How much to live on

helensbiggestfan

It is complex, putting it politely. I'm struggling to reclaim. I tried to sort it out online and I can't even get the wretched site to recognise my ID. Luckily my son will come to the rescue. Lol. Just need to be patient. Wish I was more tech savvy. I even paid for private one on one tuition a couple of years ago. Picked up a bit but not enough obviously. Not going to beat myself up. I have other talents and skills. Ha ha.

In other areas the garden is a disaster. The heat has decimated my new planting and even killed off some mature shrubs. I noticed a lot of the trees in the neighbourhood seem to be wilting, hope they are ok. It always saddens me when a tree dies. I am in the process of rescuing what I can, putting the smaller plants into pots and creating a mini nursery where I'm am nursing them back to health. I am taking lots of cuttings from anything which might still be viable. Stocking a garden from scratch is an expensive business so I need to get creative. The good news is the eucalyptus trees I paid £5 each for are thriving. I needed three but the garden centre wanted £60 each for 5ft saplings. So I bought 2ft versions online. The new lilac tree i picked up for £10 is doing well and the existing laurel hedge has suddenly taken off so by next year I should have shade where I actually want it and more privacy. Sadly the Japanese maple looks dead.

Still car free. Sometimes I miss the freedom of being able to "just nip in the car" but with a bit of forward planning I am managing ok. You can buy just about anything online, and my handyman is happy to do things like tip runs, charity shop drop offs. For the rest taxis and buses fill the gap.

75. Next week. Have now been retired for 20 years this week. I love it. A simple life with quiet pleasures, stress free and total freedom. 😎.

middlewife

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82052889#Comment_82052889

Thanks Nebulous 2, I had a government gateway account but not accessed it for about 3 years, when I'm in the mood for a challenge I'll try, fortunately my tax bill rarely makes it into 3 figures, but if it does, I'll certainly check it out.

louby40

I managed to speak to someone at Nat West who are going to email me over my final statement for tax purposes- apparently it takes 10 days to send an email. 3-4 weeks if I wanted it posting. Probably be even longer with how our postal service is around here. Someone on my street hadn't had any post for quite a few weeks, she complained and received 32 letters all at once - some of which were hospital appointments she had missed and a bank card too she had been desperately waiting for.

Once I get my final statement I will attempt to ring my friends at HMRC.

Pat38493

I used the nuclear option to get around this whole issue of savings interest reporting - I deliberately triggered a very small reportable capital gain which then means I could register for self assessement and put in all the exactly correct data myself.

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82056657#Comment_82056657

Once I get my final statement I will attempt to ring my friends at HMRC.

You are probably aware of this, but if you phone at 08.00 sharp, you normally get through significantly quicker.

louby40

Albermarle I did hear someone else say this. Hopefully at 8am they will be bright eyed and bushy tailed, wide awake and eager to help me!

We can but hope 🤩

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82057227#Comment_82057227

That is not guaranteed 😀, but at least someone normally answers within 10 to 20 mins ( after you have listened to a a couple of minutes of blurb)

I tried once at 07.59 - I got all the automatic blurb but at the end nothing happened. So phoning at 08.00 and say 15 seconds is probably the best bet.

angieb15edin

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82057227#Comment_82057227

maybe not on Monday morning if they stayed up to watch the football!

Organgrinder

Warning. Lengthy tax and retirement update!

So armed with trusted spreadsheet, my tax codes, payslips and the HMRC app I decided to see what the current position was.

Currently I appear to be underpaying this year by £18.88 a month. Why? Well because my tax codes factor in an underpayment from last year (which will change once my tax is calculated) plus I get an allowance for my pension contributions as I would otherwise by a higher rate taxpayer. Hence my overall tax code is 1400L or thereabouts.

However this year I won't be. So taking other allowances into account my tax code should be 1288L.

The net result of this should be that HMRC should owe me about £100. So I've decided the best course of action is......to do nothing and wait for it to be sorted once my tax is calculated. By that time the underpayments this year will have balanced out what they owe me.

I'm currently marking A level maths exams which are a lot less complicated and thankfully the payments are being taxed at the correct rate. So far I've marked 230 full papers and 3300 questions. I have 50 papers and 400 questions remaining. I find it surprisingly rewarding both from a personal, professional and financial perspective. This session should gross approx £4,200 and with more in November and February the expected £6,000 gross or £4,800 net is a nice holiday fund!

I've now only got 8 more school days until I take my pension. I'm pleased to say I am ahead of the targets I set myself despite a large expenditure on new windows and doors. (2 sets of french doors, 1 front door, 8 windows of various sizes, and a 3 window bay for £8155 - bargain and no redecorating needed either!).

The EV continues to be cheap to use and in the three months I've had it we've built up a healthy surplus of £270 on our energy tariff which should rise to around £450 by October. Fingers crossed that's enough for the winter.

Going into retirement (well sort of - I'm still doing 3 days a fortnight but that's because I want to), my monthly income will be roughly £800 more than my outgoings. This contributes to all the 1 off spends throughout the year like holidays, insurances, birthdays etc. However I also have my stoozing which brings in about £1,800 a year and of course my exam marking.

For the next 2 years (3 financial) I intend adding £25,000 (gross) to my personal pension bringing my forecast to when I finally finish fully at 61 to.

Annual pension £22,800 plus exam marking of £4,000.

Savings £50,000

Pension pot £100,000

We have Mrs Os to add to that too. I intend ending my stoozing unless of course I can still do this when retired.

It has been quite a journey this past 3 years. When I took the leap to go part time it was very much something I had never expected to be able to do. I know for some, those figures look low, for others they look high. What I'd encourage everyone to do is to see whether your figures give you the lifestyle you want.

I know I'll be using some savings between 61 and 67, probably about £20-25k. In the main this will be to change my car. The rest with Mrs O's pension covers our needs and provides enough for 3-4 holidays abroad each year.

This is for me the reason for using this forum and indeed this website. Thanks again to all (and there are many) for the advice and suggestions that have helped make this possible.

Willow1983

Hi Organgrinder, thanks for the excellent update 🙂 with those figures you will manage brilliantly for sure and well done on the window/door replacement costs, I just renewed 5 windows for £3820 and I thought that was good! We finished up at end of 2025 and we are using a combination of a very small pension and savings to cover us till state pension, 3.5 years for Hubbie and 5 years for myself. We have no family so thought stuff it we could keep working and buy more stuff we don’t need or spend our savings on the freedom from jobs that just weren’t fulfilling us any more. We are finding it very doable not going as many holidays as yourself but still managing one or two abroad plus a couple of hols in UK too. Keep us posted and enjoy your retirement you have worked long enough for it and life is way too short! Willow