Typical Budget for an retired couple

YBR

For me the main differences in Retirement are
- no longer commuting means a potential drop in travelling costs, 
- many retired people are no longer paying a mortgage,
- Children have generally left home and are paying for themselves (maybe).

littlemissbossy

This is a really good thread.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6228191/how-much-to-live-on/p1

[Deleted User]

Depends how old the retired couple are. A newly retired couple in their early 60s will more than likely still have an active lifestyle compared to a couple in their 90s who will probably just sit at home all day.

Daliah

Deleted_User said:

Depends how old the retired couple are.

That's probably one of the considerations - though it would be foolish to assume that younger pensioners need less or more money than older ones. Whilst generalisations aren't necessarily a good approach, the older you get, the higher your chance that you need care workers, either in your own home or in a specialist nursing home. Neither is cheap - care costs can be crippling. Conversely, the younger retired are more likely to be active and pursue interests like golfing, travelling, gardening etc, all of which can be expensive or cheap, depending on how much of it they do, and how much they choose to spend on it.

Bottom line is that there is no such thing as a typical budget for retired couples (or retired singles, or non-retired people.....). Some need more, others need less. Some can afford to spend more than the person next door, others can't, or choose not to. Trying to peg your spending to a mythical amount others are spending is the wrong approach. You need to establish how much your essentials (utilities, rent/mortgage/upkeep of property, food, dentistry, taxes, transport, insurances and so on) cost, versus how much income/savings you have. You can then assess how much more you can afford to spend on non-essentials. Also allow for your financial needs, and your financial position, to vary, down and up, as you get older.

RG2015

This is a revealing thread. Everybody is different and has different needs.

The most important element within budgeting is information.

What do you want out of life, and does this come at a cost?
How much is your current level of income and expenditure?
How is your income and expenditure going to change in future years?

Nothing here is affected by retirement (other than the ability to increase income) 

Looking at what others do is not necessarily helpful, although when you call it benchmarking it does appear to have more credibility.

At the end of the day Mr Micawber's advice is still as valid today as it was in 1850.

enthusiasticsaver

It was suggested to me shortly before my DH and I took early retirement that our big spending years would be the first few years.  Normally that is because people often travel on long hauls while they have their health and do projects on the house or splash out on existing or new hobbies. Of course Covid and open heart surgery for my DH put paid to that but our budget is as follows:

Income in DB pensions of £3k per month.
£700 goes on bills and other direct debits. (£550 of this is essential bills)
£500 gets saved for holidays.
£200 on food and 1 takeaways a month
£200 on eating out and entertainment, (Usually eat out twice a month and occasional coffee/cake at NT property or theatre or cinema trip)
£600 split between us on personal spends for clothes, hobbies etc. (This will be cut down if cost of fuel, energy rise further)
£400 on fuel for 2 cars and repair costs, tax, insurance etc and cost of running 2 e bikes (service and insurance)
£200 on gifts and towards Christmas
£200 on household costs for  cleaner, window cleaner, garden waste bin, boiler service etc etc.

We could cut it down and may need to adjust if  bills go higher but we live comfortably within that with our  savings, private DC pensions and ISAs to draw on if needed.  DH also gets his state pension in 2 years time and I get mine in 4 years time. 

Everyones situation is different and it depends very much on what you are able to compromise on if your income is lower than outgoings. 

For us we could easily cut back on personal spends and holidays.  I would not want to reduce food or entertainment further but the direct debits includes a country club sub which we could do without  but don't want to as we use it lots. We could also get rid of Sky  and the cleaner  and maybe drop down to 1 car but that would be inconvenient as we have separate hobbies which do involve some travel.