Can you live solely off state pension?

michaels

SVaz said:

Unless you live in a city with the resulting good transport links, you need a car.
I’d have to take 3 buses (or a £15 taxi ) to get to my nearest railway station at Stoke, which is only a couple of miles away but would take over an hour.  No direct bus to either our GP surgery or our Dentist,  which have moved out of our village after being swallowed up by a chain,  we’d have to walk a mile into town for a bus or get 2 buses. 

Almost all of us will live a lot longer than we can safely drive (although based on the driving population not all elderly drivers have realised they shouldn't still be driving) so need to plan for that in retirement.

pseudodox

I am intelligent and educated to degree level but always avoided "responsible" employment.  I was never afraid of hard graft but I just went to work, did my job, went home, got paid.  No stress, no appraisals, no vying for promotions.  When a job got boring or less than satisfying at a mental level I moved on.  I even got fired a couple of times for not toeing the corporate line - once ostensibly for going out for walks at lunchtime instead of "being a team member" sitting in the canteen with colleagues discussing shopping and crap TV & comparing latest fashions.   Income was just a means to enjoy the rest of the hours in the week.  I saw friends stressed out by the rat race, but having to "keep up with the Joneses" whilst I happily got on with life despite their exortations to me to "do better for myself".  Well I have done better because in many cases I am still here, bumbling happily along, and they are not.  If I was diagnosed with a terminal illness tomorrow at least I can have engraved on my headstone "I did it all and did it my way"

I could manage without a car as I don't have a problem walking up to 12 miles a day, but the car is useful for getting me out into the hills in the first instance.  My car is my luxury item I suppose.

It is really good to see other people here less hidebound by material desires.  But if cruises, cars, big houses, restaurant dining, £3 for a coffee are what you desire then fine.  And if you are prepared to work umpteen hours, to save, build up pension pots, make other sacrifices in order to achieve material satisfaction all the best to you.  I hope you have the health and strength to enjoy it.  I get the very occasional £25 from ERNIE.  If I ever get the big one I would have no idea how to spend it and would probably give most of it to charity to make other lives a bit happier. 

Audaxer

pseudodox said:

I dipped into savings last year for essentail private dental work (which put paid to some 2022 holiday plans) and this year need to have new glasses, but will have previous frames re-glazed, so that might be covered by the £220 monthly "surplus".  I also took a major decision to replace my 18 year old boiler with a more efficient model with a 12 year guarantee to mitigate against any more repairs/problems or a major breakdown.  A capital investment which I wil not recoup anytime soon in saved running costs but which gives me peace of mind.

It is good that you have savings for large purchases that crop up from time to time. That will certainly give you peace of mind. I do suspect that most people that have to survive on the State Pension alone will have little or no savings to fall back on for essential large purchases, so it must be very difficult to manage in these circumstances.

barnstar2077

SVaz said:

How can someone’s total monthly spend be only £600?
Even with only £70 a week for food and petrol, add in utilities and insurance, running a car etc. 
would be a minimum of £700 a month and I live in a house with cheap Council tax.   We shop around and get the very best deals on things like broadband, house and car insurance and mobile phone plans. 

I couldn’t get my bills excluding food and petrol, any lower than £400.  No pets or things like gym membership etc.  either. 

Having just checked, my total monthly bills come to about £525.  I spend roughly £35 a week on food as I budget £5 a day.  I don't starve myself, or eat particularly unhealthily (plenty of salads and stir fries etc.)  I am a vegetarian however, so that probably makes my meals cheaper and healthier without really trying.  I am not including meals out as that comes out of my entertainment budget.  Also, £525 is just the regular monthly amount, it doesn't include a new bike tyre when needed or a washing machine every ten years etc.

I don't drive, as I love a good walk and cycle to work.  If I am going farther afield, or just don't fancy a good walk, I am on a great bus route (which takes me into town, the local hospital, two massive supermarkets and a train and bus station.)

I don't have any pets either, and no gym membership as I get plenty of exercise from my daily life (I'm averaging between 80,000 to 100,000 steps a week at the moment.)

I certainly don't think of myself as slumming it or scraping by.  I spend a lot of money on entertaining myself, but prefer to have days out with family and friends instead of buying stuff.

Anyone interested can read more about the cheaper side of life here:
A Paupers Pension Tale (Not many nuts to dig up) — MoneySavingExpert Forum

MallyGirl

We certainly couldn't live off 2 x SP in the current house. We also wouldn't be able to keep our dogs.

Thankfully we have personal/workplace pensions that mean we won't have to.

SouthCoastBoy

pseudodox said:

I have no private pension provision because I was in and out of low paid jobs, unemployed or in self-employment all my working life & never earned enough to pay into a scheme anyway.  I saw friends in high paid jobs who hated their lives but stuck it for the pension.  Some did not live long enough to collect it.

I bought my perfect brand new car 21 years ago and she runs like a dream.  Cheap motoring gets me from A to B & the guys at the service garage treat her with TLC.  My standard of living does not depend on gadgets and being able to shop at M&S.  We are all different thank goodness.

My monthly spend is arouind £700 as a single household.  Most costs would be the same if there were 2 of me, except C Tax and household/food.

In the last 12 months on top of the £10,000 SP I received the EBSS, WFA, C Tax rebate, so income was around £920 per calendar month

My expenditure average per month was
Council Tax                        130
gas/elec/water                   122
car exps inc petrol             110 (I have my free bus pass, plus paying £10 gives me free train/metro travel)
house ins                             13
food, household                165
phone/BB/mobile                49
TV  licence                          13
annual servicing (boiler etc)  17
subscriptions/donations       80 National Trust, Ancestry, e-card site 

TOTAL  £699

which left £220 for frivolities like garden, holiday, books, meals out/takeaways, small repairs/replacements around the house, some new walking boots & NHS dental costs.  I had a glorious week walking the Yorkshire coast for under £400 & some days out on cheap train tickets.  I don't drink, smoke or pay anyone to cut my hair & have no-one to buy pressies for.  I get free annual eye tests & prescriptions should I need anything.

My parents educated me to live within my means so apart from a mortgage I have never had any debt.  As a child I got the best shoes but hand me down clothes, so I can happily dress from charity shops and chain stores, or make my own clothes.

I dipped into savings last year for essentail private dental work (which put paid to some 2022 holiday plans) and this year need to have new glasses, but will have previous frames re-glazed, so that might be covered by the £220 monthly "surplus".  I also took a major decision to replace my 18 year old boiler with a more efficient model with a 12 year guarantee to mitigate against any more repairs/problems or a major breakdown.  A capital investment which I wil not recoup anytime soon in saved running costs but which gives me peace of mind.

I know this all sounds like some people's idea of hell.  But I would be thoroughly miserable on a luxury cruise, in a posh hotel, wearing smart clothes, driving a prestige car, eating at a restaurant where the meal was a design on a plate not real food, or waving around the latest "look what I got" gadget.  I have slept in airports on my travels, walked on the Great Wall of China, cruised the Yangtse River, flown over Sydney Harbour in a seaplane, back-packed the east coast of Australia, climbed the lower reaches of Mt Olympos in Greece.  I have my photographs & my travel journals to read and re-live my journeys and have been almost everywhere on my bucket list.  I spent my life making memories whilst I was young and fit in case I was unable to do such stuff when I retired.  Maybe that is why I am now old and fit!  Like someone above said - my ambition was to stop work.  Make a life, not a living.

Truly inspirational, so many,  including me, get tied into earning the next pound.

Richard1212

I just had to come back about what seems like a hornet's nest that one or more of my earlier posts caused with a number of forumites. I have heard a lot of stuff that I am supposed to have said and which I did NOT say. 

For example, I specifically stated in one of my posts that money can never buy the main things in life : eg health and happiness ( and I actually made it clear that health and happiness could never be bought ). So, it is totally disingenuous to associate me with any of those aspects that some posters seem furious about. It is IMPORTANT for hot-heads to acknowledge that fact.

I did go on to answer the original post which asked if I could live solely on the State Pension ( if  I owned my own house---so didn't HAVE to live on that amount because of poverty). All I did was give my opinion on what my own view was---as asked by the O/P.  A good many other posters agreed that they could not manage financially on the O/P's monthly allowance. In fact some posters itemised their own expenditure list in order to illustrate why they couldn't manage financially. They seemed wholly sensible and believable to me. 

So why all the sudden fuss at some stage of this thread ?  I said in one early post ( probably my first one)  that the most important things in life can't be bought. And I gave my opinion that amounted to something like ......it's not pleasant for people in poverty or scraping by in a world of food banks, no new clothes, no car, no cinema /theatre, no meal out ( or takeaway if you prefer), no spending on their hobby ( even gardening requires money if you wish to buy new plants, shrubs, trees, fertilisers, new lawn mower and other tools from time to time, fence posts, etc etc etc---and I speak as an avid gardener who views that hobby as part of my "quality of life" which I could not enjoy without at least some extra expenditure). I also give regular large monthly contributions to the charities of my choice ( and I suppose some sorts of folk who think charity should be a secret will take exception at my nerve in mentioning that aspect !).

  I think I said that some poor people would "give their left arm" to have paid off a mortgage, own a house, and that they would not, in old age, wish to scrimp and save after a lifetime of working hard and being in debt to a mortgage lender and perhaps other lenders for donkey's years.

 I believe that to be the truth. And I believe that many of them would like to spend a bit more on things they have never had before or do things they always wanted to do but never had the money. We'd have to be blind not to notice how many folk of 60-65 do those things, or help out people who are not so fortunate, including relatives.

I did not mention some of the silly sorts of words and phrases attributed to me ---- luxury hotels; fancy clothes or cars; vastly expensive foreign holidays in Monte Carlo, luxury cruises, £3 cups of coffee (!!!)  or any such extravagances ( that have been mentioned on this thread as if it was ME who suggested them to be quality of life ! ). I do not believe those things to be true.

Perhaps the problem lies with the comments of one particular poster who has caused much of the trouble with outrageous remarks ; he says he went to Uni and is a graduate but  "always avoided responsible employment". That is, of course, his choice to make. But there are many of us who would say that it is a terrible waste of OUR ( taxpayers' ) money in order to give such advantages to someone who doesn't want to do more to give back a bit to society by following "responsible employment" but actually wants to avoid it ! How many forumites would actually say that , if they had a great education, they would turn their backs on doing something useful and "responsible" such as teaching, being a doctor,etc. But, hey, each to their own...…......... he has every right to shirk or ( to use his own words) "avoid responsible employment".

As for me, I just stick by every word I have said in earlier posts-----I have given the personal opinion that the O/P asked for ( and with which so many agreed with me about ). And I made sure to emphasise that money could not buy the most important things in life or that it has to be used for luxury cruises, etc  ; although I have to say it can buy a lot of interest, fun and a better life than queuing at a food bank.  

scoobydoo8

I guess I maybe used the wrong word by using "comfortable", what I meant was living without the need for basic sacrifices like going without meals or heating, so just living a basic "comfortable" life without going for holidays every year, eating out a lot, iphones or other expensive phones etc.

It's been a very interesting read and judging by the replies, it is definitely doable. I think some people think they can't do it because they are used to a certain lifestyle but I think most can if necessary.

RG2015

scoobydoo8 said:

I guess I maybe used the wrong word by using "comfortable", what I meant was living without the need for basic sacrifices like going without meals or heating, so just living a basic "comfortable" life without going for holidays every year, eating out a lot, iphones or other expensive phones etc.

It's been a very interesting read and judging by the replies, it is definitely doable. I think some people think they can't do it because they are used to a certain lifestyle but I think most can if necessary.

Do you have any data on how much you are currently spending on the basics excluding rent or mortgage costs?

eskbanker

Threads like this will always attract plenty of subjective comment, especially when defining woolly terms like 'comfortable', but for a more objective view it's probably best to look at some of the published research on the subject, such as:
https://www.retirementlivingstandards.org.uk/
https://www.which.co.uk/money/pensions-and-retirement/planning-your-retirement/how-much-will-you-need-to-retire-aNmlv7V7sVe9