How much do you spend in retirement ?

fred246

I have had similar discussions on this forum with people over private education and private healthcare. When my children were starting secondary school I asked people who paid a fortune for private education why they did that. Most couldn't answer which I found strange but a few whispered "no riff, raff". Paying private health insurance means you never have to use NHS facilities that everyone else uses. I wonder if this is the issue. Some people feel they belong in a different class. They pay a lot for it, they insist it is right, they don't like discussing the pros and cons. They insist that they have a right to do what they want with their money but it puts them in a different class.

shinytop

vulcanrtb said:

fred246 said:

I thought we were on a money saving site. If you want to go somewhere how do you save money getting there. Going business class is exactly the opposite. That would be for the money wasting site.

Some people on this forum will have detached houses instead of a terrace, are they wasting their money? Some will have an expensive suit instead a track suit from JD Sports, more waste?
Although I baulk at the thought of paying for business class out of my own pocket, there are people who still want it and they come to MSE to find out the cheapest way of doing it. 
This comes up a lot on HotukDeals, a lease car is posted and someone will say "leasing is a waste of money, you can buy a 10 year old Fiat Panda for £500". Completely missing the point, what they should really be trying to do is to find a better deal on the same car and post it.

JD Sports?  That's the business class equivalent of the tracksuit market and therefore has no place on MSE.  Sports Direct or even Primark is where we should all be buying our leisurewear. (and I do  )

Murphy_The_Cat

fred246 said:

. I wonder if this is the issue. Some people feel they belong in a different class. They pay a lot for it, they insist it is right, they don't like discussing the pros and cons. They insist that they have a right to do what they want with their money but it puts them in a different class.

I'm happy to pitch in this one.  If I can get a deal that suits my purposes to fly BC, then I'll do it - arriving refreshed in NZ to fully enjoy my holiday because I'd travelled BC added a lot of value to my holiday.

Alternatively, if I can't get a deal that I'm happy with, then I'm turning right and getting my value in another way.

Given the two, I'm happier with option A), but the money tree doesn't always have a bountiful harvest to indulge me.

I have no concept of a class system, so thats possibly a cross that your bearing !

p.s. talking to people when your flying !??!!/1?!1?1/1?1?1?  No, no, no, not ever.  If I want to talk to someone, I've got Mrs Cat or the Kittens to chat to.  If there's no family chat going on, then its time for one of mans greatest inventions - Noice Cancelling Headphones.  I have absolutely no interest, whatsoever, in the slightest in what the stranger sat next to me is saying. & that would be the same if I was travelling First Class, Business Class, Prem Economy, Economy or in the hold.

fred246

You don't like talking to strangers yet you have made over 20,000 posts on this forum!

hugheskevi

My wife and I are on course for a retirement income of slightly under £50K p/a (after tax) from about the age of 45 (when we will take very early retirement).

The first few years will be spent continually traveling, so I gave a lot of thought to things like camper vans or motorhomes. My conclusion was that they were extremely expensive, inflexible for intercontinental travel and so I would prefer to just have a car and a tent as well as using AirBnb and similar for travel around Europe.

Although we could afford business class flights, I would never take them - not so much due to the financial implications as the environmental consequences. Flying is an environmental disaster to start with, and taking up so much unnecessary additional room makes it considerably worse. Doing things like taking additional positioning flights to reduce the personal cost comes at an excruciating cost to the planet. Therefore I only fly when necessary, try to keep to one return flight per year and prefer to travel overground wherever possible, even for very long distances (eg I've travelled overland to Thailand, Singapore and Cape Town on separate trips).

Personally I always minimise costs and avoid unnecessary spend, partly from habit, partly for environmental reasons and primarily as it brings forward early retirement and extensive travel. Particularly at work, I find that even the people who I know earn less than half of what I do happily spend multiples of what I do on phones, cars and TV before even getting to entertainment and socialising. Typically saving, to the extent it exists at all for many of that group, appears to only involve saving for a mortgage deposit. However, I will happily spend money on things I consider good value (to us personally) which in our case involves computers, music lessons and some big ticket travel trips every couple of years or so.

I expect to have far more than needed in retirement, but I like that security, particularly due to retiring so young. I think an income after tax of around £30K would be fine for a decent lifestyle, less would be possible but I'd be very hesitant to go much lower than £25K for us as a couple.

Murphy_The_Cat

fred246 said:

You don't like talking to strangers yet you have made over 20,000 posts on this forum!

Absolutely spot on.

I choose not to talk to strangers whilst I'm flying - because I have absolutely no interest in what they are saying.

I choose to make 20000+ posts on MSE.

jimi_man

fred246 said:

I have had similar discussions on this forum with people over private education and private healthcare. When my children were starting secondary school I asked people who paid a fortune for private education why they did that. Most couldn't answer which I found strange but a few whispered "no riff, raff". Paying private health insurance means you never have to use NHS facilities that everyone else uses. I wonder if this is the issue. Some people feel they belong in a different class. They pay a lot for it, they insist it is right, they don't like discussing the pros and cons. They insist that they have a right to do what they want with their money but it puts them in a different class.

With private healthcare, it's sometime connected with the availability of the care. In situations where a non urgent operation is needed, these can take forever with the NHS, so going private eliminates the wait. 

Bravepants

fred246 said:

You don't like talking to strangers yet you have made over 20,000 posts on this forum!

To be fair I think a lot of people think the same. I have flown a lot with my work since about 1996 when my career started,  sometimes multiple times a year long haul, and I can honestly say in all that time I have had only one conversation with anyone, and I didn't instigate it. I don't mind a polite conversation with someone if they want to, but I don't usually start a conversation. I travelled business class a few times from Singapore and Australia on an Airbus A380, and the seats/beds are configued so that two people face each other diagonally opposite with a lift up screen between the seats. It's difficult sometimes to get over the stigma of being the first to raise the screen! However, what is worse is when you raise the screen and the flight attendant almost immediately lowers it to serve a drink or a hot towel. Also, on one occasion the screen was faulty and it wouldn't stay raised, collapsing with a loud bang a few seconds after raising. Very socially awkward! LOL

jimi_man

Bravepants said:

fred246 said:

You don't like talking to strangers yet you have made over 20,000 posts on this forum!

To be fair I think a lot of people think the same. I have flown a lot with my work since about 1996 when my career started,  sometimes multiple times a year long haul, and I can honestly say in all that time I have had only one conversation with anyone, and I didn't instigate it. I don't mind a polite conversation with someone if they want to, but I don't usually start a conversation. I travelled business class a few times from Singapore and Australia on an Airbus A380, and the seats/beds are configued so that two people face each other diagonally opposite with a lift up screen between the seats. It's difficult sometimes to get over the stigma of being the first to raise the screen! However, what is worse is when you raise the screen and the flight attendant almost immediately lowers it to serve a drink or a hot towel. Also, on one occasion the screen was faulty and it wouldn't stay raised, collapsing with a loud bang a few seconds after raising. Very socially awkward! LOL

I'm guessing that's BA. They are changing their business class, and the new seats all face the same way. I don't mind the ying and yang style seats and it's quite funny when people first get on the plane and raise the screen immediately, not realising and that it has to be left down for the safety demo.

I've been in First a few times recently, which is altogether a lovely experience, though possibly not a particularly cheap way of flying. I like travelling premium class, but if I have to pay a lot extra for it then I'd rather spend the extra on better hotels. 

Bravepants

jimi_man said:

Bravepants said:

fred246 said:

You don't like talking to strangers yet you have made over 20,000 posts on this forum!

To be fair I think a lot of people think the same. I have flown a lot with my work since about 1996 when my career started,  sometimes multiple times a year long haul, and I can honestly say in all that time I have had only one conversation with anyone, and I didn't instigate it. I don't mind a polite conversation with someone if they want to, but I don't usually start a conversation. I travelled business class a few times from Singapore and Australia on an Airbus A380, and the seats/beds are configued so that two people face each other diagonally opposite with a lift up screen between the seats. It's difficult sometimes to get over the stigma of being the first to raise the screen! However, what is worse is when you raise the screen and the flight attendant almost immediately lowers it to serve a drink or a hot towel. Also, on one occasion the screen was faulty and it wouldn't stay raised, collapsing with a loud bang a few seconds after raising. Very socially awkward! LOL

I'm guessing that's BA. They are changing their business class, and the new seats all face the same way. I don't mind the ying and yang style seats and it's quite funny when people first get on the plane and raise the screen immediately, not realising and that it has to be left down for the safety demo.

I've been in First a few times recently, which is altogether a lovely experience, though possibly not a particularly cheap way of flying. I like travelling premium class, but if I have to pay a lot extra for it then I'd rather spend the extra on better hotels. 

My place of work is odd in that it doesn't mind staff spending thousands of pounds on business class flights, but hotel rates are scrutinised like the proverbial hawk!