Comfortable Pension for a Single Person

System

MrSaver96 wrote: »

Very interesting thread!

One question I always ask myself is how long you need to plan for retirement. So do you make sure you have enough until you 80, 90, 100? Or do you make sure you have enough to last indefinitely?!

It depends on your plans for the future, and what's on your bucket list. However, I would suggest "indefinitely". My Dad, who passed away last year, retired at the age of 62 and died at 94. My mum took early retirement before that, but had been working on an "ad hoc" basis for a few years until retirement. Once they were both fully unshackled from the workplace, they were able to have at least one proper holiday and one short break a year, a new kitchen, replaced their car a couple of times, and were able to pay people to do occasional stuff for them eg decorating, gardening, etc.

After my mum passed away in 2009, my dad took up cruising holidays, alone, and had a fantastic time - he swam in both the Pacific and the Caribbean at the age of 93.

To be fair, they were of the generation that never "splashed the cash" and they were both fortunate to have had work pensions. My dad had the opportunity to top up his work pension which he did.

Without a crystal ball, none of us know how long we will live for, or how long our money will last, but erring on the side of caution, particularly as life expectancy is gradually rising I'm certainly working on the same basis as my parents! My money needs to outlive me, as I have a lot of things that I want to do but don't have time for at the moment.

JoeEngland

fly-catchers wrote: »

Would be on about £12500 annual DB pension if I left now. Currently 61 and the SP would kick in at 66. Because of being contracted out I am currently 4 years short of the maximum SP but could buy the missing years later on I assume.
Doing my sums once I get my full pension rather than have it fully taxed at the moment because I am still working. It will cover all my monthly outgoings and leave a bit. But would need to take money from my savings for unexpected purchases and repairs. But do have a reasonable amount though not huge in various savings and S&S ISA. I also intend to resume my hobby of growing and selling tropical plants both as a hobby and for some extra cash. My current work hours have tended to make me neglect that side of my life.
But still find actually pulling the plug and finally leaving harder than expected and already falling into the one more year trap!

One more year actually means one less year of retirement, and we don't live for ever. If you can afford to go now you should seriously consider it.

cfw1994

JillyC8 wrote: »

Some would say on here that you should plan indefinitely, but for me, it's more important to have the healthiest income up to around age 75 than to worry so much about having thousands to spend when all you might want to do is watch Countdown and drink tea :-).

Yeah, Countdown & tea: pfft.....
....now if you'd said Tipping Point and The Chase: that is a whole different ball game: I'm in on that already! :rotfl:

JillyC8

And maybe replace the tea with a tipple ... need to make sure the pension covers these essentials ... ��

crv1963

JillyC8 wrote: »

I'm finding this thread so useful too; I was beginning to think I was the only person who has worked all their life with an 'unsurvivable' pension pot under £250k until I started this thread! :rotfl:

I think that it is all in the planning. A pot of 250k for an ordinary person does take some planning and effort. A lot of people either get a pension with inadequate amounts going into over the years- but feel comforted that they have ticked the pension "box", don't bother at all, or take an interest and do a bit of planning.

For us as a couple it is Mrs CRV pensions that are our main concern. She has a SERPS pot of around 95-100k, her auto enrollment NEST from the last few years- around 6k and we're putting money into a SIPP for her - base payment 200pm topping up as we can afford, while looking at preparing our home for when we pull the plug- getting the big ticket items while we have a decent joint income.

The plan will be for her-

SERPS pot draw down 3-4k pa subject to there not being a crash, if there's a crash use savings instead. This will hopefully last a lifetime.

NEST combine with SIPP pot, aim to have minimum 80k in it over next 5 years. This will be drawn down to zero age 57-67 when SP starts.

So the plan is she has retirement income of 12k pa for life from age 57. If I kick the bucket she has survivors pension from my pension of around 10k pa. So with no mortgage she should be okay with 22k pa as a single person.

Me- DB 16k pa plus 8k pa from Mrs CRV SIPPs pot, and if needed 3-4k pa from her SERPS pot, so 24-28k pa as a single person if she pops off first.

It helped us to create different pots for different stages of retirement to try to get a smooth and more importantly steady income from when we decide to go.

The only fly in the ointment is we need my pension and............I am enjoying work but don't want to be trapped by the one more year syndrome!

Edit to put figures for me into the post.

kev2009

I'd love to have 24-28k as income as retirement but not sure that will happen at the moment at least from the figures i'm being show on the calculator, even if i do increase my contributions, it wont be a large amount so wont make too much difference, perhaps when i paid mortgage maybe i can then put a fair bit more into pension and maybe that will boost it but not sure as would only be the last few years so wont be in the pot too long to actually make any money. Guess i need to wait for nearer the time or for the markets to take off and get a reasonable return

Kev

crv1963

kev2009 wrote: »

I'd love to have 24-28k as income as retirement but not sure that will happen at the moment at least from the figures i'm being show on the calculator, even if i do increase my contributions, it wont be a large amount so wont make too much difference, perhaps when i paid mortgage maybe i can then put a fair bit more into pension and maybe that will boost it but not sure as would only be the last few years so wont be in the pot too long to actually make any money. Guess i need to wait for nearer the time or for the markets to take off and get a reasonable return

Kev

For us it was getting our head round the idea that it doesn't all need to be in a constant stream, that we could create a pot (Mrs CRV SIPP) that could be exhausted and we could stage savings for different periods of retirement.

So the SIPP only has to last until the SP kicks in. If we'd have planned earlier then possibly we'd have over paid the mortgage by a bit more, but plan to use TFLS to clear this, although we may not do that in full, keeping a smaller amount mortgaged with the funds to clear it in an ISA or put it over time into a SIPP at 2880 pa each.

My view is you can't beat the tax uplift short term anyway by putting it into a bank account.

Gin_and_Milk

This is a great thread for people who are single (or probably will be in retirement), as well as for those who will probably be retiring on 'normal' amounts of money!  Fair play to those who will be retiring with an income of tens of thousands, with X000,000s in savings, but as someone who won't be retiring with anything like that amount of money behind me, I find those posts interesting, but hard to relate to.

jsinc

A useful site: https://www.retirementlivingstandards.org.uk/

Includes full spreadsheet detail for minimum, moderate and comfortable single and couple.

MoneyWorry

This is a really good thread. I will have £7260 pa from a personal pension which I intend to take at 60 at end of this year. £2675 pa at 65 from a DB pension and currently have a £5k DC pot with my present employer. I will get full SP at 66 plus 8 months.  No debts and paid mortgage off last year. I used to feel a bit disheartened when I read about the huge pension pots on here, but you have to put it in perspective. I’ve always lived alone and the highest salary I have had in my working life is £24k and on £22.5k now. Realistically, it’s not that bad.