How long will my DC pot last ?

SouthCoastBoy

Everyone has different lifestyle choices, however we have been comfortably living off £2650 net per mth, that includes all expenses, and this year we have an 8k surplus so really only spending 2k net. We have to take holidays during school holiday time as my wife is a teaching assistant. We run two cars (both over 11 years old), one adult child still at home, she pays no rent. Wrt to uni costs, ours cost approx 25k each that was from years 2018 to 2023. There was an overlap year. One did a 4 year course but was working in that additional year, so not quite so much funding that year.

It's interesting how people's needs vary so much.

Linton

RNV said:

I do not believe a family of 4 can afford such "luxuries" (cruises are my idea of hell:)) on a gross say mine £45k (which I do not have yet)  + husband's say £55k, if fully retired early.

If "my portion" is significantly less, that will have to come from the pots that are earmarked for help to children.

Yes it is possible to live on much less than 100k/household, many do and I appreciate we are "privileged", however no way we are rich and don't count money.  Our council tax alone is 407/month (an average 4 bed in SE). Children are in state schools but various extra clubs/interests. No takeaways, cooking from scratch but don't have to count whether can afford fresh fruit/veg or not.  Holidays are not in zillion stars hotels but with experiences (e.g. drove & hiked in Austrian alps for 12 days this summer;  booked 1 week skiing in winter). 

The first step in planning retirement should be to deterine how much you will need to spend.  A very good guide to that is how much you are spending now minus the items that wont apply in retirement. Much less than that and you may feel you have to scrimp and save, much more you may not be able to use sensibly.

The kids may be expensive now, but for most of your retirement they should be self-supporting and certainly not wanting to go on holiday with you.

Ignoring major one-off foreign holidays and serious work on the house, we live comfotably on around £45K/year.  This includes £6K/year running a narrowboat.  We could withdraw more for ongoing expenses but there is nothing we want.

RNV

Thank you all.

@Albermarle - I've seen that and read lengthy discussions on the forum. The same conclusion I keep on making is our young children change our "need" level quite significantly. Were we a retired couple only, we would not needed that much, neither monthly, nor in LS savings. 

@SouthCoastBoy - no way we can live where we are on 2k net. We will not have mortgage in 2 years time but the monthly bills are still significant (nothing extravagant, DH is passionate about climate change  so closely watching energy/water consumption etc). 


EDITED to add comments to Linton's response as  I didn't see it originally

@Linton - yes, I have done (and keep on re-assessing) exactly that - whatever we spend now minus what we will not need later.  But I also have to add university years funding support etc, so the net need is not decreasing dramatically for the next 10 years. 

Albermarle

The kids may be expensive now, but for most of your retirement they should be self-supporting and certainly not wanting to go on holiday with you.

Maybe- the lure of a free holiday can be quite tempting even for adult children,  and a good way for the parents to spend a bit of time with them ( at a cost !) 

SouthCoastBoy

RNV said:

Thank you all.

@Albermarle - I've seen that and read lengthy discussions on the forum. The same conclusion I keep on making is our young children change our "need" level quite significantly. Were we a retired couple only, we would not needed that much, neither monthly, nor in LS savings. 

@SouthCoastBoy - no way we can live where we are on 2k net. We will not have mortgage in 2 years time but the monthly bills are still significant (nothing extravagant, DH is passionate about climate change  so closely watching energy/water consumption etc). 


EDITED to add comments to Linton's response as  I didn't see it originally

@Linton - yes, I have done (and keep on re-assessing) exactly that - whatever we spend now minus what we will not need later.  But I also have to add university years funding support etc, so the net need is not decreasing dramatically for the next 10 years. 

I think that depends as we have helped out with house deposits, and also when we go on a family holiday, we also now pay for partners, not done one this year, but did last year. Also planning an oz trip with partners once I retire imagine that will be about 20k.

Sorry linked to wrong post should be against bold post above