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

MallyGirl

Pets alone whack our costs up. Older dog insurance is £68 pcm, younger one is £58, cat is £14. Dogs eat 1lb of raw meat a day each - that adds up! Both dogs on a vet plan at £19 each pcm. We could 'self insure' but I prefer to have cover.

BoxerfanUK

MallyGirl wrote: »

Pets alone whack our costs up. Older dog insurance is £68 pcm, younger one is £58, cat is £14. Dogs eat 1lb of raw meat a day each - that adds up! Both dogs on a vet plan at £19 each pcm. We could 'self insure' but I prefer to have cover.

We are similar, 2 dogs with Petplan @ £148.00 per month total. :eek:

Interesting thread this is turning into. On the subject of what amount people get through every month after bills are paid, I recently downloaded a spending tracker app to my phone, so currently I'm inputting everything spent to try and unravel the mystery of where it all goes each month.

BoxerfanUK

Sea_Shell wrote: »

I'm actually going to brave the world of e-bay once I've got more time on my hands, as there must be stuff we can get a couple of quid for too.

Been doing this for a few weeks now Sea Shell. Its surprising what people will buy and the prices they will pay. I've been sorting stuff into 3 categories, sell (ebay), charity shop, dump.

After a few things sold on ebay a few of the things in my 'charity' section mysteriously moved to the ebay section . A bit of a faff at first with photos, postage estimates, packing etc, but once you get into its ok. I tend to schedule listings to start on a Thursday evening around 19.00 on a 10 day listing and ending on the second Sunday around 19.00 hrs as more people tend to be in when your listing ends.

Also, a 10 day listing on a Thursday covers two full weekends so I think it leads to more 'views' of your items for sale and thus, potentially, a better price achieved. Give it a try.

bluenose1

I have been decluttering my clothes / house out as per Marie Kondo. Dont buy into all the thank your clothes as you throw them out etc but love the way I now organise my T-shirt drawers etc. I now have my clothes folded her way colour coded and have found clothes I had forgotten I had. And I haven't even retired yet!:o

cfw1994

Sea_Shell wrote: »

Sorry, are you joking or being serious? No winky emoji??

Like a said, they don't actually manage any investments or anything for us, just popped round to have a general overview of the figures and the plan and said, yep, you seem to have everything in hand. So no, we don't pay them a fee.:D

Fred never jokes when slating IFAs, you need to know that!!

Spider_In_The_Bath wrote: »

We live on about 18 thousand a year. Everything else we earn is saved for FIRE (hopefully in about 5 years' time).

We run two cars, have a pet, go on holidays and days out etc. easily on the 18 thousand.

When I see people wanting retirement funds of 30 - 40 thousand a year I have no idea what they would spend the money on.

There is The Number thread to go through what people are after in retirement.
I can EASILY see 3K+ pcm going out!

Yes, you can run cars on a shoestring....'bangernomics' can be a fun thing....but sometimes it is nice to know there are no unexpected bills to be worried about....& it can be nice to think that even in retirement, one can chose to budget for the occasional *gasp* new replacement!

We would like to enjoy more 'entertainments' than we have time for now - films, theatre, pubs, meals out - not less! We would like to take off for a month or two around the UK, perhaps Europe etc. Those things aren't free!
We don't particularly want to downsize: all our friends, social life is around here, the house is in a good area, broadly as we want, decent medical facilities nearby....I can imagine a future time when we may become grandparents, and it would be nice be able to put everyone up...although of course at some point we may want something smaller.
I'd actually like to at least try to help keep putting some aside for our older kids (yes, I know we don't have to), which could eat 100-400pcm (or less in a lean year, of course - that would be the first luxury outgoing to be paused if needed!).

So: fair play to those who are happy and able to live on £1500 pcm, but do appreciate others won't: it isn't a competition!

& back on track: enjoy your time & retirement, Sea Shell :beer:

Anonymous101

Yes, sorry for going off topic Sea Shell.

One question I was meaning to ask, apologies if you’ve already stated this, is what differences have you accounted for within your budget from your squirrelling phase to your retirement phase?

Interested as some folks report lower spending due to costs of commute etc whilst others budget for increases to hobbies with having more free time.

Terron

Spider_In_The_Bath wrote: »

We live on about 18 thousand a year. Everything else we earn is saved for FIRE (hopefully in about 5 years' time).

We run two cars, have a pet, go on holidays and days out etc. easily on the 18 thousand.

When I see people wanting retirement funds of 30 - 40 thousand a year I have no idea what they would spend the money on.

When I was working I spent about £18k a yearsaving the rest as I knew my job was not going to last forever. After I lost it I was living on less for a while, but didn't enjoy it. Once I got my income back over £18k I found life reasonably comfortable again, but I couldn't treat myself much. Now I am about £25k and I can afford to eat out when I feel like it and I even took a holiday to Rome last year. I've have moved from my flat to a larger, but cheaper house on the edge of the Peak district. I have a decent internet connection and Sky (need to be able to watch the cricket). Very soon now my pensions should start paying out. They should push me up to at least £36k pa, so I need to figure out how to spend it. Travel looks the likely option.

DairyQueen

We have recently calculated our number based on what we can afford rather than what what we need.

Until I began seriously researching retirement finances and plans, I had followed the common approach of calculating three numbers: 1) minimum on which we could survive (18-25k); 2) adding a modicum of discretionary spends (25-30k); 3) comfortable (see below). All subjective values, and particular to our circumstances and aims.

The more I have researched, the more our number has increased. We have been lifelong savers and i hadn't a clue just how far our savings would stretch until last year. The big differentiator was the realisation that we had been modelling income including taking only the natural yield from our investments. When we realised that we aimed to deplete the capital (doh) then we entered a different income league.

Now we spend many happy hours discussing ways of spending the extra income.

Two years ago, our highest (comfortable) number was in the region of £35-£40kp.a. If we manage to stay on track for another 21 months (OH's planned retirement date) we will actually achieve around £55-60k.

We have been sleepwalking into a much more comfortable retirement than we realised. According to the media doom-mongers this makes us exceptional as, apparently, most sleep-walkers achieve the opposite. Do we intend to enjoy the additional spending? You betcha. Any chance of us spending less just because we don't need to? Errr.... nope.

Anyone else in this happy, if unexpected, situation?

Audaxer

DairyQueen wrote: »

Two years ago, our highest (comfortable) number was in the region of £35-£40kp.a. If we manage to stay on track for another 21 months (OH's planned retirement date) we will actually achieve around £55-60k.

Wow, that's quite a jump. Is that achievable because you have DB pensions to cover your essential spend? With good DB pensions and State Pensions added on when received, that's the only way I can think of when you can be comfortable running down capital completely without the risk of leaving yourself short in later years.

I'd love to know your strategy. To achieve that level of income have you gone for a very high equity percentage, and is your drawdown strategy a certain percentage every year increasing by inflation, or only drawing income in good years with a cash buffer for poor years?

jimi_man

Spider_In_The_Bath wrote: »

No idea who says it was wrong as it was not me.

I have made no comment on what is right, or wrong.

People are entitled to spend what they like. I just cannot work out what they are finding to spend it on.

Sorry, no-one actually said it. It’s a figure of speech, maybe a poor choice of words on my part.

Holidays and cars I imagine. Most people underestimate the cost of cars. Including fuel (10,000 miles a year say) and depreciation (say £800 a year average) then running a car can be over £3000 a year - double for two. If you don’t do as many miles, do your own servicing and drive bangers then it can reduce this. But few people are so willing to do that as they get older so have to buy newer cars which increases the depreciation.

Also it’s interesting to note that a year’s running costs for a car are not representative. Over 10 years then there is likely to be a new clutch, probably four sets of tyres, brakes etc etc. These will all add up but may not feature in a year’s costs.

Holidays can be expensive. Some people, if they go long haul, aren’t prepared to travel economy and that adds up.

So two reasonable cars and a couple of decent holidays is easily £12k a year.