How much to live on

Murphybear

Albermarle said:

Murphybear said:

Organgrinder said:

Plasticman said:

oceandreamer said:

Thankyou for all your replies.  It does seem that it is sensible to 'get your house in order' before you retire.  I am going to think hard about what is achievable while I am still at work, both in terms of cost and more importantly, time.  I don't really want to retire to a massive to-do list but have to be realistic about what I can manage to do while still working quite long hours.  At least if I have a plan I can take baby steps towards getting it done.  
@Alnat1 you touch on something else which I feel is very important, and that is that money isn't the only (or even probably the most important) consideration. Looking after you future health is absolutely priority number one and has to be a part of any retirement plan.  I am hoping that there will be more time to exercise, cook from scratch, shop etc which will directly improve my health and fitness. 

I'm hoping to retire at 55 so I'm (hopefully) not going to get a new kitchen that'll last for the rest of my days. My current plan is to replace both the kitchen and main bathroom after retirement and then we'll probably have to fund another round at some point unless we decide to move.

Having had our bathrooms and kitchen done when I was about 55, I want to make sure I have sufficient funds available for another refurb. Hence my desire to have a pot of about £100k in addition to my pensions and short term savings.

It sounds a lot of money - but in reality it only takes something like a new roof, windows and so on and that pot isn't as big as it sounds.

We’ve been thinking about a new kitchen recently.  After trawling around the usual suspects plus some local firms we were horrified at how expensive even a basic kitchen is.  All the firms were quoting at least £5k to fit it, irrelevant of the size.  Not bad for a few days work.  We saw a beautiful kitchen in Wickes and asked how much it would be for the exact layout. It would have taken up about a third of our big kitchen.   £15k plus fitting 😹😹😹 which included their current 50% offer.  Wickes is one of the cheaper firms.  These figures may not sound a lot to some of you but as pensioners (73/77 in a few weeks) we don’t want to spend this sort of money that we probably won’t get the best out of. 

According to Which the fitting should cost about 20% of the total.  I don’t think most kitchen suppliers read Which.  

Fortunately there’s lots of lovely articles online about titivating your kitchen without spending a fortune 

On the MSE DIY forum, this company gets regular positive comments.
DIY Kitchens | Discount Kitchens, Doors & Cheap Kitchen Units

However I think you have to arrange a fitter yourself. One advantage seems to be that the units are delivered already built. 

Thanks, that’s helpful.  On the Which site (we are members) you can find approved fitters.  

After deciding to save a fortune I had a funny 5 minutes yesterday.  Not far from us is a small airfield and they have 3 Tiger Moths which you can go up in.   Not particularly cheap but an amazing experience.  You can do some aerobatics as well. 😂😂😂. *. My imagination wandered further and I found another airfield that does Spitfire flights. Prices from about £3k.  I then came back down to Earth.  

* I’ve done aerobatics in a glider, it’s a bit surreal 

DairyQueen

Albermarle said:

Murphybear said:

Organgrinder said:

Plasticman said:

oceandreamer said:

Thankyou for all your replies.  It does seem that it is sensible to 'get your house in order' before you retire.  I am going to think hard about what is achievable while I am still at work, both in terms of cost and more importantly, time.  I don't really want to retire to a massive to-do list but have to be realistic about what I can manage to do while still working quite long hours.  At least if I have a plan I can take baby steps towards getting it done.  
@Alnat1 you touch on something else which I feel is very important, and that is that money isn't the only (or even probably the most important) consideration. Looking after you future health is absolutely priority number one and has to be a part of any retirement plan.  I am hoping that there will be more time to exercise, cook from scratch, shop etc which will directly improve my health and fitness. 

I'm hoping to retire at 55 so I'm (hopefully) not going to get a new kitchen that'll last for the rest of my days. My current plan is to replace both the kitchen and main bathroom after retirement and then we'll probably have to fund another round at some point unless we decide to move.

Having had our bathrooms and kitchen done when I was about 55, I want to make sure I have sufficient funds available for another refurb. Hence my desire to have a pot of about £100k in addition to my pensions and short term savings.

It sounds a lot of money - but in reality it only takes something like a new roof, windows and so on and that pot isn't as big as it sounds.

We’ve been thinking about a new kitchen recently.  After trawling around the usual suspects plus some local firms we were horrified at how expensive even a basic kitchen is.  All the firms were quoting at least £5k to fit it, irrelevant of the size.  Not bad for a few days work.  We saw a beautiful kitchen in Wickes and asked how much it would be for the exact layout. It would have taken up about a third of our big kitchen.   £15k plus fitting 😹😹😹 which included their current 50% offer.  Wickes is one of the cheaper firms.  These figures may not sound a lot to some of you but as pensioners (73/77 in a few weeks) we don’t want to spend this sort of money that we probably won’t get the best out of. 

According to Which the fitting should cost about 20% of the total.  I don’t think most kitchen suppliers read Which.  

Fortunately there’s lots of lovely articles online about titivating your kitchen without spending a fortune 

On the MSE DIY forum, this company gets regular positive comments.
DIY Kitchens | Discount Kitchens, Doors & Cheap Kitchen Units

However I think you have to arrange a fitter yourself. One advantage seems to be that the units are delivered already built. 

Three years ago DIY Kitchens supplied our entire kitchen, 'scullery' and utility. This included all appliance fronts plus pantry doors, carousel units, 2 x bin units (total of six bins), oak worktops, etc. Two guys delivered and we had a huge pile of this and that in the house awaiting the kitchen fitters. It was only a few weeks later (when fitted) that we discovered that there wasn't a single mis-delivery or item damaged.

Really, REALLY impressed. Cost of all our units, etc. for large kitchen and utility then = £10,500 plus VAT.