Retirement Living Standards - what will my pension buy me?

itwasntme001

kangoora wrote: »

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.

That is true but even if it were £30k a year, would a retiree know that they need to set aside some savings for a care home and so they may not be able to spend what they think they can spend?

Marcon

Lots of minutiae doesn't give accurate 'findings' unless the fine detail applies to everyone - just plugging in loads of averages is meaningless. It's like the old chestnut of putting your head in the freezer and feet in the fire: on average(!) you have a comfortable temperature.

Zero_Sum

What a load of rubbish. I suspect as usual theyre Londoncentric figures to support the cost of living in London.

My dad has a works pension of about £15k plus state pension (wont be the current top amount as was contracted out). Mam doesnt get state pension until next year & has no works pension.

They have a very comfortable life. About 4 foreign holidays a year, a handful of short breaks with National holidays a year. Just bought a brand new car.

Of course this report obviously takes no account of savings in bank.

Zero_Sum

Spreadsheetman wrote: »

I have just done that and the detail is very interesting.
The "moderate" version includes 2 x funeral plans :eek:

Why do you even need a funeral plan?
If you have an income of £20k in retirement (or £30k as a couple) then surely you'd have more than a couple of grand each set aside for that eventuality?

If you've been on benefits & only have bare minimum in way of state pension & little in way of savings, then I can understand having a funeral plan

Its like this report just assumes everyone just lives payday to payday, spending surplus cash on rubbish just for the sake of spending it.

fred246

When I was trying to figure out how much I needed I liked the Which report:

https://www.which.co.uk/money/pensions-and-retirement/starting-to-plan-your-retirement/how-much-will-you-need-to-retire-atu0z9k0lw3p

I think it's much more realistic. I think talking of pensioners with no mortgage spending £4k a month is a bit much. Obviously you will get people spending far more than that and the sky's the limit but no need to discuss that.

nigelbb

I couldn't find anywhere discussing the cost of housing. Do these income figures assume zero housing cost because the mortgage is paid off or do they include a sum for rent?

Nebulous2

nigelbb wrote: »

I couldn't find anywhere discussing the cost of housing. Do these income figures assume zero housing cost because the mortgage is paid off or do they include a sum for rent?

They assume you're mortgage and rent free. They say that is how most people enter retirement, but you need to add on housing costs if you expect to have them.

JoeCrystal

Zero_Sum wrote: »

What a load of rubbish. I suspect as usual theyre Londoncentric figures to support the cost of living in London..

These numbers are outside of London. London got its amounts, which is even higher. :eek: You would want £42,250 gross income or £36,300 net for a so-called comfortable lifestyle in London. Unfortunately, they did not supply any data as to how they reach that number.

Zero_Sum

JoeCrystal wrote: »

These numbers are outside of London. London got its amounts, which is even higher. :eek: You would want £42,250 gross income or £36,300 net for a so-called comfortable lifestyle in London. Unfortunately, they did not supply any data as to how they reach that number.

That makes their numbers even more ridiculous

westv

Unlike others I am quite impressed with the level of detail provided in the report. You may not agree with their budgets for each category but they explain where they come from and exactly what is included.