Retirement Living Standards

QrizB

if you look at the personas used for the data they tilt lower than that - one or two 75th percentile income people but most are median earners or lower.

Which suggests that there are a lot of people looking forward to a far better retirement than they'll actually be able to afford?

NoMore

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82021974#Comment_82021974

Yes because they don't ask them about affordability or budget or anything when surveying for the living standards, they just ask them what they would like to do. It's all aspirational and not based on actual reality. As I understand it, they may not even be asked about all of the different categories, meaning they can't even try have a mental budget and realise that asking to have three holidays a year and a new car every three years and a new kitchen every five years is maybe not sustainable.

ali_bear

Thought it was all about videos, crisps and lager? Or am I a bit out of date 🦖

QrizB

Thought it was all about videos, crisps and lager?

Beer and sex and chips and gravy?

I'll get my coat, it's the one with the Macc Lads Greatest Hits in the pocket.

FIREDreamer

Got this from a Facebook group …

Albermarle

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82022033#Comment_82022033

This is available on the main website

RLS_How_much_do_I_need.pdf

GenX0212

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82022033#Comment_82022033

That says it's from Pensions UK which is the same group that put out the latest retirement living standards. Someone copying the output from a few years ago?

julicorn

I just read through the food shopping list for the 'moderate' couple and it all seemed quite a lot to me, so I pasted it into ChatGPT to estimate the total calories. It averages out at 2,750 calories per person per day, not including the restaurant meal, take-out and alcohol that's listed separately. Those would push the daily calories quite a bit above 3,000. Begs the question if two retirees really need to eat and drink that much, or if they assume a good chunk of it just lands in the bin. 🧐

SarahB16

I have been on this wonderful forum for exactly four years and one of the first pieces of useful information I read on here was for anybody approaching retirement to keep a record of what they spend to help with forecasting expenditure in retirement. Obviously in retirement expenditure can change, e.g. no commuting costs but perhaps needing to employ a gardener and cleaner in later years, etc but it still provides a very good baseline.

I am c.8 years away from retirement and keep a record of what I spend. This was created solely to help me to estimate how much I would need to live on net per month in retirement.

I think that remains a very sensible approach.

mrklaw

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82022170#Comment_82022170

agree. It allows me to look on this with curiosity and confusion as we have a solid number to plan for which matches none of these

it does worry me though - they skew high so could be very off putting for those using them as a rule of thumb. The moderate couples figure you might think you need 1.25m to support