Pensions Planning: The NUMBER

Im clearly not spending enough, I did a retirement calculator, i think it was on pensions advisory site, they estimated id need more in retirement than i spend now!

cfw1994 wrote: »

Is the BTL still working well? My broad understanding was that there were changes this year that negatively impacted them....but curious to know short detail from one involved!!

Sorry missed this earlier.
Yes, BTL is still working well for me overall.Mortgage tax relief is being reduced gradually, with another step this year, The way it works is not simple though and as a basic rate tax payer it has not affected me yet. It might next year with pensions pushing up my income.

SkyFae wrote: »

i'm really struggling to work out my pension needs Number.

does anyone know of a handy spending calculator or pension calculator so I can at least work out if I have enough as cash, even if I cant work out how much I would get a year/month/week any other way.

the recent ITV show about how people were trying to survive on pension money after bills didn't exactly help my state of mind.

apologies if this is the wrong place for my question

There are pension needs calculators but they give a rough rule of thumb- try Aviva or Hargreaves Lansdown sites.

Don't panic about it, simply sit down, write down what you have already- pot sizes and then an estimate of the income- the calculators can do this for you based on pot size, or you can self estimate- we use a 3% rate so 100k gives 3k pa pension, others use higher numbers such as 4 or 5%.

Then add in SP- we use 8.5k pa.

That way you arrive at a very rough estimate of income at SPA. Figure 1.

Next your income needs- all your fixed bills, utilities, council tax etc. Don't include Mortgage or work related costs or pension savings as you won't have these hopefully on retirement. Figure 2.

If one is greater than two you have enough to manage.

Next look at quality of life, or what you would like in retirement and what it costs, Figure 3. If Figure one is greater than three again you have it sorted. If not then it is a case of adjusting your expectations in retirement, or saving more, or working longer or a combination of the three.

We worked out-

1) Our must have income- basics paid, have a bit of a life.
2) Our would like income- as above plus monies for EU holidays, cars.
3) Our luxury would like income, as both above plus world wide or long haul holidays and helping the next generation with larger sums of money.

We are aiming for luxury level but will be content on the middle figure if that is what we end up with.

Everyones number is slightly different, ability to save changes and don't forget to live a life now. Anxiety about it all does nothing for the future and robs you of peace now. If getting anxious, use distraction to something else and return to it when you are calmer. The one good thing is that it is in the future so you have time to make adjustments now and planning is better than no planning.

When my friend from Northamptonshire came here and went to a garden centre with me she bought all plants her car could fit in as she says it is much cheaper.

westv wrote: »

Presumably you are surprised how much cheaper they are rather than being surprised they are cheaper. I think Cornwall is, in some ways, quite a deprived part of the UK.

It doesn't come across as deprived at all. Just different. The pace of life is so much slower and laid back than in Surrey, honestly, it felt like we had time-travelled back to the 1970s when we first moved. It's another world. There is no great urgency, or sense of acquisitiveness. Sorry, off topic somewhat.