We're aware that some users are experiencing technical issues which the team are working to resolve. See the Community Noticeboard for more info. Thank you for your patience.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!

How much to live on

Options
1229230232234235304

Comments

  • noitsnotme
    noitsnotme Posts: 1,307 Forumite
    Fifth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Name Dropper
    edited 28 October 2024 at 3:53PM
    Phossy said:

    How much you need per month for the happiest retirement 

    Interesting new research https://news.sky.com/story/money-latest-consumer-personal-finance-skynews-13040934?postid=8413481#liveblog-body
    I've just re-read that and it says....

    "According to new research from Legal and General and the Happiness Research Institute thinktank, the happiest retirees have an average monthly income of £1,700 - equating to a pension pot of around £221,558 at retirement."

    Surely that can't be right for the pension pot figure?  Isn't that a drawdown rate of around 9%?  It wouldn't last very long.

    *edit* you would need a pot of around £510,000 with a drawdown rate of 4% to achieve £1700 a month (I think).
    That’s a pension pot in addition to full state pension entitlement (Sky missed a key point from the L&G press release)
    Ah, good point.  Thank you.

    I'm hopefully looking to retire long before state pension age so my mindset doesn't tend to include that.
  • At least they're not using the PLSA figures!!!
  • Well my pension and stocks and shares ISA have lost 2% this week, mostly since the budget but that said, global markets are down.

    It's caused me to take stock of my current position.

    Mortgage 1.64% £54k
    Short term debt 0% £22k

    ISAs 5% £57k
    Savings/bonds 5.5% £27k

    So effectively debt free. Currently have just over £40k in private pension but with projected final salary pensions of £23k at my expected retirement date. Currently saving approx £15k pa into pension pot and savings. Projected to have £80k in pension pot plus £40k in savings. Mrs O has approx £50k in pension pot plus her projected final salary pension of approx £7k and is currently saving £6k per annum.

    So when we want to retire we should have £30k pa between us, no debts and pots/savings of almost £200k. We will draw down on that till we reach SPA where our income gets boosted to approx £53k pa.

    I'm starting to think we could even think about retiring a year earlier.
  • Well just done the figures. It's certainly doable!
  • kempiejon
    kempiejon Posts: 821 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper
    Well just done the figures. It's certainly doable!
    I had a plan, finalised in 2005, filled my spreadsheet, it was a 15 year plan. Looking over my finances I was just about ready to get out Christmas 2018 but wasn't brave enough. In April 2019 I ran my numbers, looked affordable, I decided as there was some wrangling at work with redundancies mentioned I'd thought hang on. Pesky Covid shut the country and pushed my exit plan back by another year. 

    I guess my point is if you want to get out and can don't miss the opportunity. If I had been bold in 2018/19 I would have had a few extra years retired. 
  • It's certainly getting more attractive. The original plan was for 4 years part time (4 days), but it became 5 in order to save for Mrs O to retire at the same time.

    She then got notice of over £40k in a pension pot that had been thought to have been decimated in a financial scandal about 30 years ago. 

    So with one year of the plan down (well 14 months to be exact), the thought of having 33 months to go is starting to appeal more and more!
  • louby40
    louby40 Posts: 1,598 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Organgrinder, I say just do it!

     I'm leaving teaching next year at age 56. I told my headteacher (I didn't need to but I'm glad I did).

    I do keep panicking and thinking am I doing the right thing but I can't stay in education any longer, totally burnt out and not loving it anymore after so long.

    But the numbers are ok and if I'm careful I can manage. So many people say that it's the best thing they did, retiring early. 


  • blue.peter
    blue.peter Posts: 1,360 Forumite
    Tenth Anniversary 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    louby40 said:

    So many people say that it's the best thing they did, retiring early.

    Yup. Definitely. I got out at 56, and don't regret it at all. No alarm clock, no travelling to the office, nobody to tell me what to do. As long as the numbers stack up - and do check them carefully - it's absolutely the right thing to do.

  • It's going to be another few years yet......however having done the numbers again I do think earlier than planned is achievable.
Meet your Ambassadors

🚀 Getting Started

Hi new member!

Our Getting Started Guide will help you get the most out of the Forum

Categories

  • All Categories
  • 351K Banking & Borrowing
  • 253.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
  • 453.6K Spending & Discounts
  • 244K Work, Benefits & Business
  • 598.8K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
  • 176.9K Life & Family
  • 257.3K Travel & Transport
  • 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
  • 16.1K Discuss & Feedback
  • 37.6K Read-Only Boards

Is this how you want to be seen?

We see you are using a default avatar. It takes only a few seconds to pick a picture.