Retirement Living Standards - what will my pension buy me?

kangoora

shinytop wrote: »

This is great; I've just identified a major area of savings for us in the area of male hair care.

Damn. My total cost of haircuts for the last 30 years being approximately £50 for 2 hair clippers sets (plus some electric cost) is coming back to bite me in the a$$ when planning for retirement.........

Mrs K. does spend a 'little' more, for some strange reason she won't let me loose on her hair with a £25 hair clipper.

MrsFingersCrossed

In answer to the original question (and I may be putting my head in the sand here) but those figures seem generous to me. As a couple I'm hoping £27,000 ish per year will be 'comfortable' with no rent or mortgage, and if I am ever widowed my income will be much reduced but I'm still optimistic that I'll manage fine on around £15,000 per year. I hope so anyway, though life in the south east is not cheap - our council tax for example, but I think if I lived alone I'd get a discount.

Of course I hope that day never comes but I like to think I could at least manage financially. I cut my own hair, which helps!

drumtochty

My Good Lady bought a pair of clippers to reduce the cost of hair cuts.


I said "good, I will try the clippers on your hair first and if I do a good job on your hair, you can cut my hair with the clippers."


Not being at all sexist here, the good lady has never produced the said clippers to allow me to do her hair first.


I get a hair cut say every 6 weeks and as it is during the week it, the cost of the hair cut is around £6 locally. I probably earn more in retirement than the hair dresser does working, I always top it up to £10 a visit the cost of a weekend gents haircut locally.


I have no knowledge of what the Good Lady pays at the hair dresser but assume it is more than £10 a visit! I know my place!

mapleoak

I’m 56 and every time I go to the Turkish barber he asks if I am a pensioner - foolishly I say no - I’m obviously missing a trick! My wife and I are both civil servants so hopefully we will fall into the moderate category when retirement comes...

Nebulous2

moo121 wrote: »

What I mean by realistic? I rather wondered if people thought the amounts stacked up against the descriptions, perhaps better to wait to see if people follow the link and read the detail to comment on this.

For example, I'm 2 years into my early retirement, now aged 54. My DB pension income places me at minimum, but I will get a full SP later (and have savings and investments to cover the gap till then) so will end up a lot nearer moderate. My lifestyle aspirations are moderate, I'm a simple soul who struggles to see obvious waste and over consumption, but who likes the odd treat and to take care of family. So far my expenditure is leaning towards minimum not moderate and I wouldn't trade the freedom being retired brings for more income. But I wonder have I forgotten something? Is there some big expenditure I've missed? Is this level realistic for the rest of my retirement?

I've now read it- but can't see the full data because it is a zipped file and I can't open it on my phone.

Expenditure has a huge range of lifestyle choices, even for people on very low incomes, and will match very few people's realities. Identifying 3 benchmark levels seems as good a way as any to get people thinking.

Our plan is to spend 3-6 months a year touring in a caravan. Where does that fit? Is that classed as holiday?

The standards don't really address the situation of when to pull that trigger. The concept often used on mse of the number and stopping when you hit it seems more sensible.

I didn't see stopping now as possible. My pension allows early retirement from 55 with an actuarial reduction. From 55-60 needed employers permission and they had more or less a blanket ban on that. With no fanfare they changed that in July and staff can retire from 55 simply by giving notice. No-one seems to have taken advantage however.

I'm getting my major expenditure over now. Bought a new vehicle, just picked up a newer caravan and planning a house refurb. With all that out of the way it will reduce the likelihood of major expense in the gap between stopping and state pension age.

MizzPenniless

westv wrote: »

There is still a hierarchy of supermarkets (excluding the discounts like Lidl) - no matter how unfoundedThe “lowest” being Asda then Tesco, then Sainsbury and finally Waitrose.

My nearest supermarket is Morrisons, not sure where that is in the supermarket hierarchy? Though I mostly shop at Aldi as it is far cheaper. I will be marginally above the minimum category when I add my forecast DB pension of £3,700 to the state pension. As others have said, the amount for clothes and shoes seems high, and presumably when no longer needing to buy work clothes it will be even less.

ETA The amounts spent per item seem low e.g £6 for a pair of smart trousers, but the number needed seems excessive and the clothes only last 2 years!

itwasntme001

Does the study take into account the fact that average care homes cost around £50k a year per person?

westv

itwasntme001 wrote: »

Does the study take into account the fact that average care homes cost around £50k a year per person?

Why would it? It only covers everyday spending.

kangoora

itwasntme001 wrote: »

Does the study take into account the fact that average care homes cost around £50k a year per person?

No they don't - around me it's around £30k/year

Why do people put absolute values on things without any thought to regional variations e.g. my 4 bedroom house is worth about £225k, in Kent it would probably be >£700k.

itwasntme001

westv wrote: »

Why would it? It only covers everyday spending.

Then retirees will have to set aside some capital/income for potential care home fees, in which case their retirement incomes based on their pot size need to be more than what they intend to spend on everyday spending a year before they go to a care home.