Breaking Through, Travelling On

Greying_Pilgrim

elantan wrote: »

, we still have a long way to go and i fancy solar panels etc once they have improved obviously but it is a very good idea to start living within the retirement limit when you can as the shock to the system wont be just as much, it also allows for extra to pensions etc

I agree wholeheartedly elantan - we're looking to move to a more easily maintainable abode, possibly a bungalow, but with a garden. Something that can be heated without breaking the bank and that can be kept watertight by us for a good few years at least. Solar panels would be the icing on the cake. But yes, by having a good life now but only spending on what we really need etc, I'm hopeful that actually, there will be more in the retirement years

Greying

Karmacat

Thank you for posting, folks :beer:

Gallygirl - you're on :j

Greying - erm, sorry about the use of the word "wittering" :o:o its me thats wittering, I guarantee you that!

The peanut butter thing - I think its this Hugh FW one: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/22/hugh-fearnley-whittingstall-honey-peanut-butter-bars-recipes but that stew is interesting, the one you've linked to. Peanut butter is such an easy way of incorporating nuts into our food, but I can't use it as a spread very often, because I don't eat bread any more, due to my gluten intolerance. So I'll make a note of that one too, thank you :kisses3:

And what you're saying about living at retirement level *now* is really, really sensible. In a way, I'm doing that more and more, though I'm not doing it as healthily as you, because I don't quite get the right proportion of veg. But thats what this current push is about, I'm on the way. £80 per month for the two of you, though ... wow! Some of that is helped by being able to eat wheat, I suppose, as a carbohydrate its a lot cheaper than other stuff. And the only rice I'm able to cope with is Sainsbo organic basmati (which is still cheaper than the gluten free pasta!).

Mind you, I'll be helped by being able to grow bits in my garden - as I write, there's winter savory, 2 x blueberries, 2 x gooseberries, 1 x raspberry, 1 x blackcurrant (huge!), 2 x rhubarb, many strawberries, 3 x baby fruit trees that haven't borne fruit yet, 5 x chives (from a soopermercado, I like that ), oregano, caroway, rosemary and lavender. Plus the salad I intend to grow in grow bags, where the soil's too thick to work with tiny little seeds.

Must work on this. Hence the tax dark recipes but I think your book would sell more copies than mine, you have quite a following, you know :beer:

Cucina povera - I like it :T thank you!

As to where to live ... yep, I don't want to be old here, if I imagine me at my mum's age, absolutely not! But I don't want a bungalow either - to be honest, I'm relieved my mum's still in a house, even at her age, because if there's a flood she can go upstairs and wait to be rescued. When *we* get to her age, rescue would take even longer, so there might even be a sense of having to wait till it recedes - I'd be worried in a bungalow, I confess. But then, the stairs would present problems. My mum's generation can afford to have stairlifts (she had one for my dad, which was taken out in due course), but I doubt that I could. And moving, especially moving to Lancashire somewhere, would reduce my living expenses, tho then I'd be much further from my sister so many issues!

I think I'll try to cost out what a typical week of food actually costs. You know, in all that spare time.

This post is long! El, I'll write another one to you.

Karmacat

elantan wrote: »

take a pension up to the tax threshold ( ie £2.5k a year just now) so i would need a pension pot of just shy of £125k roughly (£31.25k tax free and £2.9k drawdown at a rate 0f 3%)

Okay, thats the first bit; so to get retirement income of £10k (personal allowance rate) you're counting a wage (as a student, lets remember :j) of £7.5k, plus this additional pension of £2.5k. So getting a pension of £2.5k needs that pension pot of £125k for the 25% tax free and £2.9k drawdown at 3%. Okay.

then i plan on putting anymore into a tax free ISA say a further £100k giving me at 3% a rate of £3k a year so i will have £13,400 a year income but only be paying tax on £400 (£80 in total to the tax man), by the next tax year that will be swallowed up these figures are just an example obviously but its just to give you an idea

Sounds great!

I confess, the way things are going right now, I won't be able to retire at my July 2016 target. Or maybe I won't be able to afford *not* to retire - if I go live in a camper van, and stay with my mum sometimes, I can rent out this house, at least, and get £1k a month in rent!

Now that the tax year is almost finished, and I've realised I can fill in a spreadsheet with the values of what pension investments I have, I'll know more. Need to get a move on with making some more money tho!

elantan

The £7.5k is the state pension amount, so no need to save that for retirement unless you plan on retiring early

My wage this year with all my overtime ( on average 65 hours per month) was literally just shy of £16k ... I don't really earn much, which means I don't have to stress too much about having a pension etc at £20k a year, hence the reason the above plan works for me

Karmacat

Ah, thanks! The annuities calculator on find.co.uk says that to get £2.5k per year extra, at the age I hope to retire, I'd need a fund of about £46k. Which would be fine. Unfortunately, there's a 6 year age gap between my state pension age and when I *want* to retire. Must try harder :rotfl:

Okay Services figures for the EU and for us are all out, and all down a little bit, though there's also a European sales figure out at 10am, it shouldn't affect things too badly for my trading, but everything's still very flat, so I'm not sure if there'll be any signals.

In the meantime, I'll be working on the tax dark cookery book :rotfl: I had such a bad sleep, I can't face doing the French leaseback work I'd marked up as needing to be done today. Maybe later

elantan

We'll the good thing there is

You just have to save 6 years worth :-)

Maybe ask yourself if funds etc are the right course then as it's estimated they need at least 5 years to grow and 10 years for a decentish payout ?

Karmacat

They're not bad, actually - I'll put "check funds" on the list, but there are other priorities. Mind you :o:o the French apartment is a huge priority, and I can't bear to deal with it right now bleeping thing.

The other priority, much nicer, is getting the garden clear of weeds and working as hard as possible to get the nutrition I've *bought* actually *onto* the garden. I did more than an hour this afternoon, which is about the most I can do, worked on a couple of square yards - cleared weeds and grass, especially a huge set of bramble roots, then got the leaf mould onto the earth so it was all nicely covered up, and laid dead branches over everything, so that not too much of the mulch flies away :beer:

The tax dark cookery will have to wait - the garden is really starting to turn around, and I have to carry on and make it as fertile as possible.

The tax dark cookbook, mind you, is coming on apace I'll be ready for it when I'm ready, so to speak

Off for a walk now, so that my back straightens out - its lucky I don't run, because the sky is really hazy from that air pollution. Can't feel it affecting me, I'm not asthmaticky, just virusy, so I'm good.

Later doodz

Goldiegirl

This thing about living within a retirement income now - that's exactly what we are doing.

We're both currently in receipt of pensions from previous jobs, and when we stop work we'll get £1500 per month from these pensions ( more than at present, but we pay more tax at the moment), so we are living on £1500

When DH is 65 in October 2016 he'll get his state pension and other little pension, so the situation will improve then. My state pension is in the dim and distant future.

It's a useful exercise to try and create a post retirement scenario, and means that in the meantime we save more, towards the future.

Greying_Pilgrim

Goldiegirl is proving that it can be done and that you can live a good quality life like this. In RL I couldn't have a conversation with anyone about what we are *trying out*, they would immediately assume that we were stinting ourselves and confining ourselves to a life of gruel and penury.

Instead of which, we are finding that we are living a good life, not stressing about money - and certainly not stressing over 'keeping up with the jones's'. There is certainly a lot of that where I am - overtly and unconsciously. So glad we tore up the subscription form many moons ago

Greying

edinburgher

There is certainly a lot of that where I am - overtly and unconsciously. So glad we tore up the subscription form many moons ago

I once spoke to a very successful chap at work about houses, he is a wee bit older than me. I mentioned looking at small houses in a fairly posh suburb and he said:

'All you'll get is a German sports car in the driveway and more bills to pay'

That has stuck with me.