Is my income enough to retire on?

DT2001

Your plan looks spot on. You’ve worked out your ‘needs’ amount per month and the rest will cover car and holidays. If it is comforting to have a good sized cash buffer you could initially draw more from your SIPP (staying within BR tax band) and put that aside to cover any unexpected bills. All you are doing is moving your funds from one pot to another.

rosierunner

Retireinten said:

Rosierunner, all sounds good to me. We're aiming for £3k net a month for a couple and we are expecting that to give us a very comfortable lifestyle...

Are you in a position to live to the £2.2k a month and save the amount you are hoping to each month (whilst retired) between now and August 21?  This will road test your retirement income and create you a bit of a cash buffer if you hit an expensive repair in the first year or so of retirement. 

Thanks for this it is reassuring to know that other people are comfortable with that sort of ballpark income per month,  It IS scary but I'm sure based on my current spend and budgeting that once my mortgage and car loan are repaid before I finish next August I will be able to save about £1k per month when in retirement I have calculated.    Plus I plan on getting a part time job for 18-20 hours per week but one which is nowhere near as stressful as my current job (but this is optional) which will take my disposable income over what I have been used to for the past several years.  I am using what I will be able to save monthly in retirement to pay my mortgage and car loan down prior to retirement date but I should be able to save enough to give me a starting savings'pot' of around £5k, that's my aim anyhow and it will grow!  I can always live off baked beans:-:smile:

rosierunner

DT2001 said:

Your plan looks spot on. You’ve worked out your ‘needs’ amount per month and the rest will cover car and holidays. If it is comforting to have a good sized cash buffer you could initially draw more from your SIPP (staying within BR tax band) and put that aside to cover any unexpected bills. All you are doing is moving your funds from one pot to another.

Thanks yes that's definitely an option and one I have considered!  It (SIPP) is not gaining much at the moment and I have half of it in safer bonds as I approach drawing on it.  Therefore I could draw down to just under the higher tax bracket for the first two years and give myself a buffer until my savings grow!  I just didn't want to do this straight away as trying to stay under the 40% tax bracket in year 1 is proving tricky as I'll by earning a salary for the first 5 months into the tax year.  Something I will definitely look into for April 2022 though dependent on how I am doing with my savings.  My SIPP is a Flexi access drawdown so would it be possible to take out a random lump sum then I wonder???  Anyone had experience of this before???