How much to live on

[Deleted User]

Oh the worry of being down to your last £170000! 

Gin_and_Milk

That's why I hopped over onto this thread even though I'm not 50.  The amounts people talk about on there are ones which I will never achieve.  
I think for some, the main thing that is stopping them is the anxiety of switching to spending from saving.  I'm not sure what lifestyle some of them have, and DC pensions aren't as secure as DB.  If it is fear that's holding them back, that's a shame.
I also think that for some on there, there is an element of showing off, but maybe that's cynicism on my part! 

[Deleted User]

I have just closed my S&S ISA. Probably not the best  financial decision but adding £100 every month and seeing the overall value continually decrease was unsettling me. I know things are unsettled globally and in the longer term it would have probably been fine but I did it anyway. It was a low risk ISA with 20% equities as well! Anyway, rightly or wrongly, I shall keep most of the proceeds in a Fixed Rate Bond for a year and then decide what to do. Hopefully things may have settled a bit by then. Some of the money will go to my Loyalty Saver as extra back up. I am fully aware of the impact of inflation but will not rush into anything new.
So accounts simplified even further now! Three Current accounts (One joint), Two savings accounts and one regular saver plus my Premium Bonds.
On a more positive note I will not have to pay any voluntary NI contributions for 2021/2022 as my part-time work gave me another full year. Just two more years contributions to go (that will be 47 in total)
Finishing date is now looking to be July19th as term is finishing earlier for us than I realised.

sunnyflower

There are some better plans I'm sure. My downfall is that I like to stay with one building society,  can't be doing with bits here & bits there!

blue.peter

[Deleted User] said:

I have just closed my S&S ISA. Probably not the best  financial decision but adding £100 every month and seeing the overall value continually decrease was unsettling me.

I did almost exactly the same a couple of days ago. Having lost 21% since the beginning of the year, I was almost at the point of seeing the value fall below the amount I've put in. I've now sold all of the investments. For the time being, I'm just leaving it as uninvested cash. I see the logic of a fixed-rate bond, but that doesn't work for me. I want to move house, and use the ISA to fund it. External factors - principally the war in Ukraine - have already reduced the amount available for that purpose, at the same time as a shortage of properties to buy is pushing prices up.

I'm just hoping for a coup in the Kremlin.

Farway

I've been toying with the thought of sorting out my ISAs, both cash & stocks but keep putting it off, mailny becuse it would a lot off faff that I don't need to do right now. I'm not adding to them they are just ticking along collecting dividends & interest and the stocks ISA mean I don't have to fill in tax details on them

There is one stock I will sell some time soon because it's outside of my ISA, part of Standard Life when it went public in 2006, but regualr divi into bank plus changes of ownership means it may be a bit of a chase around to sell my paper shares., not impossible jsut atke more effort than I'm willing to expend right now with no obvous home for the resulting proceeds except poor interest rate savings account / bond

For those who have I think selling now is probably the right move the way things are going in short term

hugheskevi

When considering selling investments in a market downturn, it is worth asking yourself a few questions before making the decision:

• Downturns were a known possibility when choosing investment allocation - what has changed such that the allocation is no longer appropriate?
• If anticipating further falls, why am I more informed than professional investors who could make money from shorting if falls are expected (ie market efficiency)?
• If I do sell, when will I buy back in? In particular, if price increases, when do I buy back in?
• If I sell after a downturn, will I be locking in a cycle of buying high and selling low?
  

blue.peter

hugheskevi said:

When considering selling investments in a market downturn, it is worth asking yourself a few questions before making the decision:

• Downturns were a known possibility when choosing investment allocation - what has changed such that the allocation is no longer appropriate?

Yes, you're right. What's changed for me is that - having held the S&S ISA for a good few years - I'm at the point where I actually want to use the money in the short term. If it wasn't for that, I'd be riding the downturn out. It's not the fact of the downturn that I find problematic, but the timing in relation to my plans.

[Deleted User]

Maybe at my age, with an adequate index linked income, I just don’t want to be bothered with investing. Well not for the moment. For me, as I have said several times, health and positive relationships outweigh any idea to maximise returns. I also do not suffer the obsession about leaving inheritances. My family know anything left to them is a bonus not a given.  I feel comfortable with my decision. 

PennyForThem_2

I have always warned the the Pensions Forum is scary - BUT there is good advice there.  Also for those in S&S ISAs - don't panic.  If you have a 5 year tolerance before having to access - hang on.  

Or you could transfer to a low cost tracker - believe that was advised by George Soros.
https://www.fool.co.uk/investing-basics/isas-and-investment-funds/tracker-funds-and-index-trackers/