reach pension age whichever comes first (I'm one of the women who would have had to wait two extra years and will still have to wait 18 months longer than expected). Freedom passes are brilliant because they cover rail, tube DLR and tram as well as buses.

It's hard to think of anywhere that could really match where we are for convenience and amenity but maybe somewhere like Cambridge would come close - loads of the amenities you associate with city living but a good quality of life. However I suspect house prices there are fairly high so any capital we could release would purely be from selling up and buying somewhere smaller. Which is fine but we won't make anything on the differential in house prices if we go for somewhere like that

ukmaggie45

maryb wrote: »

maybe somewhere like Cambridge would come close - loads of the amenities you associate with city living but a good quality of life.

House prices in Cambridge are seriously scary! My guess would be that you would get less there (in a convenient position for shops, doctors, etc) than even in a London borough (depending where of course - imagine Kensington and Chelsea would bring in some cash! ). Set up a search on Right Move for the price you'd be comfortable paying and watch... Even though you aren't thinking of moving right now it'll give you an idea of what is available, where, and prices.

lilac_lady

Inflation eats up our savings at a greater rate than the one the Government states is valid.
Food rises of 5% per year? I don't think so!

I've given my family financial gifts as I'd rather they got money when they need it rather that wait for me to pop my clogs. Having done that I think I'm going to open my purse a bit wider and spend it on making my life more comfortable.

The only problem is that I'm not used to spending my money on me and I'm content with what I have.

[Deleted User]

financial gifts are always a good idea, I do like helping our children and often give them good quality items from the house. I think we are allowed to give away £3000 a year, so in our case it is £1000 each from me and the same from dh, if we are feeling flush enough. I don`t feel like this all the time mind as they have decent jobs and when I think back to how hard dh and I struggled for every penny!

I do try to stay aware of potential future costs esp in healthcare, now that us older ones are going lower down the scrap heap. Dh has been waiting ages for a hernia op and things are now moving but what if he had had a dangerous strangulation? The gp said it was a big hernia so I quietly went online and bought the `corsets` which have held him together, was that mentioned by the gp or specialist, oh no! It was down to me using my initiative in buying items at £50 a time

Your cp is interesting lilac lady. The stock market has been my friend, as explained in my final leaving post on the tough thread in os. I took over dh`s private pension in 2006 and have made it grow by 42% since then. It is all diversified and is in a number of different asset allocations, drawdown commenced 2 years ago and the sipp is still growing

maryb

I'm a bit out of date on inheritance tax but I think there is an exemption for regular gifts out of income as well as one-offs. That presumably covers helping adult children (or grandchildren) with education costs for example but I don't think it's limited to that or limited to the time they are in full time education