Retirement prepping

the_cat

So OH is retiring next month.:eek: The finances are (hopefully) in place but I'm getting nervous about the reduced income. I've been a saver all my life and this change will mean dipping into those savings each month to top up the pension. For me that is a mindset I'm struggling with.
I have a bit of spare income this month and thought I could get ahead by stocking up but not sure where to start.
Any advice or links to relevant threads very welcome. Thanks

Linda32

When I was redundant for six months, OH was still working, but we had always had two incomes. I saved the money rather than spending it on 'stocking up' Work out how much you need for bills per week, set that aside. The work out what is left or what you need for, say, petrol, food, spending money.

This is how I worked it:-
Example

£150 bills
£40 petrol
£60 food
£50 Spend

So say I spent £55.00 on food, then you have £5.00 towards next weeks money.

It doesn't sound a lot but honestly, saving each small amounts really made a difference.

Gers

It may be too late now, however when I was planning my retirement I took great advice from others on the retirement planning board. There are some very useful pieces of information and people there.

The one piece of advice I followed to the letter was to practice spending only within the new income level so that when it actually happened most things had been worked out. In reality spending drops (work clothes, commuting, lunches, whip rounds, team nights out etc) whilst household bills may increase (electricity, gas etc).


Good luck with it.

bouicca21

The one piece of advice I followed to the letter was to practice spending only within the new income level

I did that too. It was surprisingly easy to do.


TBH the difficult thing about retirement is what to do with the time. For some people, especially men, this is because time hangs on their hands. For me it's because there just isn't enough time to do everything (I belong to the 'how on earth did I ever have time to go to work' camp).