Comfortable Pension for a Single Person
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Many online calculators seem to be unhelpful in that way as well. As has been said before, everyone has their own number, and while SP will change over the years, I suspect it would be politically impossible to actually abolish it, and hence it will be at least a partial answer for many who have already lived their lives on a low to middling salary.
Totally agree ... if the govt abolished the state pension theylll have a much bigger problem in their hands...Single mum since 2007.0 -
Where please. New to this forum.0
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Where please. New to this forum.
There's been lots, but if you go to the top of any page and find the hotlink for 'forum search' you can find the lot.
For starters this one:-
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5384925&highlight=waspiThe questions that get the best answers are the questions that give most detail....0 -
Hi,
Hearing people managing on 15-16k a year means i'm hopefully on the right track with mine, I've been concerned that I will need to sacrifice some things when retired due to my incoming being lower than I hope'd i'd be able to get. I was aiming for 20k private pension year year & then state on top initially, then changed to a total private & state for 25k a year but looking at my online predictions, it predicts around 9.5-10.5k a year private pension & then 8.5k state so a total of around 18-19k leaving a shortfall of around 6k a year is what id hoped for.
Hearing people managing on 15-16k makes me think I hopefully wont be living too badly in retirement, fingers crossed
I don't have a lavish life style, but would like to have heating on as required, run a car & be able to replace it with a 1 year old used car every few years as needed, hopefully mortgage paid for i hope by then and then just generally maintain property as needed and maybe a few short breaks through the year somewhere and maybe some days out each month to places, just to keep self occupied Hopefully also having dinner out few times a week. Can't see me wanting to cook etc.
Kev0 -
Hi,
Hearing people managing on 15-16k a year means i'm hopefully on the right track with mine, I've been concerned that I will need to sacrifice some things when retired due to my incoming being lower than I hope'd i'd be able to get. I was aiming for 20k private pension year year & then state on top initially, then changed to a total private & state for 25k a year but looking at my online predictions, it predicts around 9.5-10.5k a year private pension & then 8.5k state so a total of around 18-19k leaving a shortfall of around 6k a year is what id hoped for.
Hearing people managing on 15-16k makes me think I hopefully wont be living too badly in retirement, fingers crossed
I don't have a lavish life style, but would like to have heating on as required, run a car & be able to replace it with a 1 year old used car every few years as needed, hopefully mortgage paid for i hope by then and then just generally maintain property as needed and maybe a few short breaks through the year somewhere and maybe some days out each month to places, just to keep self occupied Hopefully also having dinner out few times a week. Can't see me wanting to cook etc.
Kev
Sounds pretty good to me ... will you have mortgage paid off?
Before I came onto the pension threads I researched through the money saving threads and have seriously saved by reducing outgoings. The obvious savings such as switching service providers helps but the biggest saving I’ve made is on food. And in particular by taking packed lunches and snacks to work rather than succumbing to popping out and buying sandwiches and coffees etc. I hadn’t realised just how much I was spending on lunches etc!
Adjusting spending habits could help enormously in retirement. Also would you consider doing a bit of part time work? My pension forecast with SP will be around £16-£17000 plus I’ll also be taking a couple of small lump sums. I expect I’ll downsize so that should release some capital and reduce outgoings. There are many things we can do to save here and there and it all adds up :-)Single mum since 2007.0 -
I read a lot on these boards and am often surprised at how much people 'need' to live on in retirement.
Of course this depends on lifestyle choices, but for a single person who is a non-drinker, occasional holiday maybe once a year somewhere like Spain, small car, no mortgage and living a fairly simple lifestyle, I wonder what opinions are on here with regard to how much a year pension one would need?
I would be happy to have a pension of £9,600 which will be enough to cover all my bills and £12k to have a comfortable lifestyle. You may be interested to know that Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association is funding work with Centre for Research in Social Policy who develops the Minimum Income Standard to establish two retirement living standards above the minimum for retired singles and couples in the UK. The results are due to be out later in October.0 -
People say that full state pension isn't enough to live on but if you don't have a mortgage and have minimal ground rent and service charge then I think it's pretty comfortable. It's almost exactly what I have after tax, NI, pension, student loan and rent and I consider myself to be on a decent wage and pretty comfortable (I'd be very comfortable if I didn't live alone in London!)
People obviously have different ideas about what constitutes comfortable and have different lifestyles but if you've ever worked minimum wage jobs or been on jobseekers, especially when under 25, state pension seem generous.Mortgage at 30: £204,750 (08/2020)
Current mortgage: £154,369 (02/2024)
Goal: £145,000 by 02/2025
End goal: Mortgage free asap!0 -
I nearly replied, "That's good friday" but seeing as it's Easter Sunday, I wont.
It is a good point though, the full SP, is almost equal to what I take home each month and I pay a mortgage out of that. By the time I retire (2027) SP will be roughly the same as what I pick up (better rises in that than there is at my job) and the mortgage will be paid off.
I have only had a works pension for 11yrs, which is not brilliant but it's 11yrs worth more than nothing, that should give me about an extra £500 p/m if I can manage to stay at this job.Corduroy pillows are making headlines! Back home in London now after 27years wait! Duvet know it's Christmas, not original, it's a cover.0 -
Sounds pretty good to me ... will you have mortgage paid off?
Before I came onto the pension threads I researched through the money saving threads and have seriously saved by reducing outgoings. The obvious savings such as switching service providers helps but the biggest saving I’ve made is on food. And in particular by taking packed lunches and snacks to work rather than succumbing to popping out and buying sandwiches and coffees etc. I hadn’t realised just how much I was spending on lunches etc!
Adjusting spending habits could help enormously in retirement. Also would you consider doing a bit of part time work? My pension forecast with SP will be around £16-£17000 plus I’ll also be taking a couple of small lump sums. I expect I’ll downsize so that should release some capital and reduce outgoings. There are many things we can do to save here and there and it all adds up :-)
Hi JillC8,
Fingers crossed i'll have the mortgage paid off. As single, its taken me a while to get money together to be remotely in a position to buy a property so i bought a property in 2015 with a 30 year mortgage as I didn't fit into a 25 year mortgage as I originally wanted unfortunately so that 30 year mortgage takes me right up to my state retirement age
Needless to say, whilst ok it has enabled me to get the mortgage & property, i don't particularly want it for 30 years. I took the mortgage with a 5 year fixed rate as advised by a mortgage broker, which comes to a end next year. For the first 3 years i didn't overpay anything and just paid mortgage each month whilst building up as much of a emergency fund etc as i could. Last year i made a small over payment and this year and next year i'm hoping to overpay by as much as I can, mainly because I want to have a lower mortgage & hopefully will mean i can get another 5 year fixed mortgage paying no more than i'm paying now, even if interest rates do go up a bit, fingers crossed. Obviously no guarantees but we will see.
For the next 5 year fixed, i plan to overpay what i can each year to reduce it further and therefore be in a much better position owing much less.
With my current mortgage provider, who i suspect i'll stick with as when I've been looking around, they are all about the same, i can only overpay 10% but this should be a problem as i don't thin i can get to the 10% figure anyway. Obviously the more i overpay and reduce then at some point i will be able to get to the 10% figure but that's some way off.
In a perfect scenario, i'd like to pay it off in 1/2 the time or less than the 30 years but will have to see. Plan then would be to increase pension contributions a bit to hopefully mean a higher pension or maybe just put the money into a savings account of some type, undecided yet but first things first is clearing the mortgage or worst case reducing it so that the monthly payment is much lower.
Kev0 -
To understand what I need I have been recording every penny I spend since 1st January 2017. So I have over 2 years of actual data. I have about 20 groups I track this under so I know where every single penny goes.
I did this in preparation for me stopping work at the end of this month.0
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