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Is the State Pension enough to live on if you are single !!
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eskbanker said:Mustbeananswer?? said:Homeowner Pollycat....no Mortgage.Tell you what if I sell it and rent somewhere would I get rent paid by Housing Benefit...and then live off the Capital ??
However, it's intended to cover rent costs for low earners, so if you have no rent or mortgage costs then this is all academic anyway, i.e. the costs of your housing are considered to be taken care of. That's not to say that you're ineligible for other benefits though, but if the above calculator didn't identify any then that's likely to be the end of it....0 -
Pollycat said:pseudodox said:
I do more than survive on SP. With careful budgeting & no requirement for friperaries that eat money I am quite content. If I had £30,000 per annum I would be more than fairly comfortable & would not know what to spend it on! I have all the things money cannot buy - good health, good friends, a view to die for from my edge of the countryside house.4 -
pseudodox said:
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@pseudodox said:Pollycat said:pseudodox said:
I do more than survive on SP. With careful budgeting & no requirement for friperaries that eat money I am quite content. If I had £30,000 per annum I would be more than fairly comfortable & would not know what to spend it on! I have all the things money cannot buy - good health, good friends, a view to die for from my edge of the countryside house.1 -
dealyboy said:@pseudodox said:Pollycat said:pseudodox said:
I do more than survive on SP. With careful budgeting & no requirement for friperaries that eat money I am quite content. If I had £30,000 per annum I would be more than fairly comfortable & would not know what to spend it on! I have all the things money cannot buy - good health, good friends, a view to die for from my edge of the countryside house.
This week if I do spend £20 in one shop I will get an extra 200 points, which will buy a £2 voucher, worth £4 reward against my next Railcard. The best things in life are often free! Or maybe I am paying for a Railcard but getting free food!2 -
GibbsRule_No3. said:My SP just about covers my HA rent, as I live in a London Borough, it does not cover my Council Tax, so I'd say no. I do have other pensions and am still working, nearly 70, my choice, for two days a week. Went to a Pension talk last week and they reckon to survive you need £14,000, fairly comfortable was £30,000 and very comfortable was over £40,000 this was based on one person, they did say you did not need to double those numbers for two people. At present with working pay I am just a bit over fairly comfortable and when I stop I won't be as low as surviving, thanks to the other pensions already in payment.
I'm not suggesting you move to Scotland, but would outside London be cheaper?Think first of your goal, then make it happen!0 -
pseudodox said:barnstar2077 said:pseudodox said:I enjoy a comfortable, busy & interesting life with just the SP as income. Single household, nice house with large garden, small old car. I do have a savings pot for emergencies, but any drawing from that cannot be replaced so I spend carefully. I don't need latest gadgets & have done the travelling I wanted before retiring. Never had a well paid job so was used to budgeting & never been so well off as I feel now. Every 4 weeks a chunk of money hits my bank & there always seems to be some of the previous chunk still unused. I do an annual review of income & expenditure from that income & it seems I am always in surplus. So I enjoy the Mr Micawber state of happiness. Savings pot went down last year as I had a new roof, but I already am saving on the previous regular repair outlay & with the rise in interest rates some of the capital outlay is being recouped. If the Micawber misery looms I will downsize the house.
Do you feel the last few years of increased inflation has affected you at all?
I have never had a penny of credit card debt. I was brought up with the discipline to not buy stuff I cannot afford.
I guess having cheap hobbies and frugal habits has meant that your personal inflation is very low. I am the same. I have said before that I will be happy to just be in the park with an ice cream while everyone else is stuck in traffic! I can't wait to be free, with only the weather deciding what I will do each day!Think first of your goal, then make it happen!3 -
Why bother with a TV Licence? It's a waste of money as it's quite possible to watch plenty of TV without needing one.Signature on holiday for two weeks1
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BlackKnightMonty said:Mustbeananswer?? said:GibbsRule_No3. said:My SP just about covers my HA rent, as I live in a London Borough, it does not cover my Council Tax, so I'd say no. I do have other pensions and am still working, nearly 70, my choice, for two days a week. Went to a Pension talk last week and they reckon to survive you need £14,000, fairly comfortable was £30,000 and very comfortable was over £40,000 this was based on one person, they did say you did not need to double those numbers for two people. At present with working pay I am just a bit over fairly comfortable and when I stop I won't be as low as surviving, thanks to the other pensions already in payment.And a quarter of all pensioners are millionaires.
Maybe we should means test it and then only those with no other pension provision, or those whom have not been able to make any other retirement provision could obtain a higher SP; perhaps quadruple locked to the NMW/NLW?
Does that sound fair?
For people of age 65+:........
I) The statistics here are in wealth per person, not wealth per household.
2) The wealth includes net value of house. Obviously people who have been paying off mortgages for perhaps and 30 years are going to have much higher net worth of houses than those who have only being doing this for 10 years.
3) The wealth also includes the value of non-state pensions in payment. Clearly a pension that is going to last you say 25 years is going to amount to a large sum of money.
4) Also included is the value of assets such as cars, furniture, ornaments, jewelry etc etc. But one accumulates stuff over the years so the older you are the greater value of stuff.
5) The average liquid wealth eg savings and non pension investments amounts to about £39,200. So hardly rolling in money. Again this is after a lifetime of work.
Now looking at the median annual gross income for people aged 65+ given in: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/distribution-of-median-and-mean-income-and-tax-by-age-range-and-gender-2010-to-2011. This gives a figure of about £22K, similar to the minimim wage. This is less than during any 5 year period in the age range 26-64.
Again your story about OAPs living in luxury at the expense of younger people is simply not demonstrated by the statistics.
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barnstar2077 said:GibbsRule_No3. said:My SP just about covers my HA rent, as I live in a London Borough, it does not cover my Council Tax, so I'd say no. I do have other pensions and am still working, nearly 70, my choice, for two days a week. Went to a Pension talk last week and they reckon to survive you need £14,000, fairly comfortable was £30,000 and very comfortable was over £40,000 this was based on one person, they did say you did not need to double those numbers for two people. At present with working pay I am just a bit over fairly comfortable and when I stop I won't be as low as surviving, thanks to the other pensions already in payment.
I'm not suggesting you move to Scotland, but would outside London be cheaper?Paddle No 21:wave:2
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