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How much do you spend in retirement ?

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  • fred246
    fred246 Posts: 3,620 Forumite
    Sixth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 2 June 2020 at 1:09PM
    Maybe it's all about impressing other people. You used to get people who would wander around the gym saying things like "I won't travel cattle class" in a very loud voice so everybody could hear. They obviously thought that they were impressing people even though the reality was the opposite.
  • Jaco70
    Jaco70 Posts: 249 Forumite
    Fifth Anniversary 100 Posts Name Dropper
    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.


    Again, a very detailed summary of your retirement income. Whilst 50k after tax is a very impressive figure, massively so at such a young age, you are another person who feels that the actual cost of living will be lower (possibly much lower). I think this is the case with my parents (i.e. their cash at bank goes up rather than down) although my dad still keeps his hand in at our small business and so can’t really be considered to have 100% retired, and their foreign travel isn’t very much at all these days (by choice, rather than to save) but the idea of your wealth increasing after retirement seems a very reassuring thought. I’d be thrilled to achieve that. 👍
  • tigerspill
    tigerspill Posts: 859 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 500 Posts Name Dropper
    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.
    Personally I dont think this has anything to do with it for the majority.  And that many over think this subject.
    We all have different levels of wealth.  And we choose what we spend this on based on our own experience.  I really think it is that simple.  Doenst matter whether it is flights, restaurants, hotels, cars, health, education or whatever.
  • jimi_man
    jimi_man Posts: 1,453 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    fred246 said:
    Maybe it's all about impressing other people. You used to get people who would wander around the gym saying things like "I won't travel cattle class" in a very loud voice so everybody could hear. They obviously thought that they were impressing people even though the reality was the opposite.
    No, it's nothing to do with that. It's about buying a perceived piece of (possibly pointless) luxury for a holiday, which in itself is a (possibly pointless) luxury. Your example mentions people going to a gym, again another (possibly pointless) luxury. Above the level of food, drink and shelter, few things are necessities, so all these fall into the category of luxuries. It's just a question of whether people are willing to spend on these luxuries and that comes down to personal choice. Nothing wromg with that.

    You may well get obnoxious people in Business/First, but in all honesty you get them everywhere. I've travelled a fair amount on both of those classes and I've found that 99% of the people just want to keep themselves to themselves and tend to go to sleep as quickly as possible. It seems somewhat unfair to stereotype everyone with the same stigma on the basis of one person you've met in Business Class and a rather nebulous and slightly apocryphal account of someone at the gym. Maybe gyms attract that sort of person? 
  • tigerspill
    tigerspill Posts: 859 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 500 Posts Name Dropper
    fred246 said:
    Maybe it's all about impressing other people. You used to get people who would wander around the gym saying things like "I won't travel cattle class" in a very loud voice so everybody could hear. They obviously thought that they were impressing people even though the reality was the opposite.
    You seem to have a thing about others spending their cash how they wish.  Touch if inverted snobbery?
    Dont judge others and how they spend their cash or on what they have or have not.  
  • Sea_Shell
    Sea_Shell Posts: 10,079 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Personally I don't "get" expensive wine.




    Lights blue touch paper and retreats!!! ;)
    How's it going, AKA, Nutwatch? - 12 month spends to date = 2.60% of current retirement "pot" (as at end May 2025)
  • MallyGirl
    MallyGirl Posts: 7,326 Senior Ambassador
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Jaco70 said:
    Again, a very detailed summary of your retirement income. Whilst 50k after tax is a very impressive figure, massively so at such a young age, you are another person who feels that the actual cost of living will be lower (possibly much lower). I think this is the case with my parents (i.e. their cash at bank goes up rather than down) although my dad still keeps his hand in at our small business and so can’t really be considered to have 100% retired, and their foreign travel isn’t very much at all these days (by choice, rather than to save) but the idea of your wealth increasing after retirement seems a very reassuring thought. I’d be thrilled to achieve that. 👍
    There is a huge amount of guesswork involved for us as we haven't had a 'normal' year for a while. Maybe wildly variable is our normal.
    DD is about to start a 6 year uni degree and we just don't know how much we are going to need to help out. We do earn a fair bit but have been sal sac'ing what we can into pensions and buying the max allowed by our respective sharesave schemes so our takehome has been lower since we got the early retirement idea. We had a significant holiday last year when the opportunity presented, plus we decided to convert our van into a camper. Maybe next year we will get an inkling of how it might be going forward. Big holidays will always come from a seperate pot - if there's not enough in the pot we will cut our cloth accordingly.
    We always thought that the early years might be more focussed on sorting the house out but lockdown has encouraged us to do that now.
    I’m a Senior Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on the Pensions, Annuities & Retirement Planning, Loans
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  • MrSaver96
    MrSaver96 Posts: 49 Forumite
    Fifth Anniversary 10 Posts
    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.


    hugheskevi - great read. Care to share the secret to getting to such a positive financial position at a young age? Was it just a case that you have always maximised savings or is it the result of a very well paid job - or both?!
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