FIRE Girls Pension Diary - Aim High & Dream Big

Sea_Shell

Just going back to projections for a moment...

I just dug out my original spreadsheet from Jan 2019.    On it we had "assumed" a starting pot of £490,000.   Growth of 3%.  Annual spend of £15,000 (starting figure) and 2% inflation.  

This showed that by end 2023, we "should" have had £485,316 remaining, and be spending £16,200.

As at December 2023, we actually had £618,506, with our average spends over 5 years of £14,900.  (ranging between £11-£19k)


Make of that what you will.   

Firegirl

Thanks for sharing @Sea_Shell

It’s hard to guess isn’t it? If we could predict the future we’d go for lottery numbers.

michaels

Sea_Shell said:

Just going back to projections for a moment...

I just dug out my original spreadsheet from Jan 2019.    On it we had "assumed" a starting pot of £490,000.   Growth of 3%.  Annual spend of £15,000 (starting figure) and 2% inflation.  

This showed that by end 2023, we "should" have had £485,316 remaining, and be spending £16,200.

As at December 2023, we actually had £618,506, with our average spends over 5 years of £14,900.  (ranging between £11-£19k)


Make of that what you will.   

Looking good, adjusting for the unexpected inflation you were expecting to have £551k in current £s and actually have £618k

Spending under nominal budget despite inflation is very impressive.  Has your spending gone closer to plan since the pandemic restrictions were removed?

michaels

Firegirl said:

Ok first attempt at my number.  All figures rounded up.

Bills account is accurate and personal spend is rounded up for what I’d want to do in retirement rather than what I do now.  Interestingly me paying for family holidays pretty much breaks even with OH paying most of the monthly bills.  Family holidays based on this year with 2 teenagers so left same as hubby and I might go on 2 holidays.:o

My total monthly rounded up £2500
—————————
Bills £1100 per month (Council tax/gas/electricity/ factor/ broad band/tv licence/mobile/food

50% £550

Personal spend

Eating out/coffee  £400

Hairdresser £50

Clothes £50

Family Holidays £1000 - 50% £500

Sister holiday £50

Girls holiday £50

Xmas and birthdays £150

Car insurance/Mot/tyres £100

Replace car £250

Home improvements and kitchen goods £50

Thanks.

People often split out council tax, energy+water, telecoms/t and food into separate categories as these can vary a lot between households.

Also I can't see petrol spend?

This is obviously considerably lower than what you have suggested might be available available as income based on your savings plans, seems like you could look to retire sooner with a smaller pot?

bluenose1

Firegirl said:

Ok first attempt at my number.  All figures rounded up.

Bills account is accurate and personal spend is rounded up for what I’d want to do in retirement rather than what I do now.  Interestingly me paying for family holidays pretty much breaks even with OH paying most of the monthly bills.  Family holidays based on this year with 2 teenagers so left same as hubby and I might go on 2 holidays.

My total monthly rounded up £2500
—————————
Bills £1100 per month (Council tax/gas/electricity/ factor/ broad band/tv licence/mobile/food

50% £550

Personal spend

Eating out/coffee  £400

Hairdresser £50

Clothes £50

Family Holidays £1000 - 50% £500

Sister holiday £50

Girls holiday £50

Xmas and birthdays £150

Car insurance/Mot/tyres £100

Replace car £250

Home improvements and kitchen goods £50

Your “number” is similar to mine, especially regarding holidays
However I am budgeting more  for home improvements as at some point during retirement will need most things in home replacing. I have only  been retired 3 weeks and just been told we need a new roof which is going to cost £8k.
i am budgeting for an average of £300 pm to cover costs of eventually replacing kitchen, bathrooms, flooring, white goods and some of the furniture. Actually think I may have to increase that figure!!!!

enthusiasticsaver

Firegirl said:

Ok first attempt at my number.  All figures rounded up.

Bills account is accurate and personal spend is rounded up for what I’d want to do in retirement rather than what I do now.  Interestingly me paying for family holidays pretty much breaks even with OH paying most of the monthly bills.  Family holidays based on this year with 2 teenagers so left same as hubby and I might go on 2 holidays.:o

My total monthly rounded up £2500
—————————
Bills £1100 per month (Council tax/gas/electricity/ factor/ broad band/tv licence/mobile/food

50% £550

Personal spend

Eating out/coffee  £400

Hairdresser £50

Clothes £50

Family Holidays £1000 - 50% £500

Sister holiday £50

Girls holiday £50

Xmas and birthdays £150

Car insurance/Mot/tyres £100

Replace car £250

Home improvements and kitchen goods £50

We have £5k income from various different sources split 50/50 so pretty much bang on what you think you will need and I would say we live very comfortably on that.  Possibly by the time you retire it will just be your DH and you going on holiday although our DDs are in our 30s and still come with us (along with grandchildren and son in law)  usually at least once a year just for a short break and to be fair they pay for themselves now unless we offer to pay. 

Our outgoings are 

£750 bills
£400 food
£300 eating out
£200 fuel and parking for 2 cars
£600 personal spends split 50/50 between DH and I for hobbies, clothes, hairdressers and other personal spends including our own breaks away with friends 
£1000 goes into savings for car replacements, household goods and improvements 
£1000 goes away for holidays and short breaks
£200 for car maintenance, service etc for 2 relatively new cars. 
£300 for gifts, christmas etc and charity subs
£250 household costs  like oven cleaning, tree lopping, carpet cleaning, window cleaner and other general maintenance. 

We have a joint account with all income going in there and 4 savings pots (gifts, holidays, car and house) and a few regular savers and internet saver for the £1000 general savings. We also have a personal account each and £300 goes into each of those. That will increase when DH gets his state pension later on this year. We are also going to increase the holidays account contribution  and do a few long haul before DH gets to 70 in 4 years time and insurance starts to increase. 

enthusiasticsaver

Sea_Shell said:

Just going back to projections for a moment...

I just dug out my original spreadsheet from Jan 2019.    On it we had "assumed" a starting pot of £490,000.   Growth of 3%.  Annual spend of £15,000 (starting figure) and 2% inflation.  

This showed that by end 2023, we "should" have had £485,316 remaining, and be spending £16,200.

As at December 2023, we actually had £618,506, with our average spends over 5 years of £14,900.  (ranging between £11-£19k)

Good spending forecast then.  The investments have done pretty well too.  Ours are less than yours  but we are still in positive territory too but we  draw £15k a year to supplement DB pensions. You retired much earlier than me though so I think we would be a lot more frugal than we are if we thought we had a longer period of early retirement to cover and if our DB pensions didn't cover 75% of our income. 

Firegirl

michaels said:

Firegirl said:

Ok first attempt at my number.  All figures rounded up.

Bills account is accurate and personal spend is rounded up for what I’d want to do in retirement rather than what I do now.  Interestingly me paying for family holidays pretty much breaks even with OH paying most of the monthly bills.  Family holidays based on this year with 2 teenagers so left same as hubby and I might go on 2 holidays.:o

My total monthly rounded up £2500
—————————
Bills £1100 per month (Council tax/gas/electricity/ factor/ broad band/tv licence/mobile/food

50% £550

Personal spend

Eating out/coffee  £400

Hairdresser £50

Clothes £50

Family Holidays £1000 - 50% £500

Sister holiday £50

Girls holiday £50

Xmas and birthdays £150

Car insurance/Mot/tyres £100

Replace car £250

Home improvements and kitchen goods £50

Thanks.

People often split out council tax, energy+water, telecoms/t and food into separate categories as these can vary a lot between households.

Also I can't see petrol spend?

This is obviously considerably lower than what you have suggested might be available available as income based on your savings plans, seems like you could look to retire sooner with a smaller pot?

I’ve no petrol spend because I have an electric car.  I have the splits on a spreadsheet but just lumped together for the post.

yes maybe could retire earlier, but that would mean I’d need to work out draw down plan  Might be nice to work out an interm target number rather than my Aim high dream big number, so I have 2 targets!

Sea_Shell

enthusiasticsaver said:

Sea_Shell said:

Just going back to projections for a moment...

I just dug out my original spreadsheet from Jan 2019.    On it we had "assumed" a starting pot of £490,000.   Growth of 3%.  Annual spend of £15,000 (starting figure) and 2% inflation.  

This showed that by end 2023, we "should" have had £485,316 remaining, and be spending £16,200.

As at December 2023, we actually had £618,506, with our average spends over 5 years of £14,900.  (ranging between £11-£19k)

Good spending forecast then.  The investments have done pretty well too.  Ours are less than yours  but we are still in positive territory too but we  draw £15k a year to supplement DB pensions. You retired much earlier than me though so I think we would be a lot more frugal than we are if we thought we had a longer period of early retirement to cover and if our DB pensions didn't cover 75% of our income. 

We were 47 and 52 back then. 

Our money has to last 5 years less now. 😉

Firegirl

@bluenose1 said : 

Your “number” is similar to mine, especially regarding holidays
However I am budgeting more  for home improvements as at some point during retirement will need most things in home replacing. I have only  been retired 3 weeks and just been told we need a new roof which is going to cost £8k.
i am budgeting for an average of £300 pm to cover costs of eventually replacing kitchen, bathrooms, flooring, white goods and some of the furniture. Actually think I may have to increase that figure!!!!

£8k roof bill
I should budget more for that section I think really!  Happy retirement though