Looking for a good retirement budget planner

GazzaBloom · 27 August 2023 at 6:04AM

I have run my own zero based budget (the aim is to have a planned place for every £ and get to a balance of £0 at year end) on a spreadsheet for over a decade or longer. I plot out each months income and outgoings and carry the monthly balance forward into the next month, run this out for 2 or 3 years ahead, with some assumptions on inflationary increases on annual bill renewals such as insurance and monthly food shopping etc. Estimates are in red text and known actuals are in black. I record all spend, and update the sheet and reconcile to the bank daily.

In the budget my wife and I have a monthly pocket money allowance for general spending which I track as we spend through it each month. Any savings are also planned and marked as expenditure in the period where the amount to be saved is expected to transferred to a savings account.

I currently run this out to April 2026, with a planned retirement date of December 2024 so I have the first year of retirement spending “locked in” in detail so I know exactly how much I need to drawdown from pension and when. Our plan is to maintain exactly the same lifestyle as we have now and I agree with @Linton

The beauty of this kind of detailed budgeting is you can forecast and see the cashflow needs, via each months end of month balance, and the year end balance.

Without a doubt, taking this level of time and effort and being disciplined and sticking to the budget has allowed detailed retirement planning, and saved us money.

Running a budget on a zero based basis does mean there is no slack so you need an emergency fund to cover unexpected expenses, car repairs, unknown unknowns etc. and there are natural adjustments and replanning for the outer years as things come into focus.

I update the budget sheet each day and it takes around 5 minutes or less over a cup of tea each morning.