A Paupers Pension Tale (Not many nuts to dig up)

Terron

Albermarle said:

Oh!  and of course...
The fear everyone seems to have at the moment, that banks and pension funds will collapse...

There is not even the slightest rumour that any bank is in trouble, in the UK or elsewhere, and after the reforms after the last crash it would be very unlikely to happen to any bank, except maybe a very small one with a specific issue.

I have seen rumours about Credit Suisse, at least it's investment banking division.

Albermarle

Terron said:

Albermarle said:

Oh!  and of course...
The fear everyone seems to have at the moment, that banks and pension funds will collapse...

There is not even the slightest rumour that any bank is in trouble, in the UK or elsewhere, and after the reforms after the last crash it would be very unlikely to happen to any bank, except maybe a very small one with a specific issue.

I have seen rumours about Credit Suisse, at least it's investment banking division.

Yes fair enough, and there will be some pressures in emerging markets. However the big UK banks are in a much stronger position than in 2008 and there is no sign that the  current issues are adversely affecting them.

barnstar2077

A quick update from me.  I have decided to increase my monthly ISA contributions a small amount.  My outgoings haven't changed much for a very long time, but I am feeling a bit unsettled by recent inflation levels and think I will sleep easier at night if I put a bit more away to bridge the gap between when I would like to retire at 55, and 58(ish) when I can access my pension.

I figure that a small increase won't affect my standard of living at the moment and if it is eventually proven unnecessary then I will just have a more comfortable existence than originally planned.

Honestly, I have found myself taken a bit by surprise by recent events, as previously my plans didn't factor in the possibility of high inflation for a sustained period.

Silverbullet036

I'm another one who has just stumbled across this thread. Very interesting read indeed and a tale to gladden my heart. If anyone is really contemplating early retirement but just keep putting it off , then don't wait any longer. People who want 'trinkets' and 'material' possessions to make themselves feel better will be probably work themselves into the grave.

I was retired at 49 (4+ years ago) by my work and took what pension they gave me. Never looked back and never been happier , no one to tell me what to do and when to do it. My wife has cut her hours down to 22 pw and is also going to retire and join me in April 23

She sees how happy and content I am and the stress free life I lead and fancies a bit of that herself. She will be 55 and has even made herself a countdown chart that she crosses off every day.

Gin_and_Milk

I've been looking for this thread as I'd forgotten to bookmark it last time.  Reassuring to see figures similar to mine (can't go for approx 12 years yet), but this bout of high inflation has definitely been factored into my figures now.
Hope you all manage OK 

gambleruk

Well been working through my year end today and here it is

Electricity	£3,099.00
Council tax	£1,876.00
Dentist	£336.00
Broadband	£225.00
Lottery	£306.00
Water	£540.00
Mobile Phones	£204.50
Food & Groceries	£4,554.00
Holidays	£633.00
Gigs Tickets	£244.00
Nights Out	£1,017.00
Takeaways	£876.00
Car Serv, Mot, Tax, Ins	£913.00
Petrol	£1,037.00
Dog food vets kennels	£550.00
House Insurance	£54.00
Tv Licence	£159.00
Household Equipment	£411.00
Health/Beauty/Clothes	£286.00
Record Player Service	£90.00
Yearly total	£17,410.50

So we have spent £1000 more than last year mainly because of the cost of living, on the plus side we are in credit with the electric company, had two holidays in Spain and been to 8 gigs which is the most for many years, downside majority of the gig tickets and holiday costs were in the 2021 budget so next year will see an increase in holiday costs.

The car and petrol costs have also increased quite a bit as well where as our nights out/takeaways have stayed similar. Now when I started this thread I was aiming to survive on £13000 a year which looking at the figures is probably just about possible if we ever needed to, our son is still with us so we have had £2600 in board, we have made £1400 doing bank switches in the past few months (why we never did this before is beyond me) and it always amazes me how little bits of money appear, like selling a few duplicates in my record collection, the wife selling clothes on ebay and items round the house we do not use anymore.

So considering the year we all have had I am quite happy with the figures, electric costs do worry me as we are all electric and have cut back a lot of usage but still our second highest out goings. My pension pot itself is down 8% so fingers crossed that recovers in the future, savings not touched again so still there for when we will need them.

On the actual mental side of early retirement I am even more further away from ever wanting to return to work, my days are still so full and love my routine, I read someones post earlier this week who said they could not understand wanting to give up work early and I just thought how would you ever know if you have never known any different. I will put one thing out there for people wondering whether to retire early and wondering if they can afford to is that I enjoy and have always enjoyed balancing the books, so I spend quite a bit of time finding the best shopping offers, insurance, cheapest flights, hotels etc which saves a lot of money over the year.

Right will leave it at that for the time being, as always will appreciate your thoughts and comments, I did get a tad deep on my thoughts on early retirement but deleted them and will leave that for another day as on my second beer and this post is about costs. Enjoy the New Year folks and see you on the other side  

Ganga

gambleruk said:

Well been working through my year end today and here it is

Electricity	£3,099.00
Council tax	£1,876.00
Dentist	£336.00
Broadband	£225.00
Lottery	£306.00
Water	£540.00
Mobile Phones	£204.50
Food & Groceries	£4,554.00
Holidays	£633.00
Gigs Tickets	£244.00
Nights Out	£1,017.00
Takeaways	£876.00
Car Serv, Mot, Tax, Ins	£913.00
Petrol	£1,037.00
Dog food vets kennels	£550.00
House Insurance	£54.00
Tv Licence	£159.00
Household Equipment	£411.00
Health/Beauty/Clothes	£286.00
Record Player Service	£90.00
Yearly total	£17,410.50

So we have spent £1000 more than last year mainly because of the cost of living, on the plus side we are in credit with the electric company, had two holidays in Spain and been to 8 gigs which is the most for many years, downside majority of the gig tickets and holiday costs were in the 2021 budget so next year will see an increase in holiday costs.

The car and petrol costs have also increased quite a bit as well where as our nights out/takeaways have stayed similar. Now when I started this thread I was aiming to survive on £13000 a year which looking at the figures is probably just about possible if we ever needed to, our son is still with us so we have had £2600 in board, we have made £1400 doing bank switches in the past few months (why we never did this before is beyond me) and it always amazes me how little bits of money appear, like selling a few duplicates in my record collection, the wife selling clothes on ebay and items round the house we do not use anymore.

So considering the year we all have had I am quite happy with the figures, electric costs do worry me as we are all electric and have cut back a lot of usage but still our second highest out goings. My pension pot itself is down 8% so fingers crossed that recovers in the future, savings not touched again so still there for when we will need them.

On the actual mental side of early retirement I am even more further away from ever wanting to return to work, my days are still so full and love my routine, I read someones post earlier this week who said they could not understand wanting to give up work early and I just thought how would you ever know if you have never known any different. I will put one thing out there for people wondering whether to retire early and wondering if they can afford to is that I enjoy and have always enjoyed balancing the books, so I spend quite a bit of time finding the best shopping offers, insurance, cheapest flights, hotels etc which saves a lot of money over the year.

Right will leave it at that for the time being, as always will appreciate your thoughts and comments, I did get a tad deep on my thoughts on early retirement but deleted them and will leave that for another day as on my second beer and this post is about costs. Enjoy the New Year folks and see you on the other side  

Your holidays costs are very low for two Spanish holidays, did you hitch hike there and camp out 

gambleruk

Ganga said:

gambleruk said:

Well been working through my year end today and here it is

Electricity	£3,099.00
Council tax	£1,876.00
Dentist	£336.00
Broadband	£225.00
Lottery	£306.00
Water	£540.00
Mobile Phones	£204.50
Food & Groceries	£4,554.00
Holidays	£633.00
Gigs Tickets	£244.00
Nights Out	£1,017.00
Takeaways	£876.00
Car Serv, Mot, Tax, Ins	£913.00
Petrol	£1,037.00
Dog food vets kennels	£550.00
House Insurance	£54.00
Tv Licence	£159.00
Household Equipment	£411.00
Health/Beauty/Clothes	£286.00
Record Player Service	£90.00
Yearly total	£17,410.50

So we have spent £1000 more than last year mainly because of the cost of living, on the plus side we are in credit with the electric company, had two holidays in Spain and been to 8 gigs which is the most for many years, downside majority of the gig tickets and holiday costs were in the 2021 budget so next year will see an increase in holiday costs.

The car and petrol costs have also increased quite a bit as well where as our nights out/takeaways have stayed similar. Now when I started this thread I was aiming to survive on £13000 a year which looking at the figures is probably just about possible if we ever needed to, our son is still with us so we have had £2600 in board, we have made £1400 doing bank switches in the past few months (why we never did this before is beyond me) and it always amazes me how little bits of money appear, like selling a few duplicates in my record collection, the wife selling clothes on ebay and items round the house we do not use anymore.

So considering the year we all have had I am quite happy with the figures, electric costs do worry me as we are all electric and have cut back a lot of usage but still our second highest out goings. My pension pot itself is down 8% so fingers crossed that recovers in the future, savings not touched again so still there for when we will need them.

On the actual mental side of early retirement I am even more further away from ever wanting to return to work, my days are still so full and love my routine, I read someones post earlier this week who said they could not understand wanting to give up work early and I just thought how would you ever know if you have never known any different. I will put one thing out there for people wondering whether to retire early and wondering if they can afford to is that I enjoy and have always enjoyed balancing the books, so I spend quite a bit of time finding the best shopping offers, insurance, cheapest flights, hotels etc which saves a lot of money over the year.

Right will leave it at that for the time being, as always will appreciate your thoughts and comments, I did get a tad deep on my thoughts on early retirement but deleted them and will leave that for another day as on my second beer and this post is about costs. Enjoy the New Year folks and see you on the other side  

Your holidays costs are very low for two Spanish holidays, did you hitch hike there and camp out 

I did say most of the costs were in 2021, Ryanair, Benidorm, full board and out of season, cheap as chips  

Albermarle

Ganga said:

gambleruk said:

Well been working through my year end today and here it is

Electricity	£3,099.00
Council tax	£1,876.00
Dentist	£336.00
Broadband	£225.00
Lottery	£306.00
Water	£540.00
Mobile Phones	£204.50
Food & Groceries	£4,554.00
Holidays	£633.00
Gigs Tickets	£244.00
Nights Out	£1,017.00
Takeaways	£876.00
Car Serv, Mot, Tax, Ins	£913.00
Petrol	£1,037.00
Dog food vets kennels	£550.00
House Insurance	£54.00
Tv Licence	£159.00
Household Equipment	£411.00
Health/Beauty/Clothes	£286.00
Record Player Service	£90.00
Yearly total	£17,410.50

So we have spent £1000 more than last year mainly because of the cost of living, on the plus side we are in credit with the electric company, had two holidays in Spain and been to 8 gigs which is the most for many years, downside majority of the gig tickets and holiday costs were in the 2021 budget so next year will see an increase in holiday costs.

The car and petrol costs have also increased quite a bit as well where as our nights out/takeaways have stayed similar. Now when I started this thread I was aiming to survive on £13000 a year which looking at the figures is probably just about possible if we ever needed to, our son is still with us so we have had £2600 in board, we have made £1400 doing bank switches in the past few months (why we never did this before is beyond me) and it always amazes me how little bits of money appear, like selling a few duplicates in my record collection, the wife selling clothes on ebay and items round the house we do not use anymore.

So considering the year we all have had I am quite happy with the figures, electric costs do worry me as we are all electric and have cut back a lot of usage but still our second highest out goings. My pension pot itself is down 8% so fingers crossed that recovers in the future, savings not touched again so still there for when we will need them.

On the actual mental side of early retirement I am even more further away from ever wanting to return to work, my days are still so full and love my routine, I read someones post earlier this week who said they could not understand wanting to give up work early and I just thought how would you ever know if you have never known any different. I will put one thing out there for people wondering whether to retire early and wondering if they can afford to is that I enjoy and have always enjoyed balancing the books, so I spend quite a bit of time finding the best shopping offers, insurance, cheapest flights, hotels etc which saves a lot of money over the year.

Right will leave it at that for the time being, as always will appreciate your thoughts and comments, I did get a tad deep on my thoughts on early retirement but deleted them and will leave that for another day as on my second beer and this post is about costs. Enjoy the New Year folks and see you on the other side  

Your holidays costs are very low for two Spanish holidays, did you hitch hike there and camp out 

He said that some of the 2022 holiday costs had come out of the 2021 budget. Presumably had booked ahead.

bluenose1

Thanks Gambleruk for the breakdown, glad you are enjoying your retirement so much.       I for one would love to hear your “deep thoughts” on early retirement, as good to appreciate other perspectives etc.  We have decided end of May 23 is the earliest I can go, we will definitely have more than enough annual income, approx £44k per annum with no mortgage etc, but I have a few nagging doubts as don’t have much in way of savings as have put so much into my pension provision. Plus would like to help kids get on property ladder at some point. 

Also I feel like I should hold out for the next redundancy round. Though on the other hand the thought of going end of May is so tempting…… 88 working days, not that I am counting
Work definitely stresses me, stupid really as all I want to do is leave.