How to Plan for retirement ?

enthusiasticsaver

It looks like you have already had some great advice but our plan was. 

Reduce outgoings by clearing mortgage asap and do a detailed budget as you have done. 

Map out income streams and when they all came in using pension forecasts, State Pension forecast through HM  gateway and investment calculators. 
We had been overpaying my husbands pension since he was 28 but in my 40s I started AVCs (LGPS) and tidied up old pensions from previous jobs by buying years in the LGPS. I also started a SIPP and stocks and shares ISA as did my husband. 

We had a rough plan of retiring 6 years early at 60 but each year we would check the income streams to work out when we would get to a level we could comfortably live off. When we were saving 50% of our salary income that worked out to be the time of us taking early retirement at age 58. As we have not really had to dip much into investments over the 6 or 7 years we have been retired we probably could have afforded to go earlier but that was the right time for us. 

Getting bored hasn't been an issue for us.  Both of us have hobbies and I have taken up a new one and do volunteering and for the first 4 years we were doing 1 day a week childcare for grandchildren.  We travel more than when we were working so if you enjoy that I would say that is the biggest expense for us.  Eating out and entertainment costs have also increased since retirement but we buy less clothes, spend less on food as we have time to meal plan and have less waste and commuting costs have gone.  We also no longer save beyond money put aside for holidays, house projects, cars and Christmas and even then we sometimes dip into existing savings/investments rather than save from pension income. 

Thinking about it at 47 is a great idea.