FIRE Girls Pension Diary - Aim High & Dream Big

enthusiasticsaver

Pat38493 said:

jimi_man said:

swindiff said:

My current spending and spending in retirement are planned to be pretty similar, just spent in different areas once retired.

Current Spend
Mortgage		£603.00
Nationwide Account Fee		£13.00
Gas & Electric		£250.00
Car Tax		£15.75
Broadband		£64.05
Council Tax		£168.00
Gym Membership		£43.98
Water Rates		£19.00
TV License		£13.25
Mobile Phone Tariff's		£16.00
Cleaning		£70.00
Sky TV		£48.74
Spotify		£10.99
Phone Loan		£17.98
Home Insurance		£20.00
Car insurance (x2)		£32.00
Fuel		£100.00
SIPP		£240.00
Groceries		£600.00
Car Maintenance		£100.00
Fun Money / Incidentals		£1,000.00
Holidays		£300.00
Nat West CC		£94.05
Santander CC		£55.44
Tesco Bank CC		£88.39
Virgin CC		£47.30
Monthly Total		£4,030.92
Annual Total		£48,371.03

The credit cards skew this number a bit, they are all 0% balance transfer cards and the money is sat in an account earning 5%

My Number (retired)
Car Lease		£500.00
Council tax		£168.00
Gas & Electric		£250.00
Sky TV		£48.74
Water Rates		£19.00
Fuel		£60.00
Mobile Phones		£60.00
Home Insurance		£20.00
Car Insurance		£20.00
Car Maintenance		£100.00
TV License		£13.25
Groceries		£600.00
Holidays		£600.00
Property Maintenance		£500.00
Fun Money / Incidentals		£1,000.00
Gym membership		£43.98
Nationwide Account Fee		£13.00
Car Tax		£15.75
Broadband		£64.05
Cleaning		£70.00
Spotify		£10.99
Monthly Total		£4,176.76
Annual Total		£50,121.12

We currently have 2 cars.  Mine is a 10 year old Hyundai.  The plan is to sell that and lease something nice once retired.  We will keep the wife's car as a little runabout giving us access to 2 cars when needed. House is pretty modern, so not really spending anything currently on property maintenance, but budgeting for that in the future.

Interesting figures, though I suspect that these figures in retirement, requiring over £50k net, (with getting on for nearly £2k a month in entertainment budget) are just hugely way off what the average MSE user will experience. Nice to see both ends of the spectrum though, with Sea_Shell and GamblerUK at one end and this sort of spending at the other. As long as people don’t look at these figures and think that this is what you need for retirement and get depressed! 

One of the weird things about retirement planning is that it can expose the different priorities of a couple.  We are also high income high spending - my current long term retirement projection for us as a couple if £67K per year (higher in first 2 years due to mortgage not cleared yet and one off expenses).  We have a combination of DB and DC.  Wife already retired early on full NHS MHO pension.

Our current annual spend on holiday is about £14K, and it was even a lot higher than that when we had to take the kids on holiday at peak times.  In the post retirement planning, holidays is by far the largest line item, being more than the double of anything else.

I suspect our attitudes are
Me - If we make my half of that 14K optional luxury spending or substantially reduce it, I can retire tomorrow as it will cut 14K off the required spend.  When I'm retired every day will be a holiday so I don't need to take a lot of expensive holidays anymore.
Wife - The holiday budget is a red line item we should retain at all costs even if it means eating bread and water.
(OK I might be exaggerating a bit to make the point).

Hence, although I would not put it this way to her, you could argue that I am only still working today to pay for my wife's holidays! 

She now wants to buy a caravan but that's another story!

Goodness that is a tricky one especially as it is you who is still working. My husband and I tend to be on the same page re holidays luckily and our income is £60k net split 50/50 although from different sources. DH has a bigger DB pension and I have higher savings/investments. Is she open to holidaying on her own or with friends  if you are not bothered? Or if she went anyway would you then feel like you were missing out? 

MallyGirl

Firegirl said:

I just had a look at 1 weeks spending on my personal account!  Well it’s an eye opener!

Groceries - £80
Kids hair cut and food after - £40
Kids Lunch - £45
Kids Pocket Money - £20
Coffee & Food Me - £26
Save the Change - £4

Synopsis - Kids are expensive 

Wait till they hit driving lessons and university

Firegirl

@Pat38493 that is a difficult one and only you know how it works for you and if you’re happy to continue working and enjoying holidays.  If you do want to retire then you could maybe work out other ways to save for holidays or change the type of holidays.

eastcorkram

MallyGirl said:

Firegirl said:

I just had a look at 1 weeks spending on my personal account!  Well it’s an eye opener!

Groceries - £80
Kids hair cut and food after - £40
Kids Lunch - £45
Kids Pocket Money - £20
Coffee & Food Me - £26
Save the Change - £4

Synopsis - Kids are expensive 

Wait till they hit driving lessons and university

..,and car insurance 

Firegirl

Kids!!!! 

Driving lessons and car insurance. So we’ll help them with driving lessons. We’ve already told them they have to save for their own car and insurance but we’ll see.  Both of them want to do trades, Electricain and construction so let’s see how all that works out and maybe eventually they will save me a few quid

Pat38493

enthusiasticsaver said:

Pat38493 said:

jimi_man said:

swindiff said:

My current spending and spending in retirement are planned to be pretty similar, just spent in different areas once retired.

Current Spend
Mortgage		£603.00
Nationwide Account Fee		£13.00
Gas & Electric		£250.00
Car Tax		£15.75
Broadband		£64.05
Council Tax		£168.00
Gym Membership		£43.98
Water Rates		£19.00
TV License		£13.25
Mobile Phone Tariff's		£16.00
Cleaning		£70.00
Sky TV		£48.74
Spotify		£10.99
Phone Loan		£17.98
Home Insurance		£20.00
Car insurance (x2)		£32.00
Fuel		£100.00
SIPP		£240.00
Groceries		£600.00
Car Maintenance		£100.00
Fun Money / Incidentals		£1,000.00
Holidays		£300.00
Nat West CC		£94.05
Santander CC		£55.44
Tesco Bank CC		£88.39
Virgin CC		£47.30
Monthly Total		£4,030.92
Annual Total		£48,371.03

The credit cards skew this number a bit, they are all 0% balance transfer cards and the money is sat in an account earning 5%

My Number (retired)
Car Lease		£500.00
Council tax		£168.00
Gas & Electric		£250.00
Sky TV		£48.74
Water Rates		£19.00
Fuel		£60.00
Mobile Phones		£60.00
Home Insurance		£20.00
Car Insurance		£20.00
Car Maintenance		£100.00
TV License		£13.25
Groceries		£600.00
Holidays		£600.00
Property Maintenance		£500.00
Fun Money / Incidentals		£1,000.00
Gym membership		£43.98
Nationwide Account Fee		£13.00
Car Tax		£15.75
Broadband		£64.05
Cleaning		£70.00
Spotify		£10.99
Monthly Total		£4,176.76
Annual Total		£50,121.12

We currently have 2 cars.  Mine is a 10 year old Hyundai.  The plan is to sell that and lease something nice once retired.  We will keep the wife's car as a little runabout giving us access to 2 cars when needed. House is pretty modern, so not really spending anything currently on property maintenance, but budgeting for that in the future.

Interesting figures, though I suspect that these figures in retirement, requiring over £50k net, (with getting on for nearly £2k a month in entertainment budget) are just hugely way off what the average MSE user will experience. Nice to see both ends of the spectrum though, with Sea_Shell and GamblerUK at one end and this sort of spending at the other. As long as people don’t look at these figures and think that this is what you need for retirement and get depressed! 

One of the weird things about retirement planning is that it can expose the different priorities of a couple.  We are also high income high spending - my current long term retirement projection for us as a couple if £67K per year (higher in first 2 years due to mortgage not cleared yet and one off expenses).  We have a combination of DB and DC.  Wife already retired early on full NHS MHO pension.

Our current annual spend on holiday is about £14K, and it was even a lot higher than that when we had to take the kids on holiday at peak times.  In the post retirement planning, holidays is by far the largest line item, being more than the double of anything else.

I suspect our attitudes are
Me - If we make my half of that 14K optional luxury spending or substantially reduce it, I can retire tomorrow as it will cut 14K off the required spend.  When I'm retired every day will be a holiday so I don't need to take a lot of expensive holidays anymore.
Wife - The holiday budget is a red line item we should retain at all costs even if it means eating bread and water.
(OK I might be exaggerating a bit to make the point).

Hence, although I would not put it this way to her, you could argue that I am only still working today to pay for my wife's holidays! 

She now wants to buy a caravan but that's another story!

Goodness that is a tricky one especially as it is you who is still working. My husband and I tend to be on the same page re holidays luckily and our income is £60k net split 50/50 although from different sources. DH has a bigger DB pension and I have higher savings/investments. Is she open to holidaying on her own or with friends  if you are not bothered? Or if she went anyway would you then feel like you were missing out? 

As said I am exagerating a little bit and I'm sure we will find a compromise one way or another - I guess I would veer more towards the side of stop work early, keep flexibility to reduce holiday costs if I get a bad sequence of return outcome.  It's an ongoing discussion - no big deal but it was a bit of an eye opener to suddenly realise that if we stopped taking holidays, I could just walk out of work tomorrow! (not that I would just walk out but knowing that I could if comforting).

Oddly enough, she has now started to get into the idea of downsizing the house as we are in a large house and the kids have moved out - even to the point that we are going to view a house tomorrow and get our house valued next week.  This would potentially liberate a bunch of money that would be nominally earmarked for the kids (house deposit whatever), but we would keep it back for a few years in case or worst financial crash ever or other unexpected obligations.

Firegirl

Ah yes down sizing would free up things for some flexibility for you. That’s likely what we’ll do. Hate paying such high council tax!!!!

enthusiasticsaver

Firegirl said:

I just had a look at 1 weeks spending on my personal account!  Well it’s an eye opener!

Groceries - £80
Kids hair cut and food after - £40
Kids Lunch - £45
Kids Pocket Money - £20
Coffee & Food Me - £26
Save the Change - £4

Synopsis - Kids are expensive 

Can I ask why the kids spends come out of your personal account and not a joint account with your husband or are they not his children? 

I only ask because I have been ruminating over the difference between personal and joint spends today as I have been selected by Starling to give an interview on their website next week (anonymous) about what should be covered by joint accounts (if in a relationship ) and what counts as personal spends and also what is a grey area,  in other words could be either. 

barnstar2077

Pat38493 said:

enthusiasticsaver said:

Pat38493 said:

jimi_man said:

swindiff said:

My current spending and spending in retirement are planned to be pretty similar, just spent in different areas once retired.

Current Spend
Mortgage		£603.00
Nationwide Account Fee		£13.00
Gas & Electric		£250.00
Car Tax		£15.75
Broadband		£64.05
Council Tax		£168.00
Gym Membership		£43.98
Water Rates		£19.00
TV License		£13.25
Mobile Phone Tariff's		£16.00
Cleaning		£70.00
Sky TV		£48.74
Spotify		£10.99
Phone Loan		£17.98
Home Insurance		£20.00
Car insurance (x2)		£32.00
Fuel		£100.00
SIPP		£240.00
Groceries		£600.00
Car Maintenance		£100.00
Fun Money / Incidentals		£1,000.00
Holidays		£300.00
Nat West CC		£94.05
Santander CC		£55.44
Tesco Bank CC		£88.39
Virgin CC		£47.30
Monthly Total		£4,030.92
Annual Total		£48,371.03

The credit cards skew this number a bit, they are all 0% balance transfer cards and the money is sat in an account earning 5%

My Number (retired)
Car Lease		£500.00
Council tax		£168.00
Gas & Electric		£250.00
Sky TV		£48.74
Water Rates		£19.00
Fuel		£60.00
Mobile Phones		£60.00
Home Insurance		£20.00
Car Insurance		£20.00
Car Maintenance		£100.00
TV License		£13.25
Groceries		£600.00
Holidays		£600.00
Property Maintenance		£500.00
Fun Money / Incidentals		£1,000.00
Gym membership		£43.98
Nationwide Account Fee		£13.00
Car Tax		£15.75
Broadband		£64.05
Cleaning		£70.00
Spotify		£10.99
Monthly Total		£4,176.76
Annual Total		£50,121.12

We currently have 2 cars.  Mine is a 10 year old Hyundai.  The plan is to sell that and lease something nice once retired.  We will keep the wife's car as a little runabout giving us access to 2 cars when needed. House is pretty modern, so not really spending anything currently on property maintenance, but budgeting for that in the future.

Interesting figures, though I suspect that these figures in retirement, requiring over £50k net, (with getting on for nearly £2k a month in entertainment budget) are just hugely way off what the average MSE user will experience. Nice to see both ends of the spectrum though, with Sea_Shell and GamblerUK at one end and this sort of spending at the other. As long as people don’t look at these figures and think that this is what you need for retirement and get depressed! 

One of the weird things about retirement planning is that it can expose the different priorities of a couple.  We are also high income high spending - my current long term retirement projection for us as a couple if £67K per year (higher in first 2 years due to mortgage not cleared yet and one off expenses).  We have a combination of DB and DC.  Wife already retired early on full NHS MHO pension.

Our current annual spend on holiday is about £14K, and it was even a lot higher than that when we had to take the kids on holiday at peak times.  In the post retirement planning, holidays is by far the largest line item, being more than the double of anything else.

I suspect our attitudes are
Me - If we make my half of that 14K optional luxury spending or substantially reduce it, I can retire tomorrow as it will cut 14K off the required spend.  When I'm retired every day will be a holiday so I don't need to take a lot of expensive holidays anymore.
Wife - The holiday budget is a red line item we should retain at all costs even if it means eating bread and water.
(OK I might be exaggerating a bit to make the point).

Hence, although I would not put it this way to her, you could argue that I am only still working today to pay for my wife's holidays! 

She now wants to buy a caravan but that's another story!

Goodness that is a tricky one especially as it is you who is still working. My husband and I tend to be on the same page re holidays luckily and our income is £60k net split 50/50 although from different sources. DH has a bigger DB pension and I have higher savings/investments. Is she open to holidaying on her own or with friends  if you are not bothered? Or if she went anyway would you then feel like you were missing out? 

As said I am exagerating a little bit and I'm sure we will find a compromise one way or another - I guess I would veer more towards the side of stop work early, keep flexibility to reduce holiday costs if I get a bad sequence of return outcome.  It's an ongoing discussion - no big deal but it was a bit of an eye opener to suddenly realise that if we stopped taking holidays, I could just walk out of work tomorrow! (not that I would just walk out but knowing that I could if comforting).

Oddly enough, she has now started to get into the idea of downsizing the house as we are in a large house and the kids have moved out - even to the point that we are going to view a house tomorrow and get our house valued next week.  This would potentially liberate a bunch of money that would be nominally earmarked for the kids (house deposit whatever), but we would keep it back for a few years in case or worst financial crash ever or other unexpected obligations.

I have a feeling that your partner probably already has plans for the money that would be freed up from down sizing!  : )

I would definitely have a chat about it before you put your house on the market, in case you are not on the same page. 

Firegirl

@enthusiasticsaver

The kids are his.  My husband has a perm job and I am contracting.  Joint account is more of a bills account for us and we don’t use our cards or general spending on it.  So things that go out of our joint account are mortgage, energy, council tax, regular savings for the kids, things like that.  We don’t use it for groceries.  My husband puts the majority of the money in here for the bills and I monitor if needs a top up I do that.  He does most of the grocery shopping too as he does the cooking.  You could argue this isn’t very joint at all

Until starting this thread I felt a bit guilty about that but now I realise we probably break even. I pay for all holidays and trips.  I’m set up on an app to pay for kids lunches and they always ask me for haircut money because they won’t get the 3rd degree on the last time they got their hair cut and told it looks fine, it’ll do another week  . Kids always ask me aswell cause hubby is always on work calls.

Hubby isn’t a big spender but doesn’t like talking about or organising money so although I haven’t paid into joint account regularly I’ve overpaid mortgage and built up the pension 1 & 3 pot since I started contracting that will benefit both of us.

All in all works well for us and we’re a good team