How much to live on

Dazza1902

scaredofdebt said:

Interesting thread, I am hoping to retire in about 4 years my private pension should, stock-market permitting, give me about £700 a month drawdown without eroding the capital.
I reckon about £1,000 a month covers all bills, food, enough to run a car and a little spare for treats and breaks etc.
So I need another £300 a month that I intend to get from mystery shopping, matched betting etc.
Pension forecast suggests I will get £790 a month at 67, same for my wife, so should be fairly comfortable by then fingers crossed.
I'm sure the kids will still need money!

£2280 pm with a base level of £1000 should be comfortable. I have similar base spend but would like to retire at 60. Still not sure whether to just gradually do less (self employed plumber) or stop fully. Depends if my back gives out lol. Either way with every payment towards my retirement I feel more relaxed about work in general.
Any body else out there in a similar position ?

[Deleted User]

PennyForThem_2

I have looked at seashells thread. Ok pension pot was average, but savings were more than most are able to make during a working lifetime with families. Also from age 66/67 seashell and husband will have state pensions on top. (Maybe another £18000 a year between them)

You say you spend £25 to £30 thousand a year but mention turning off the heating before May. Give over! This May has been freezing!

Best wishes.

[Deleted User]

scaredoffdebt,does yourwife have any other pension apart from the expected state pension? Is she working?

Best wishes.

[Deleted User]

Dazza1902. After re-reading all of your posts I think you will be fine too, probably very comfortable. Best wishes.

helensbiggestfan

[Deleted User] said:

PennyForThem_2

I have looked at seashells thread. Ok pension pot was average, but savings were more than most are able to make during a working lifetime with families. Also from age 66/67 seashell and husband will have state pensions on top. (Maybe another £18000 a year between them)

You say you spend £25 to £30 thousand a year but mention turning off the heating before May. Give over! This May has been freezing!

Best wishes.

Glad it's not just me who needs the heating on at the moment.........today has been vile here.  I would have seized up without some heat.  My husband always used to joke that I must have lizards DNA, because I can't seem to get moving until my body reaches its optimum temperature. 😂🤣.  

Scaredofdebt.......good luck with the matched betting.  I tried it but wasn't very successful.  I keep meaning to have another go.  

Well I have just concluded Week 1 of my new vintage clothing enterprise.  Made 4 sales today.  That'll do nicely. 🥂.  Will still continue to do a bit of antiques and bric a brac as and when. 

Madrick

helensbiggestfan said:

Well I have just concluded Week 1 of my new vintage clothing enterprise.  Made 4 sales today.  That'll do nicely. 🥂.  Will still continue to do a bit of antiques and bric a brac as and when. 

Well done,
great to do something you enjoy, brings pleasure to others and makes you a bit of spare cash at the same time

Can you turn heating off? 🤔
I have mine set at 20 (during the day 17 at night) , if it falls below, then on it comes 😉

Madrick

Dazza1902 said:
 Either way with every payment towards my retirement I feel more relaxed about work in general.

Any body else out there in a similar position ?

Exactly my sentiment, during the last year spending most of it on furlough, with a reduced salary, still managing to save loads, got seriously thinking about maybe I could just manage in early retirement.🤔
Every £100 squirreled away in an ISA, every % increase in salary sacrifice into workplace pension makes it seem closer 😁

MovingForwards

@Madrick quick and simple way of knowing is work out your monthly outgoings. Deduct mortgage and work related expenses, keep in rent. Apportion your annual expenses into a monthly figure and include them.
That's roughly what you need each month, whether it's from investments, 25% from pensions, savings or even drawing pension(s) early. Don't forget to do a SP check, read all of it as it will say how many years are needed further down the page.

MovingForwards

Slight change of plan as I actually doubled my mortgage overpayment to £200pm. Sub-prime lender so makes sense.

Another slight change is I'm getting a temporary uplift in wages, backdated to when I first started doing another role plus my own; just over £1800, before tax and NI, for the set period (12 months in total, the bulk is backdated). The bulk of the backdated element will go into my mortgage, some into savings and some into my garden. For the next few months while I still have it, I will pay that into my mortgage bringing the payment up to £300pm extra. It will make a nice dent in my mortgage for when I get my next annual statement.

While I could pay it all into my SIPP, being mortgage free opens up early retirement / working PT.

Next mid-point finance review is in 3 months.

203846930

I am having a review with my FA in a couple of week, I will be asking for an increase in my pension pauout from November this year to cover increasing prices (last done 2 years ago) and I will also sound them out on equity release but as I have no money to top up my pot with it will be a short call.