How much to live on

[Deleted User]

I have also kept all my teacher planners and diaries lol. Hundreds if not thousands of hours of work. Reminds me what I was up to for most days during the last 40 years! Great for my life timeline !

MFMP

Hi, could someone in the know please point me in the direction of the "scary pension board". The one where they have eye-watering fund balances. I fancied having a look. TIA. 

Smudgeismydog

From the home page go to the ‘Work, benefits & business’ tab

Pensions
, annuities and Retirement Planning is the top thread

QrizB

MFMP said:

Hi, could someone in the know please point me in the direction of the "scary pension board". The one where they have eye-watering fund balances. I fancied having a look. TIA. 

This one?
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/pensions-annuities-retirement-planning

Albermarle

MFMP said:

Hi, could someone in the know please point me in the direction of the "scary pension board". The one where they have eye-watering fund balances. I fancied having a look. TIA. 

Although you will also see many new posts from people with more modest pensions, and younger people asking for advice about what to do about pension contributions.
In fact the majority of new threads are from people who are just generally confused about pensions ( which is not surprising)
There is though an element of people with larg(ish)  assets basically looking for free financial advice, and dispensing some in return ( guilty as charged m'lud) 

Murphybear

annielyn said:

helensbiggestfan said:

The great purge has begun.!!!  

Not just a declutter this is will be an M&S declutter, (aka Swedish Death Cleaning). Excess furniture, household goods, kitchenalia, clothes, books. I might even part with some coats, 😱🤣😂.

  Need to improve my home's Feng Shuey.  Lol. More space, more light, encourage health, wealth and positive vibes. 🤪

I know it's perhaps a bit lazy but I've decided to donate most of it rather than sell.  Quicker and easier.  

Well done HBF. I would really like to do this. Unfortunately I have a DH who is an avid collector and simply refuses to part with many of the 'treasures' he's collected over the years.

I can see how decluttering can make for a much simpler life, not just for the way we live now but also for our family in the future who will have the daunting task of sorting it all if we don't. 

When my FIL passed last year my MIL had a major purge on her house which helped to keep her busy but also meant that the things she now has around her are those that she has chosen and have a meaning to her rather than just 'stuff' that's accumulated over the years.

When we are at our caravan we find that life is a lot simpler. We don't have loads of stuff there cluttering up the space, everything has a use and we find we have less choices to make. It just goes to show how we can actually manage with a lot less.
 

Fear not, you are not alone.  We have 3 storage cupboards, one is packed full of his ”stuff”.  We have lived here for 8 years and he’s never looked at most of it in that time.  His excuse is,”it might come in useful one day”
😹😹😹

He’s just had his 77th birthday and says he’s too old for DIY any more. When he’s in hospital having his hip replaced I might get rid of a few bits 🥶

QrizB

Murphybear said:

He’s just had his 77th birthday and says he’s too old for DIY any more. When he’s in hospital having his hip replaced I might get rid of a few bits 🥶

My dad's 80 and still an avid DIYer.

Thankfully he didn't try to DIY his hip replacements 😂

helensbiggestfan

QrizB said:

Murphybear said:

He’s just had his 77th birthday and says he’s too old for DIY any more. When he’s in hospital having his hip replaced I might get rid of a few bits 🥶

My dad's 80 and still an avid DIYer.

Thankfully he didn't try to DIY his hip replacements 😂

😂🤣

Murphybear.......hope the op goes well.  

Chucking it down here.  I've just finished washing my oriental rug.  The state of the water, 😂🤣.  I knew it was dirty but I didn't realise it was that bad. 😱.  I think I'll give it another go in a day or so and then I might move it to my bedroom, and buy something more neutral for my lounge.  

Handyman scheduled for next week.  Time to get cracking.....

midinoon

LL_USS said:

Saying about the inflated living costs.....

I remember a lecture slide giving an example of different pricing strategies, with mince pork priced at just around £1 at Tesco. Now it's £2.65.

Once people wondered how I could spend £50 for a go for weekly shopping at even Aldi's.... Now it tends to be around £100 for the family....

Let's not mention the hiked up energy prices (and standing charges)....

Amazing I have managed us through draught in Spain, Covid, Ukraine War... whilst still trying to contribute more to pension to avoid falling into a higher tax rate - due to the frozen income tax bands....

One day we can look back and tell the children/ grandchildren "those were the days... we did everything to make money go a bit further..." ;-)

Yes, I guess if you went back five or six years, people's worst-case scenario in their retirement planning would definitely not have foreseen so many negatively affecting issues in such a short space of time.

I'm not sure if this is unprecedented, but it certainly feels like it - and is it even over?.

For a lot of people, just navigating these shocks while remaining employed and making ends meet is a success, let alone keeping up good pension contributions.

Having recently found this forum, I have had a look at the beginnings of this thread. The financial positions and category outgoings etc. stated are of great help in calculating things. It would be great to get some present-day examples.

Albermarle

I have been retired 4.5 years and I find it is best to try and not focus too much  on the news, which tends to have an overly negative bias, and try be objective and see that there have been many worse periods to retire. Late 1970’s/ early 1980’ for example. Inflation over 20%; Interest rates and unemployment over 10%,etc
Or just before the Great financial crash in 2008.
orjust before the  Dot.com crash of 2000.
Now wages and pensions have risen above inflation in the last two years . Unemployment is relatively low.
A typical medium risk pension fund is up 35% in the last 5 years.
So could have been a better time to retire I guess, but for sure economically it has not been an unprecedented period.