Fed up with working

Krakkkers

Sorry for the delay in getting back, been to a party today.
Outgoings are 
Mobile £29 going to sim only next month as the phone is paid off so down to £15?
Broadband £39 and that is also too much and will be reducing when contract is up.
Energy £132 and my Solar panels give me £70 a month income.
Council tax £144 or 120 over 12 months.
Amazon £9
No TV license needed only watch Amazon, Youtube and Eurosport.
.£20 Water
All my insurances, Motorcycle, car and home add up to about £1000 a year.
£60 a week (£260 a month) shopping.
Its around £700 a month minus £70 pay back from solar panels.
Currently getting just over £3000 a year interest on my savings and waiting for the right time to fix long term, hoping for 4% soon?.
DB is £16114 without lump sum and the pension is quite generous in that it is 5% fixed increase in deferment and fixed 5% in payment, not up to or max just fixed.
Forgot AA, Eurosport and VPN for another £140 a year.

SouthCoastBoy

The big issues about living on a fixed income are items like council tax, utility and to a lesser extent food bills. All necessary expenditure and the first two you have little control over

Secret2ndAccount

Krakkkers said:

Sorry for the delay in getting back, been to a party today.
Outgoings are 
Mobile £29 going to sim only next month as the phone is paid off so down to £15?
Broadband £39 and that is also too much and will be reducing when contract is up.
Energy £132 and my Solar panels give me £70 a month income.
Council tax £144 or 120 over 12 months.
Amazon £9
No TV license needed only watch Amazon, Youtube and Eurosport.
.£20 Water
All my insurances, Motorcycle, car and home add up to about £1000 a year.
£60 a week (£260 a month) shopping.
Its around £700 a month minus £70 pay back from solar panels.
Currently getting just over £3000 a year interest on my savings and waiting for the right time to fix long term, hoping for 4% soon?.
DB is £16114 without lump sum and the pension is quite generous in that it is 5% fixed increase in deferment and fixed 5% in payment, not up to or max just fixed.
Forgot AA, Eurosport and VPN for another £140 a year.

Nothing ever breaks? 1 faulty solar cell takes out a whole panel, yes? Which can often cause generation to cease completely, yes? How much is a new solar panel?
Don't you ever buy anyone presents?
Personally, my one-off expenses exceed my regular outgoings - I spend more per 5 years on 'other' than on power/food/petrol/council tax/clothes.
If you are on 20k/year, and a thing happens that costs 2k, you can probably figure a way to work around it. 
If you are on 9k/year, and a thing happens that costs 2k, it's a very different situation. There might be no fat you can trim to get back on track. So you need to figure out what might happen, and how often, and add it into the monthly budget.

Krakkkers

I take your point and in fact i spent £115 today at a birthday party.
But i have some slack in my budget for that and additional income from Solar FIT payments and Interest on savings.

JoeCrystal

Secret2ndAccount said:

Okay JoeC, let me ask you this. It's the start of September, so 8 completed months in the year. In how many of those months was your total spend less than 700? Not what you might have/could have/should have/would have spent. What you actually spent. Total outgoings. Because we're talking about giving up work, and committing to a pension. If you plan for 8400/yr, you may find you have to live on 8400/yr. And you, in a 1 bedroom flat, can't do it.

None of c. Looking at my spreadsheet, the lowest outgoing during a month so far this year is at £982.14, I did not mainly do anything in that month. But I get what you mean, Secret2ndAccount. I certainly cannot afford to live on an income of £8,400 per year in my current situation.

Krakkkers is however in an enviable position of low living costs and a high-quality retirement provision altogether. 

QrizB

Krakkkers said:

I take your point and in fact i spent £115 today at a birthday party.
But i have some slack in my budget for that and additional income from Solar FIT payments and Interest on savings.

OK, let's double your budget, £1400 a month, £16800 a year.

Once you get to 67 and SPA you're golden; DB pension plus SP will be £22000 a year.

You need to find £16800 a year for two years - £33600 - to get to 60 when your DB kicks in, then £6300 for seven years - £44100 - until SPA. Total £77700.

But you;ve already got £195k in the bank, more than double that amount, plus another £138k of DC pension. More than four times the £77700 that you need.

It seems to me that you could probably have retired 4-5 years ago.

You could up your budget to £22k a year (which would increase that £77700 to more like £130k) and still afford to retire today with £200k spare.

Or even make your budget £28k a year (drawing down that £200k at an initial 3%) and be pretty sure of never running out of money.

Krakkkers

Thanks for that i will look at what you have proposed.

Secret2ndAccount

Just looked up the cost of a dental crown on the NHS. It's £282. That could be a metal crown - silver in colour. If it's just a broken tooth, or not a medical need, you would be left with just a gap or a hole. NHS crowns are strictly medical. Private prices up to £800.

Purplelady65

If you’re fed up with working and have only yourself to think about I can understand if you would like to retire and enjoy your free time. However there seems to be quite a few things missing from your monthly expenditure list. Do you never spend on any of the following: 

Clothes and shoes
Holidays / weekends away
Meals out 
Trips to the pub
Coffee out 
Christmas and birthday presents or any other gifts 
Dentist
Prescriptions
Items for your house - decorating, furniture or replacing broken appliances 
House repairs 
Car repairs
Motorcycle repairs
One off costs e.g. making a will, power of attorney e.t.c. 

Krakkkers

Some of those things but not many.
I can't order coffee out as I don't understand all the follow up questions and would never pay for 1 Cup what I would normally pay for a whole jar.