Retirement Living Standards - what will my pension buy me?

shinytop

Triumph13 wrote: »

They do, but the underlying problem is that they set it at a level of expenditure that means the vast majority of the UK population are, by definition, not living a 'comfortable' lifestyle. The vast majority of the UK are living on considerably less and paying rent or mortgages out of it.
Either they started top down from a definition that the huge majority have uncomfortable lifestyles (!) then looked what those above that level spent all their money on, or they built bottom up and didn't notice that all their assumptions added up to a stupid answer of only a small fraction of people being 'comfortable'.

Probably best not to get too hung up on the names of the categories although I get the point about un/comfortable. They have chosen minimum, moderate and comfortable but could have chosen poor, average and rich or A, B and C or anything they wanted. Maybe minimum, comfortable and luxury might have been better. Which did something along those lines and the results were similar.

Triumph13

shinytop wrote: »

Probably best not to get too hung up on the names of the categories although I get the point about un/comfortable. They have chosen minimum, moderate and comfortable but could have chosen poor, average and rich or A, B and C or anything they wanted. Maybe minimum, comfortable and luxury might have been better. Which did something along those lines and the results were similar.

I suppose my real issue is that those terms won't have been picked out of a hat. Most of the available terms are very value-laden and the people behind studies give careful consideration to which ones will best further their own agenda. In the case of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation anything they can spin to make it look like more people are living in 'poverty' gets grabbed with both hands.

The categories used by Which of 'Essential', 'Comfortable' and 'Luxury' are probably a lot closer to most people's understanding of those terms.

LHW99

Like a poster above, I was surprised by the (to me high) amount allowed for clothes compared to the amount allowed for food. Surely your weekly food bill at a "mainstream supermarket" would / can be roughly the same, no matter what your income - it seems the difference lies in buying branded versus unbranded goods, in which case I would have thught there would be an even greater difference, as we buy almost exclusively "own brand" products and spend something close to the "moderate" lifestyle which is supposed to include 50% branded. We also do most meals from scratch, rather than buying all ready-prepared's

PasturesNew

I read it and as a single person who will be on the basic Pension .... I see an uplift in my lifestyle to be honest - and the priceless bit is the consistency.... once you get a pension it comes every week. It's coming, I will know that in 10 weeks' time it'll come. You don't get that surety/regularity with working.

Dox

moo121 wrote: »

I wondered what people thought, are these realistic? Is this the sort of retirement you are aiming for?

What a waste of time. Typical PLSA - trying to find a role for itself now final salary schemes are largely defunct.

westv

LHW99 wrote: »

Like a poster above, I was surprised by the (to me high) amount allowed for clothes compared to the amount allowed for food. Surely your weekly food bill at a "mainstream supermarket" would / can be roughly the same, no matter what your income - it seems the difference lies in buying branded versus unbranded goods, in which case I would have thught there would be an even greater difference, as we buy almost exclusively "own brand" products and spend something close to the "moderate" lifestyle which is supposed to include 50% branded. We also do most meals from scratch, rather than buying all ready-prepared's

The moderate food shopping is from Tesco
The comfortable is from Sainsbury


I think we will use Fortnum and Mason.

Terron

LHW99 wrote: »

Like a poster above, I was surprised by the (to me high) amount allowed for clothes compared to the amount allowed for food. Surely your weekly food bill at a "mainstream supermarket" would / can be roughly the same, no matter what your income - it seems the difference lies in buying branded versus unbranded goods, in which case I would have thught there would be an even greater difference, as we buy almost exclusively "own brand" products and spend something close to the "moderate" lifestyle which is supposed to include 50% branded. We also do most meals from scratch, rather than buying all ready-prepared's

I agree about the clothes. It is a rare year when I spend more than £100 on clothes (and I don't buy from charity shops). I might spend £150 on a pair of shoes but not every year.


On food though there is a difference. A few years ago I lost my job, so I had to cut down my spending then gradually increase it as my income from BTL built up. At the lowest point (on contributory JSA of (then) ~£300pm I was taking what was on special offer and cheap rather than what I would have preferred. Tesco's own brand small loaves where 45p (now 50p), less than half the price of most brands so that was the bread I bought. The bulk of many of my meals was rice or pasta with a sauce (often chilli or custard) with a lot of veg in it. As my income increased I increased the variety of what I bought and the quality.. I also started eating out more at places that weren't really cheap. As my pensions have started kicking in I have even started going to a Michelin starred restaurant Anyway my point is that I understand the variation in food spends.

bluenose1

It made interesting reading and would be useful for those who haven't given much though to their income/ expenditure in retirement.
Though I think a lot of us on here have already done the sums (several times) for what we will require in retirement.

Silvertabby

westv wrote: »

The moderate food shopping is from Tesco
The comfortable is from Sainsbury

I think we will use Fortnum and Mason.

Back in the 60/70s, Tesco was the shop for 'poor' people. The better off shopped at Booths (the Waitrose of the North).

coyrls

There is a huge amount of detail if you download the spreadsheets. I found it quite amusing to go through the individual items. Many are way off for me. I for one wouldn't be happy with the one laptop for a couple with an income of £47,500 after tax: ACER Aspire 3 15.6" Intel® Core™ i3 Laptop - 1 TB HDD, Red, which is expected to last 5 years.