Investing in things to reduce outgoings in retirement

BPL

Who is considering investing in things to reduce outgoings in retirement? We are all investing and saving so that we have incomes to pay bills. With markets potentially showing lesser returns and inflation high it would seem to make sense to invest in solar panels, insulation, eco car, house in better location (outgoing wise) as opposed to leaving the cash invested just to pay higher bills long term. Should this investment be treated like anything other in an integrated financial plan? I'm interested in people's strategy here.

MallyGirl

I have asked our council planning department about their thoughts on solar panels in a conservation area. Nearly 2 months on and I haven't even had an acknowledgement of the query. Apart from wearing more jumpers there is little more we can do in the current house. The cost of changing the sash windows to double glazed versions would take many years to payback and we have no cavities in the walls to fill. We have installed a monitor on the electric usage and been around with a plug in meter checking all the appliances looking for power vampires.

Kim1965

V difficult to quatify, electric panels might be good if they pay for themselves before one dies. Think the feed in Tariffs are pants, so might be worth storage but extra expense. 
 Was reading that electric cars are looking poorer value and that Asia are going down the hydrogen route, apparantly thereis not enough lithium to make batteries. 
 Apart from super insulating my house i am sticking with old technology until there is a clear winner. 

Nebulous2

It may be worth bringing capital expenditure forward in times of high inflation, or if you are expecting a drop in income.  Prior to retiring I bought a van and updated our caravan to a newer one which we expected to do us for a long time. Our boiler needed a repair and we replaced it with a more efficient one instead. 

We moved home to be nearer older relatives, but it also happened to be a cheaper area, so freed some cash. 

It wasn't a formal investment plan, simply a desire to front load some of the heavy lifting, knowing we would have a gap between retiring and getting a state pension, where finances would be tighter. 

Flugelhorn

we moved from a very large 5 bed edwardian house with some single glazed leaky windows in the wild and woolly north to an insulated smaller 5 bed modern house in the south, fuel bills were a third the cost 

LV_426

Flugelhorn said:

we moved from a very large 5 bed edwardian house with some single glazed leaky windows in the wild and woolly north to an insulated smaller 5 bed modern house in the south, fuel bills were a third the cost 

Btw Flugelhorn, do you play in a brass band?

Sterlingtimes

With gas prices rising to over 10 pence per kWh, I have invested £586 of my pension cash in a Drayton Wise smart radiator valve system where times and temperatures for each radiator may be separately programmed. I believe that I can get payback within two years. 

Ciprico

We got solar panels about 12 years ago with great feed in tariff (about £1.3k pa) but the installation cost £14k.

No feed in tariff now but systems cost massively less so payback would be far quicker even without fit. 

They've been totally maintenance free and we're looking to get more & electric car in the near future as retirement approaches... 

bostonerimus

A couple of years before I retired I got major capital expenses out of the way. So new roof on the house, new car etc and I went in mortgage free which greatly reduced my need for income. I also have a rental property that provides good income and took my last job because it had a DB pension. The rent and the pension now provide more than enough income for me so I can be sanguine about stock market drops.

fizio

Electric car was best decision I a year ago as my equivalent fuel costs have gone down from over £100 ppm to under £20. It helps that I locked in to overnight cheap electric deal but even if I hadn't, I would still be better off. Main thing I stopped totally avoid using high speed motorway chargers as they are more expensive than petrol.

SouthCoastBoy

In anticipation of inflation I had the a new kitchen, updated en suite and new garage door last year. I imagine that saved me a few thousand. Wanted to re carpet but didn't get round to that, I will now wait for the recession.

On the back of today's announcements, and yesterday's boe announcement i imagine we will have high interest rates for longer and a labour govt in 2024.