What monthly figure do you need in retirement ?

moneyistooshorttomention

My bills are around £250 per month as a single person and obviously wouldnt be much more if there were A.N. Other here as well sharing them.

Beyond that - there are NHS bills (as I call them) - ie dental, optician, etc. Plus my own bodycare bills of hairdresser, etc.

Then there's clothes and that depends to a large extent imo on what part of the country one lives in. If I were still in my home city I'd probably be spending rather more than living where I do now (town in Wales). Here - there really isnt much need for anything other than jeans/teeshirts/jumpers and a greater need for umbrellas/raincoats.

Social life - my "eating out" costs are a lot lower than in home city (as there isnt anywhere much to eat out). My food bills are steadily becoming a good bit higher than in home city (as I work on cooking up everything I'd be trying out in a restaurant/pub instead).

I don't run a car - but, if I did, then I'd need hundreds of £s a month for that.

Basically - that goes to show that how much one needs/particularly wants will vary according to:
- marital status
- where one lives
- if one has a car
- if money is still needed for mortgage/rent
- if money is still being used to get financially straight in the first place (eg work on house/building up savings/etc).

luvchocolate

£13000 a year, pay rent run a car no debt £250 a month spare Savings for anything big otherwise I am fine thank you, happy days

missile

I would suggest whatever you can live on before retirement is a very good guide.

fatbeetle

We're budgeting on £25,000 pa, for a couple with no mortgage, and no dependent children, for the first 5-7 years of our retirement, rising to £36-39,000 pa when I hit 66.

I'll be retiring at 59 yrs old.

Murphybear

We have ~ £21,500 pa between us. We run 2 cheap cars and eat out during the day quite a lot. We spend a lot on petrol when the weather is fine on day trips throughout the West Country. We don't spend much on holidays, the occasional holiday cottage up North.

Davesnave

Murphybear, you live near me, and now I see we have a similar income and leisure habits, or rather we did until my wife and I started a full scale renovation of our property. That's taken over our lives for 3 years.

We bought a run-down country place in the Crash of '09, but it took a long time to do the preliminary sorting-out and planning before spending on the house itself. Before that, we were just getting the land and outbuildings sorted.

We had an overall budget of around £100k or we'd have been making the same mistake as others have locally, by putting more into the property than it would ever return should circumstances change.

Our aim was to end up with an efficient 'new' house, so nothing major should need doing in our autumn years. We also have some flexibility with the land and outbuildings. I'd rather not sell anything off, unless it becomes a burden, but it's nice to have options.

Running a 5 acre smallholding on £20k p.a. is just about do-able. There's extra machinery, materials and labour costs incurred in keeping it under control, but there are compensations too, like fuel and food being produced on-site.

Now the house is 'done' (almost!) our running costs have fallen to around half of what they were, which is helping, month on month. All the rest is just landscaping and what I'd call 'conspicuous consumption,' but my wife would call it home making!

No, we'll never have a newish car, but what's the point? Around here, the left hand side is covered in minor scratches within 2 years and the rest is covere in mud. Those guys with the sponges in Sainsbury's car park look the other way when I arrive! :rotfl:

lessonlearned

I am already retired and I have just finished reading "Your Money or Your Life". It's a good book and well worth reading, whether you are retired already or thinking about it.

It makes some excellent comments about consumption, what kind of levels of income needed etc.

Although aimed at those wishing to FIRE. (Financial Independence and Retire Early) it still is an interesting read even if you are already retired.....(good life lessons for our kids).

It talks about the "crossover point". Basically where your unearned income outstrips your earned income, plus "then some". At that point you are ready to retire.

Unearned income could be anything from pensions, BTL, investment income - whatever. As long as that is enough to cover your living costs with some to spare then you are set to go.

My unearned income is actually quite modest but it is double my outgoings so I have plenty of "enough to spare", plus of course some capital to reinvest.

Plus - there is absolutely no reason why, once having retired from your own particular "daily grind", you can't then set up a nice little sideline business or work a few hours doing something you love and earning a few extra shekels in the process.

The beauty of retirement is that you become time rich and as we all know "time equals money". :rotfl:

Dave......good to see "the project" is going well. I'm just about to embark in my own.

The boys have just about finished their houses now so I have started searching for one for me now.

I will be going on a 6 week trip to the Amazon next January - wahoo! After that it will be time to knuckle down and either renovate/rebuild or maybe start from scratch if I can find a plot of land.

It will be fun.....she said.:rotfl:

Davesnave

lessonlearned wrote: »

Dave......good to see "the project" is going well. I'm just about to embark in my own.

The boys have just about finished their houses now so I have started searching for one for me now......

It will be fun.....she said.:rotfl:

It's gone OK, thanks, but we've learned so much along the way that the next one could be twice as good!

There won't be a next, though. We know how hard it is to find the right location, and even if we found it, one of us is physically unable to handle the heavy stuff now.

We're definitely 'hands-on' developers; none of this standing there in a hard hat, complaining, as seen often on Grand Designs!

lessonlearned

Davesnave wrote: »

It's gone OK, thanks, but we've learned so much along the way that the next one could be twice as good!

There won't be a next, though. We know how hard it is to find the right location, and even if we found it, one of us is physically unable to handle the heavy stuff now.

We're definitely 'hands-on' developers; none of this standing there in a hard hat, complaining, as seen often on Grand Designs!

Lol. And their budgets..... ha ha

"Oh we went £100k over budget, but we found the money somewhow because, well you know, you have to dont you". :rotfl:

Meanwhile back in the real world. .........

Murphybear

Davesnave wrote: »

Murphybear, you live near me, and now I see we have a similar income and leisure habits, or rather we did until my wife and I started a full scale renovation of our property. That's taken over our lives for 3 years.

We bought a run-down country place in the Crash of '09, but it took a long time to do the preliminary sorting-out and planning before spending on the house itself. Before that, we were just getting the land and outbuildings sorted.

We had an overall budget of around £100k or we'd have been making the same mistake as others have locally, by putting more into the property than it would ever return should circumstances change.

Our aim was to end up with an efficient 'new' house, so nothing major should need doing in our autumn years. We also have some flexibility with the land and outbuildings. I'd rather not sell anything off, unless it becomes a burden, but it's nice to have options.

Running a 5 acre smallholding on £20k p.a. is just about do-able. There's extra machinery, materials and labour costs incurred in keeping it under control, but there are compensations too, like fuel and food being produced on-site.

Now the house is 'done' (almost!) our running costs have fallen to around half of what they were, which is helping, month on month. All the rest is just landscaping and what I'd call 'conspicuous consumption,' but my wife would call it home making!

No, we'll never have a newish car, but what's the point? Around here, the left hand side is covered in minor scratches within 2 years and the rest is covere in mud. Those guys with the sponges in Sainsbury's car park look the other way when I arrive! :rotfl:

:hello: Davesnave, good to have MSE neighbours. Sounds like you've had a great few years.:D. I agree about the cars, both of ours are getting on a bit but are very good makes so will last a few more years.