How much do you spend in retirement ?

Jaco70

Like many people I’m not sure how much income I’ll have when I retire, potentially in 18 years at 67, when my state pension kicks in. I have a few different streams that will hopefully look after my wife and I.

I was reading on ‘Which‘ that a luxury retirement, as they describe it, for a couple costs 42k pa. Presumably even without any N.I. to pay this still requires a gross income of about 50k.
It sounds a high figure, although I did feel that the amount set aside to cover holidays seemed very generous, and I wondered what actual retirees experiences are?
I realise that ‘how long is a piece of string’ is one answer, so please don’t bother offering this insight.
Thanks, J

Stubod

..search for this thread...it has not been "re-booted" for a while, but a really good thread on just this subject

Pensions Planning: The NUMBER

Bravepants

For my retirement, I plan to live on my current take home pay minus what I currently save toward my retirement, adjusted for inflation (CPI).

cfw1994

Stubod said:

..search for this thread...it has not been "re-booted" for a while, but a really good thread on just this subject

Pensions Planning: The NUMBER

Or just have the link - https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2146737/pensions-planning-the-number#latest
  

Brynsam

Jaco70 said:

Like many people I’m not sure how much income I’ll have when I retire, potentially in 18 years at 67, when my state pension kicks in. I have a few different streams that will hopefully look after my wife and I.

I was reading on ‘Which‘ that a luxury retirement, as they describe it, for a couple costs 42k pa. Presumably even without any N.I. to pay this still requires a gross income of about 50k.
It sounds a high figure, although I did feel that the amount set aside to cover holidays seemed very generous, and I wondered what actual retirees experiences are?
I realise that ‘how long is a piece of string’ is one answer, so please don’t bother offering this insight.
Thanks, J

But what sort of answer do you expect? Nobody else's lifestyle and priorities will be the same as yours, so it's a pretty pointless question and an even more pointless answer if anyone diligently sets about telling you everything about how much they spend. The idea of having around £50K in retirement is beyond most people's wildest dreams - they probably have never earned that much (or even £25K, if half of a couple) while working, so even with the state pension, it's never going to happen.

Maybe a more sensible approach is to start making a careful note (i.e. spreadsheet with daily entries) of all you spend and seeing how well this meshes with what you might have by way of income when you retire. At least you're far enough from retirement to be able to take remedial action if there's a massive gap.

ratechaser

Curious as to what definition/parameters Which uses to justify the 42k number as 'luxury'. And is that pre or post tax...?

I'd be blowing more than half that on travel alone, if I were to have a retirement that I'd consider to be 'luxurious'. And none of that would involve camping.

kuratowski

An alternative source of retirement income figures from October 2019:

			SINGLE		COUPLE
MINIMUM			£10,200		£15,700
MODERATE		£20,200		£29,100
COMFORTABLE		£33,000		£47,500

(NB There are different figures for London/SouthEast.)
The report (linked to on here https://www.retirementlivingstandards.org.uk/details) explains what 'Minimum', 'Moderate' and 'Comfortable' mean for various types of spending, e.g. food and drink, and holidays.  'Comfortable' is probably a better description for it than luxury, IMHO.

Edit: Maybe Which? called it luxury rather than comfort, because it's out of reach for most?

bigfer

I think most of these numbers quoted are vastly over egged. 
As a couple we budgeted on 30k pa and that included half a dozen Airbnb/budget flight holidays to Spain/Portugal.
Obviously current situation is much different, with virtually zero holiday spend.
If you are not extravagant with your cash pre retirement, I believe you will take the same position during post retirement, certainly for the first couple of years......but then I'm as tight as a gnat's chuff.

Jaco70

ratechaser said:

Curious as to what definition/parameters Which uses to justify the 42k number as 'luxury'. And is that pre or post tax...?

I'd be blowing more than half that on travel alone, if I were to have a retirement that I'd consider to be 'luxurious'. And none of that would involve camping.

That's the one thing that they don't make totally clear, but by adding up the breakdown I can see that they mean after tax. Its interesting that you feel that the amount set aside for travel is insufficient, whereas I thought it was very generous. that's why I enjoy these forums, despite there always being someone lurking to tell you its a 'pointless question'. Thanks

Jaco70

bigfer said:

I think most of these numbers quoted are vastly over egged. 
As a couple we budgeted on 30k pa and that included half a dozen Airbnb/budget flight holidays to Spain/Portugal.
Obviously current situation is much different, with virtually zero holiday spend.
If you are not extravagant with your cash pre retirement, I believe you will take the same position during post retirement, certainly for the first couple of years......but then I'm as tight as a gnat's chuff.

LOL, I'm not especially extravagant. For instance I'd be happy if I never travel further than Europe for the rest of my holidays, with maybe a rare trip to USA. My wife probably has slightly grander ideas but not ridiculously so. So have you found that 30K is about right for you as a couple ? 

Jaco70

kuratowski said:

An alternative source of retirement income figures from October 2019:

			SINGLE		COUPLE
MINIMUM			£10,200		£15,700
MODERATE		£20,200		£29,100
COMFORTABLE		£33,000		£47,500

(NB There are different figures for London/SouthEast.)
The report (linked to on here https://www.retirementlivingstandards.org.uk/details) explains what 'Minimum', 'Moderate' and 'Comfortable' mean for various types of spending, e.g. food and drink, and holidays.  'Comfortable' is probably a better description for it than luxury, IMHO.

Edit: Maybe Which? called it luxury rather than comfort, because it's out of reach for most?

Wow, 47.5k for 'comfortable' is quite a high figure isn't it. Is that before or after tax? That sort of figure would be at the very high end of my anticipated retirement income, and probably a good bit above it if I'm being honest. All the ducks need to be in a row to hit that. My income when I hit state pension age is hindered considerably by the fact that my wife is ten years younger, so full two-person state pension doesn't kick in until I'm 77 if you see what I mean. I try not to blame her for when she was born though, LOL.