It's time to start digging up those Squirrelled Nuts!!!!

Time4T_Accounts

I dumped ours when the mortgage was paid off : we then put the money away each month into a separate pot to be a ‘go places’ account when we retired. Covid has put paid to the going places for the time being, but the money has built up nicely.  We’ve done things (pre-Covid) like a few days away here and there in this country and across the channel; eaten at Michelin starred restaurants; and done luxury train journeys (the Northern Belle) in the UK. And the best part of it is not having to think about where the money might come from to do these things (not something that we’ve ever been able to do before).  So, from life insurance to life experiences!

OldScientist

With premiums of £10 per month not too many life experiences going begging (our pet insurance is far more expensive!) - but, for me at least, the peace of mind is valuable. The OH would have a baseline of about 60% of our current income (from DB and investments) while the life insurance payout would add back another 20% or so. One of the many interesting things about a thread like this one is that there are many different approaches to the same problems.

Dazza1902

OldScientist said:

Sea_Shell said:

Glad you're enjoying my thread.

We currently have no income from anywhere, as both still under 55 and not doing any paid work.   

So all our spends are coming from our cash float at the moment.    The large fixed term savings account matures in September, so we'll be investing £40,000 in the ISA's and keeping £20,000 in cash for now.    

Then in September DH will start to draw bits and bobs from his DC pensions.  So we'll re-evaluate our cash holdings levels later in the year.

Very enjoyable and interesting thread. We retired not long after after you and the similarities and differences between our retirements may be interesting.

We are similar in that at about £14k our expenditure is fairly low (slightly higher than you, but, excluding pets, there are currently 4 of us in the house). We're a bit older, but not by too much (upper 50s).

However, our funding is very different with over 80% of our income (before tax) coming from a DB pension and the remaining from various S&S ISA pots. Although, so far, we have not had to withdraw anything from the ISAs (in fact we've continued to save and have been able to contribute to the house fund savings of our children).

One significant difference in planning is that in the event of my demise, the OH will only have half the DB income, so I've had to take out life insurance (two policies - a level term and a decreasing term the combination of which reduces premiums but allows reasonable inflation proofing) to cover the income gap until the OH can draw the SP. While DB pensions may be 'gold plated', they do have some downsides!

I have no mortgage, debts of any kind. At retirement my  fixed outgoings will be pretty small (£600 pm),  I do not crave material things  or foreign hols,  but I struggle to see how any couple could easily live off 14 k a year. If I thought I could  I would have retired two years ago.

michaels

Dazza1902 said:

OldScientist said:

Sea_Shell said:

Glad you're enjoying my thread.

We currently have no income from anywhere, as both still under 55 and not doing any paid work.   

So all our spends are coming from our cash float at the moment.    The large fixed term savings account matures in September, so we'll be investing £40,000 in the ISA's and keeping £20,000 in cash for now.    

Then in September DH will start to draw bits and bobs from his DC pensions.  So we'll re-evaluate our cash holdings levels later in the year.

Very enjoyable and interesting thread. We retired not long after after you and the similarities and differences between our retirements may be interesting.

We are similar in that at about £14k our expenditure is fairly low (slightly higher than you, but, excluding pets, there are currently 4 of us in the house). We're a bit older, but not by too much (upper 50s).

However, our funding is very different with over 80% of our income (before tax) coming from a DB pension and the remaining from various S&S ISA pots. Although, so far, we have not had to withdraw anything from the ISAs (in fact we've continued to save and have been able to contribute to the house fund savings of our children).

One significant difference in planning is that in the event of my demise, the OH will only have half the DB income, so I've had to take out life insurance (two policies - a level term and a decreasing term the combination of which reduces premiums but allows reasonable inflation proofing) to cover the income gap until the OH can draw the SP. While DB pensions may be 'gold plated', they do have some downsides!

I have no mortgage, debts of any kind. At retirement my  fixed outgoings will be pretty small (£600 pm),  I do not crave material things  or foreign hols,  but I struggle to see how any couple could easily live off 14 k a year. If I thought I could  I would have retired two years ago.

So whatare your essential variable spends that exceed 800pm? 

barnstar2077

Dazza1902 said:

OldScientist said:

Sea_Shell said:

Glad you're enjoying my thread.

We currently have no income from anywhere, as both still under 55 and not doing any paid work.   

So all our spends are coming from our cash float at the moment.    The large fixed term savings account matures in September, so we'll be investing £40,000 in the ISA's and keeping £20,000 in cash for now.    

Then in September DH will start to draw bits and bobs from his DC pensions.  So we'll re-evaluate our cash holdings levels later in the year.

Very enjoyable and interesting thread. We retired not long after after you and the similarities and differences between our retirements may be interesting.

We are similar in that at about £14k our expenditure is fairly low (slightly higher than you, but, excluding pets, there are currently 4 of us in the house). We're a bit older, but not by too much (upper 50s).

However, our funding is very different with over 80% of our income (before tax) coming from a DB pension and the remaining from various S&S ISA pots. Although, so far, we have not had to withdraw anything from the ISAs (in fact we've continued to save and have been able to contribute to the house fund savings of our children).

One significant difference in planning is that in the event of my demise, the OH will only have half the DB income, so I've had to take out life insurance (two policies - a level term and a decreasing term the combination of which reduces premiums but allows reasonable inflation proofing) to cover the income gap until the OH can draw the SP. While DB pensions may be 'gold plated', they do have some downsides!

I have no mortgage, debts of any kind. At retirement my  fixed outgoings will be pretty small (£600 pm),  I do not crave material things  or foreign hols,  but I struggle to see how any couple could easily live off 14 k a year. If I thought I could  I would have retired two years ago.

This does seem somewhat of a contradiction. 

Amateurretiree

Dazza1902 said:

OldScientist said:

Sea_Shell said:

Glad you're enjoying my thread.

We currently have no income from anywhere, as both still under 55 and not doing any paid work.   

So all our spends are coming from our cash float at the moment.    The large fixed term savings account matures in September, so we'll be investing £40,000 in the ISA's and keeping £20,000 in cash for now.    

Then in September DH will start to draw bits and bobs from his DC pensions.  So we'll re-evaluate our cash holdings levels later in the year.

Very enjoyable and interesting thread. We retired not long after after you and the similarities and differences between our retirements may be interesting.

We are similar in that at about £14k our expenditure is fairly low (slightly higher than you, but, excluding pets, there are currently 4 of us in the house). We're a bit older, but not by too much (upper 50s).

However, our funding is very different with over 80% of our income (before tax) coming from a DB pension and the remaining from various S&S ISA pots. Although, so far, we have not had to withdraw anything from the ISAs (in fact we've continued to save and have been able to contribute to the house fund savings of our children).

One significant difference in planning is that in the event of my demise, the OH will only have half the DB income, so I've had to take out life insurance (two policies - a level term and a decreasing term the combination of which reduces premiums but allows reasonable inflation proofing) to cover the income gap until the OH can draw the SP. While DB pensions may be 'gold plated', they do have some downsides!

I have no mortgage, debts of any kind. At retirement my  fixed outgoings will be pretty small (£600 pm),  I do not crave material things  or foreign hols,  but I struggle to see how any couple could easily live off 14 k a year. If I thought I could  I would have retired two years ago.

Well we have over the last 18 months!

Our fixed outgoings including groceries is £850 a month.

Of course that is a pretty miserable life, but there hasn’t been a great deal to spend money on of late. 

We normally have a couple of long haul holidays a year which eats up a fair bit of money, so we normally budget a lot for that, but if we lived like we have been doing recently £14000 a year would be more than adequate.

However, I do crave my holidays, but not sure they are happening any time soon.

Dazza1902

michaels said:

Dazza1902 said:

OldScientist said:

Sea_Shell said:

Glad you're enjoying my thread.

We currently have no income from anywhere, as both still under 55 and not doing any paid work.   

So all our spends are coming from our cash float at the moment.    The large fixed term savings account matures in September, so we'll be investing £40,000 in the ISA's and keeping £20,000 in cash for now.    

Then in September DH will start to draw bits and bobs from his DC pensions.  So we'll re-evaluate our cash holdings levels later in the year.

Very enjoyable and interesting thread. We retired not long after after you and the similarities and differences between our retirements may be interesting.

We are similar in that at about £14k our expenditure is fairly low (slightly higher than you, but, excluding pets, there are currently 4 of us in the house). We're a bit older, but not by too much (upper 50s).

However, our funding is very different with over 80% of our income (before tax) coming from a DB pension and the remaining from various S&S ISA pots. Although, so far, we have not had to withdraw anything from the ISAs (in fact we've continued to save and have been able to contribute to the house fund savings of our children).

One significant difference in planning is that in the event of my demise, the OH will only have half the DB income, so I've had to take out life insurance (two policies - a level term and a decreasing term the combination of which reduces premiums but allows reasonable inflation proofing) to cover the income gap until the OH can draw the SP. While DB pensions may be 'gold plated', they do have some downsides!

I have no mortgage, debts of any kind. At retirement my  fixed outgoings will be pretty small (£600 pm),  I do not crave material things  or foreign hols,  but I struggle to see how any couple could easily live off 14 k a year. If I thought I could  I would have retired two years ago.

So whatare your essential variable spends that exceed 800pm? 

Think it would work out at £560 pm essential variable spends (600 + 560 X 12  equals £14k).
So out of that 560, comes food, clothes, going out, things for the house,hobbies, etc.
Perhaps I should have a re think on when I can go.

Sea_Shell

Here is a screen "snip" of our 6 months spends to date... make of that what you will.



That comes to £6123, but the 2nd half of the year is usually more expensive, as the insurances etc fall due.  

OldScientist

For us
Bills: £485
Shopping: £260
Pets (inc insurance): £100

For this year our monthly totals range from £800 to £1800 (the latter is definitely an outlier and includes some building work we couldn't do ourselves) and average 1200 - so can't quite match sea_shell's frugality

We don't have a car (currently live in a city with fairly good public transport or we walk- e.g. I did an 8 mile round trip to get vaccinated each time)
Don't eat out much even under normal circumstances (birthdays and anniversary)
We have a strict budget for personal spending (we each draw the same amount per month - my hobbies are a bit more expensive, but I just save up or wait for offers)
Bills are definitely cheaper since becoming a regular reader of this site!

We used to spend more money when I was working, e.g. the average was £1900 pcm in the year before I retired. We have more time to get the best deals and try to do most building/repair jobs ourselves (the OH is a dab hand at repointing).

For us this is a contented lifestyle - for others, it would be miserable.

marycanary

OldScientist said:

For us this is a contented lifestyle - for others, it would be miserable.

It's a funny old world. Some would be miserable because £800- £1800/m isn't enough to live on and some because it is too much.