What number are you aiming for - solely DC pot

Mistermeaner

Hi all

There was a "what's your number" thread doing the rounds some time ago - lots of useful content generated but from memory an awful lot of contribution was from folk with decent db pensions due 
I'm interested in where people who are solely reliant on dc pot(s) (+ state pension) are aiming in terms of pot size for retirement and their reasoning 
To kick off me and my missus are hoping to hit 1mil (in today's value) between us by the time I hit 58 in 17 years time (I'm 5 years older than her)
At this point we should be mortgage free and looking for a sustainable 3% drawdown at 30k per annum (increasing inline with inflation thereafter) 
State pension will be a nice bonus but not counting on it 

1mil sounds like a huge number and would make us "rich" by many measures but when looking for sustainable income it's not really that much
Those with db generally greatly under value it (teachers nurses etc .... IMO )

Prism

We are probably aiming for around 1 million each, mainly because it seems within reach and why not. Neither of us want to give up work just yet and of course the future of the markets are unknown so we can be flexible.

Clive_Woody

My aim is to reach the £1million mark in my DC pot by the time I hit 55, with a healthy six figure sum in ISAs also and hopefully maxed out on premium bonds for my wife and I as a readily accessible cash pot. My wife's pension pot will be smaller as she had to stop working some time ago, but will be six figures. We will both be eligible for full state pension as and when we reach the right age. I want to be in the position where I can call it a day at 55 if I want or reduce my working hours if I want to.

This is excluding inheritances as we know not how much that might be, but potentially a substantial sum at some point.

cfw1994

To anyone in the high rate tax bracket, £1M perhaps isn't such a large number - a SWR of 3.5% applied to that would make them live in a lower tax bracket
That said, it's a nice number to feel you have achieved, I guess. 
I have a couple of 'small' DB pensions that will start over different times that take up about 20% of the LTA alone....but £1.1M+ with those + the DC pot sounds like a decent number, especially with some other pots (ISA/Premium Bonds) available.....

Albermarle

One Million for DC pot and three years cash , should keep most people quite comfortable .

State pension will be a nice bonus but not counting on it

How can you not take into account an inflation linked income of around £17Kpa ( for a couple ) 

The chance of the state pension being withdrawn or cancelled in some way must be approx zero . Whichever political party did this might as well immediately disband as they would never get voted in again.

On the other hand the chance of your DC pension being halved in value, is a real one , although hopefully a small one. 

[Deleted User]

This is a thread for boasting.  Cool

Albermarle

Deleted_User said:

This is a thread for boasting.  Cool

Mine was a general comment 'One Million for DC pot and three years cash , should keep most people quite comfortable '
rather than a personal statement of finances . I have a lot more than that  I wish ! 

michaels

Deleted_User said:

This is a thread for boasting.  Cool

That's a bit what it felt like to me as well, not sure about the readership of this board but for the average person these sort of numbers are fantasy.

For us the online calcs zero historic failure rate say that 750k plus 2 state pensions should support 30k gross pa index linked from age 52 and our current spend is 28 so happy days.

Audaxer

michaels said:

Deleted_User said:

This is a thread for boasting.  Cool

For us the online calcs zero historic failure rate say that 750k plus 2 state pensions should support 30k gross pa index linked from age 52 and our current spend is 28 so happy days.

I would think that should comfortably meet your target of £30k per year, as once the two State Pension are received they will cover over half of that figure. So at State Pension age, any couple with a DC pot of £500k at 3% drawdown should be able to easily get total income of £30k per year, increasing with inflation.  

Black_Cat2

I guess my target of £60,000 total pension pot is extremely low but that's about all I will have 🤔

AlanP_2

Ours will be mainly DB so can't enter in to the "boasting" but would suggest that size of DC pot is not the figure that should be measured instead it should be the income it can generate (so back to the main Numbers thread).

£1m at 40 to last ~60 years is a different beast to £1m at 65 with SP starting straight away and ~35 years to go (both assuming nice long lives) and the "safe" annual income from those pots of the same value would be very different.