Can you live solely off state pension?

[Deleted User]

zagfles. Whilst I agree with a lot of your post above. I believe that to describe some people as 'completely useless' because they may not always go for the best outcome financially is a little harsh.

I never switch banks and have never swapped energy suppliers simply because I am happy with my providers. I may have missed out on some offers but on the whole I have done ok and my energy supplier has a very slim chance of going bust. At times loyalty has even been worthwhile.

I don't consider myself financially useless. I have a good DB pension, have paid voluntary NI payments to ensure I get a full state pension, have no debt and own my own mortgage free house. These things give me peace of mind. When making financial decisions the maximum financial gain is not always, for me anyway, the sole aspect to consider.


Generally, as far as this particular thread is concerned I have found it an interesting read. Throughout these forums there are many people living full and happy lives on low incomes of all types. They are certainly not all visiting food banks or sitting at home despondent. 

Although this section of the forum contains some fantastic information and advice it has to be remembered that many of the posters are not typical or average when it comes to pensions and incomes. Therefore some of them will struggle with the concept  of living a good life on £11000 or so a year. There is nothing wrong with having this view. What you require in retirement money wise will always depend on your lifestyle, needs and wants as well as personal priorities.

One example I will give though that sometimes worries people or puts them off from maybe asking questions or contributing is where a person describes their £6000 a month pension income (£72000 a year) as 'reasonable'! Most people will never earn that much per annum when working. I believe the average annual salary in the UK is about £28000 a year. I wish the person a happy and long retirement but would also like to think that they realise they are in a very  fortunate position in relation to the majority of the population. If not, they perhaps need to read some of the threads in other sections of the forum.

I could point people towards threads where contributors are managing quite well on not very much, either through choice or circumstance. However, it is not my my place to do so. I am pleased though that some contributors to this thread have been very open about how they manage on just the state pension or a low income. They provide hope and encouragement to others.

Nebulous2

It's very easy to up your expenditure with increased income, such as a promotion, but it's considerably more painful to reduce it with the equivalent cut. 

I've twice worked my way up a career structure to a well-paid (by my standards anyway) post, then walked away from it when it was no longer fulfilling. We were surprised the first time how much surplus we were able to cut from our budget and how much of the things we had seen as necessary really didn't matter. 

I've spoken before about an older relative who felt the pension was unbelievably generous. She didn't work, as was the case with many working class women in those days. Her husband had ill-health and eked out a precarious income. As most of the available work was hard physical labour, which he couldn't manage, life had been tough. 

After reaching pension age she got carpets, a hoover, a washing machine and other riches she had never imagined possible before. She couldn't believe how blessed she was. Times have changed, and it helped that they didn't run a car, but it shows that the greenness of the grass varies depending on your starting point. 

I want to see myself as frugal, careful and happier with experiences than spending money. I think I should be in the camp who can not just get by, but enjoy life, on the state pension. I then look at our income and realise we're further up the quintiles that hugheskevi posted than I care to admit. That means reducing our expenditure to state pension level would be tough. 

horsewithnoname

scoobydoo8 said:

As per title, do you think you would be able to live just off a full state pension, currently £203pw /£10,6k per year, reasonably comfortably if you already owe your own home?

I think I could but then again I don't really do a lot! 

Exist? Perhaps. Live? No

the state pension here is diabolical!

[Deleted User]

horsewithnoname said:

scoobydoo8 said:

As per title, do you think you would be able to live just off a full state pension, currently £203pw /£10,6k per year, reasonably comfortably if you already owe your own home?

I think I could but then again I don't really do a lot! 

Exist? Perhaps. Live? No

the state pension here is diabolical!

Have you read all of the thread? There are several examples here of people living not just existing on the state pension. Likewise across these forums there are many people living happy and purposeful lives on low incomes.

As for the state pension being diabolical as compared to other countries you have to compare like with like. For example in some European countries the state pension equivalent may be higher but personal and occupational pensions are less widespread, and healthcare is more costly. Rates of taxation are different. 
I am not saying that our state pension is where it should be but to use the word 'diabolical' is unreasonable.

MEM62

scoobydoo8 said:

As per title, do you think you would be able to live just off a full state pension, currently £203pw /£10,6k per year, reasonably comfortably if you already owe your own home?

No chance.  It would be poverty existence at best.  We are not far from retirement and, will kids grown up and gone and no mortgage or debt our basic bills, exclusive of food, are round £900 per month.  While there are two of us the SP would cover living costs but you need the additional income from private pensions to cover all the extras - running a car, holidays, eating out, fun money etc etc etc.....          

RG2015

MEM62 said:

scoobydoo8 said:

As per title, do you think you would be able to live just off a full state pension, currently £203pw /£10,6k per year, reasonably comfortably if you already owe your own home?

No chance.  It would be poverty existence at best.  We are not far from retirement and, will kids grown up and gone and no mortgage or debt our basic bills, exclusive of food, are round £900 per month.  While there are two of us the SP would cover living costs but you need the additional income from private pensions to cover all the extras - running a car, holidays, eating out, fun money etc etc etc.....          

Are you saying that pensioners with only the state pension are living in poverty?

pseudodox

Diabolical?  What?

I and several pensioner friends cannot believe our good fortune.  We can do what we want to do 7 days a week.  Lie in bed, get up, stay home, go out, meet up etc anytime we like.  No daily journey to/from work.  No daily grind with someone looking over our shoulder.  If the sun is shining we can spontaneously have some outdoor fun. If it's raining we don't have to go anywhere.  We can go on holiday whenever we like and for as long as we like.  We can avoid bank holiday mayhem, school holiday inflated prices, shop when others are at work & grab the reduced bargains.

We are not all on the same pension income level (most are medium to much better off than me) but none of us can get over the fact that every 4 weeks the "government machine" drops a wodge of cash into our bank accounts. We get paid for doing absolutely nothing, regular as clockwork and guaranteed until the day we die.  And recent pension increases have been more than generous.  Plus we get perks like free travel, free prescriptions, free eye tests, age related discounts of all sorts.  With an assured income, and especially if we have good health and have paid off our mortgages we have none of the worries and anxieties of todays young, especially those with families, those in precarious employment.

We all call all that "living"!  It is A WONDERFUL LIFE!!

I am certainly NOT living in poverty.

NoMore

Interestingly, I was just reading a blogpost by Morgan Housel (Author of the fantastic Psychology of Money) and a pertinent quote to this thread jumped out at me:

A quirk I have seen many times is that some of the wealthiest people are the most prone to expectations spinning out of control, because they become hyper aware of how other rich people live.
In 1907, author William Dawson wrote about how the feeling of wealth is relative to what you’re accustomed to:

A man of education, accustomed to easy means, would suffer tortures unspeakable if he were made to live in a single room of a populous and squalid tenement, and had to subsist upon a wage at once niggardly and precarious. He would be tormented with that memory of happier things, which we are told is a ‘sorrow’s crown of sorrow.’

But the man who has known no other condition of life is unconscious of its misery. He has no standard of comparison. An environment which would drive a man of refinement to thoughts of suicide, does not produce so much as dissatisfaction in him. Hence there is far more happiness among the poor than we imagine.
To drive home his point: Dawson was himself fairly successful and accustomed to easy means by the standard of his day. But Dawson, who died in 1928, spent most of his life without electricity or air conditioning. He never had antibiotics, Advil, or a Polio vaccine. He never experienced reasonably accurate weather forecasts, or an interstate highway.

An average American today sent back in time to experience Dawson’s life would suffer the same “tortures unspeakable” he wrote about. But he didn’t have modern times to compare his life to, so it felt luxurious to him.

Everything good in life is just the gap between expectations and reality, and when your main frame of reference are other rich people trying to impress each other, that gap can close quickly.

A Few Laws of Getting Rich · Collab Fund

Ebeneezer9

pseudodox said:

Diabolical?  What?

I and several pensioner friends cannot believe our good fortune.  We can do what we want to do 7 days a week.  Lie in bed, get up, stay home, go out, meet up etc anytime we like.  No daily journey to/from work.  No daily grind with someone looking over our shoulder.  If the sun is shining we can spontaneously have some outdoor fun. If it's raining we don't have to go anywhere.  We can go on holiday whenever we like and for as long as we like.  We can avoid bank holiday mayhem, school holiday inflated prices, shop when others are at work & grab the reduced bargains.

We are not all on the same pension income level (most are medium to much better off than me) but none of us can get over the fact that every 4 weeks the "government machine" drops a wodge of cash into our bank accounts. We get paid for doing absolutely nothing, regular as clockwork and guaranteed until the day we die.  And recent pension increases have been more than generous.  Plus we get perks like free travel, free prescriptions, free eye tests, age related discounts of all sorts.  With an assured income, and especially if we have good health and have paid off our mortgages we have none of the worries and anxieties of todays young, especially those with families, those in precarious employment.

We all call all that "living"!  It is A WONDERFUL LIFE!!

I am certainly NOT living in poverty.

Here, here, and I’m looking forward to it !
We are so fortunate to live in this great country.

barnstar2077

NoMore said:

Interestingly, I was just reading a blogpost by Morgan Housel (Author of the fantastic Psychology of Money) and a pertinent quote to this thread jumped out at me:

A quirk I have seen many times is that some of the wealthiest people are the most prone to expectations spinning out of control, because they become hyper aware of how other rich people live.
In 1907, author William Dawson wrote about how the feeling of wealth is relative to what you’re accustomed to:

A man of education, accustomed to easy means, would suffer tortures unspeakable if he were made to live in a single room of a populous and squalid tenement, and had to subsist upon a wage at once niggardly and precarious. He would be tormented with that memory of happier things, which we are told is a ‘sorrow’s crown of sorrow.’

But the man who has known no other condition of life is unconscious of its misery. He has no standard of comparison. An environment which would drive a man of refinement to thoughts of suicide, does not produce so much as dissatisfaction in him. Hence there is far more happiness among the poor than we imagine.
To drive home his point: Dawson was himself fairly successful and accustomed to easy means by the standard of his day. But Dawson, who died in 1928, spent most of his life without electricity or air conditioning. He never had antibiotics, Advil, or a Polio vaccine. He never experienced reasonably accurate weather forecasts, or an interstate highway.

An average American today sent back in time to experience Dawson’s life would suffer the same “tortures unspeakable” he wrote about. But he didn’t have modern times to compare his life to, so it felt luxurious to him.

Everything good in life is just the gap between expectations and reality, and when your main frame of reference are other rich people trying to impress each other, that gap can close quickly.

A Few Laws of Getting Rich · Collab Fund

Indeed, this is why I feel like I don't need much for a happy life.  When we were kids we didn't have central heating or double glazed windows.  I didn't feel hard done by at the time (and still don't), in fact I was just grateful that we had an indoor loo!  My parents didn't have that luxury initially, and my grandparents didn't have washing machines, dish washes, microwaves etc.

I was talking to my friend at work about what a luxury not working will be just the other day.  We both agreed that we would be very happy just to go for a walk around our towns park with some good company and an ice cream on a sunny day, or a hot chocolate on a crisp winters morn!