Planning for the future with 2020 vision

FunLovinCriminal

Hi all
I am 45 and so is my wife.  We suddenly realised we should be planning for our retirement, and should start sooner than later.
I have two pensions, one from the civil service that I paid in for 10 years, one from Tesco that I have currently been paying in to for 12 years.
My wife has several pensions from a variety of places.
How much should we be looking for as a pension every month/year? How should we work this out?
We are pulling our paperwork together tonight/tomorrow to see what our pensions currently reflect, but as beginners not sure what we would need to live on, and for how long.
Any advice?
FLC
 

Marcon

Lots of threads on this, so have a look back on the forum to see if previous answers help.

You are the only people who know (or should know!) what your expenditure is like now, which may be a reasonable guide to expenditure in later life, with suitable adjustments for things like having paid off the mortgage, no commuting costs etc. Keeping a spreadsheet for a few months will highlight your expenditure pattern and also give you ideas as to where you might be able to cut current spending and save more for the future.

FunLovinCriminal

So roughly, if we eliminate the mortgage, we would need £1500 a month for food, petrol, gas, elec, living expenses etc - and that would leave us with a couple of hundred for fun, hols etc. 
So we would need £18k pension a year, between us.

garmeg

FunLovinCriminal said:

So roughly, if we eliminate the mortgage, we would need £1500 a month for food, petrol, gas, elec, living expenses etc - and that would leave us with a couple of hundred for fun, hols etc. 
So we would need £18k pension a year, between us.

Two state pensions gets you that. Your other pensions are just gravy on top!

Albermarle

This could be of interest for you
https://www.lboro.ac.uk/media-centre/press-releases/2019/october/retirement-living-standards/

OldBeanz

FunLovinCriminal said:

So roughly, if we eliminate the mortgage, we would need £1500 a month for food, petrol, gas, elec, living expenses etc - and that would leave us with a couple of hundred for fun, hols etc. 
So we would need £18k pension a year, between us.

State pension is £9.5k each assuming you both have the prerequisite NI contributions. HMG reckons a couple can survive on this. Not many on that amount are seen enjoying themselves.
You may think about bucket lists, restaurants. off-spring, car replacements and holidays for starters unless you are going to sit in front of the TV (even then you will need to pay your TV licence).

FunLovinCriminal

Thanks all. I currently have the bog box of all our important documents, and wading through the various paperwork.
I thought the common belief was there would be no state pension sooner rather than later?
So thats what made us think - 20 years till 65, which is when we would LIKE to retire.  Lets unbury the head from the sand, and look at where we are, and what we need to do this.
I felt like we needed a financial advisor, however when I saw they would cost, I wanted to look in to this ourselves first

LHW99

Look into it first anyway. Just like taking your car to a garage, you get a better service from an IFA if you understand at least part of the jargon, and have some idea of what you need.

FunLovinCriminal

OldBeanz said:

FunLovinCriminal said:

So roughly, if we eliminate the mortgage, we would need £1500 a month for food, petrol, gas, elec, living expenses etc - and that would leave us with a couple of hundred for fun, hols etc. 
So we would need £18k pension a year, between us.

State pension is £9.5k each assuming you both have the prerequisite NI contributions. HMG reckons a couple can survive on this. Not many on that amount are seen enjoying themselves.
You may think about bucket lists, restaurants. off-spring, car replacements and holidays for starters unless you are going to sit in front of the TV (even then you will need to pay your TV licence).

Is there a way we could check our elligibility? I have worked solidly since I was 19, with a break of a couple of months when I was made redundant.

EP456

https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

barnstar2077

Don't just concentrate on your pensions.  I am a broken record I know, but I always tell people to give themselves options as you may end up wanting to retire earlier than you think.  I can say this as I struggle with a few ailments at the moment myself, and I am younger than you.

Take a good look at all of your finances, bills, mortgage, pensions, more accessible savings like ISAS or premium bonds etc.  A few tweaks now could make a big difference fifteen years or so down the line.

Don't stress about it though, most people seem to suddenly think about it in their late fifties, early sixties (if at all.)  You still have enough time to really make a difference to your retirement.