Pension stuff, how's it all looking ? HAve you prepared ?

[Dodgy69]

I think said bellends only enforce companys contribute 3% and you 5% minimum. When I worked for my old employer, if I paid 8%, they paid 12% max. I decided to match there's and pay 12% aswel.

Some paid in less, say 6%, then company would only pay 8%. So you made the choices on the size of your pot. Pay more to finish early perhaps.

[Kneerly Down]

I didn't have anything in a pension until turning 50.
Currently working for a public sector body and, as of last year, there's a formal underwriting of the scheme by (Scot) government.
Career average rather than final salary but seeing as I've started it at age 50 there may not be all that much difference between the two.
SWMBO is drawing hers already, at around £1.2k a month. Ideally I think we could do with c.£3.5k (current prices) a month net when we both have our bus passes...not that there's much use in those round here.
Difficult to know what best to do with the house.
After this season I don't think we'll be getting any income from it and taking an 11 bed 18thC listed house into retirement will be a stretch, but can't think where else we'd want to live.

[Count Steer]

So, those that have retired how much are you finding is enough for a comfy life assuming house is paid for ? £2k a month one person or £3k for two ?

That's a bit of a 'how long is a piece of string?' question as it depends what individuals need for a 'comfy' life. I currently reckon about £1k minimum a month just for Council Tax, insurances, gas, electric, water and food. After that it depends what you want to do. Holidays, eating/drinking out, subscriptions, new car every few years, hobbies etc etc etc. It also depends what you're used to and how big a change you're prepared to tolerate.

[Scotsrich]

So, those that have retired how much are you finding is enough for a comfy life assuming house is paid for ? £2k a month one person or £3k for two ?

That's a bit of a 'how long is a piece of string?' question as it depends what individuals need for a 'comfy' life. I currently reckon about £1k minimum a month just for Council Tax, insurances, gas, electric, water and food. After that it depends what you want to do. Holidays, eating/drinking out, subscriptions, new car every few years, hobbies etc etc etc. It also depends what you're used to and how big a change you're prepared to tolerate.

My wife and I have my pension plus about £1k from a drawdown which is about £1800. We have no mortgage or loans and admittedly we do go out and eat out regularly but if you don’t then it’s a pretty miserable life. We don’t have much left at the end of the month. The budget will change in October when she get her pension as well.

We’ve also another couple of little pensions and I use mine to keep the car/bike on the road otherwise that would come out the main money.

If you work out what you need per month guaranteed you’ll forget something or an emergency will come up and knock your budget all to hell. So saying you can live on x amount per month you’ll probably underestimate it.

[MyLittleStudPony]

Things are looking pretty rosey now TBH. Money has always been an energy which flowed in my direction. Especially since I stopped working in decarbonisation & renewable energy and set up by myself, as a pension stealer.

The thing about pension stealing is you spend very little time actually stealing pensions; and much more just riding round and round and round on a jet ski while laughing.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Its definitely a better time right now to get into pension stealing too. If you leave it much longer there won't be any decent pensions to steal.

[Cousin Jack]

We are doing ok, downsized to a smaller and more enery efficient house. Mortgage free, both cars and the bike paid for, and a nest egg to cover most emergencies.

[Count Steer]

PS @Couchy if you have access to Which? (your local library may have a subscription that members can use) they have some useful stuff like retirement 'models' ie a) live like dormice, reuse teabags, walk everywhere b) eat out reasonably, drive a reasonable car, have a couple of holidays somewhere sunny in Europe c) lunch at Le Gavroche daily, choose your car from the collection for each day depending on your colour preference/horoscope, ski for a month at Aspen and the typical ££s needed for each. (They're a bit more sensible than my a, b and c but give a reasonable feel for what you'll get with typical amounts of ££s).

It's the sort of thing a financial planning adviser will ask when you mention retirement (after asking what age you'd like to retire) and tell you you'll need 30, 50, 70k pa and how much you need to invest (via them obvs) to get it and how long you'll have to keep working.

[Couchy]

PS @Couchy if you have access to Which? (your local library may have a subscription that members can use) they have some useful stuff like retirement 'models' ie a) live like dormice, reuse teabags, walk everywhere b) eat out reasonably, drive a reasonable car, have a couple of holidays somewhere sunny in Europe c) lunch at Le Gavroche daily, choose your car from the collection for each day depending on your colour preference/horoscope, ski for a month at Aspen and the typical ££s needed for each. (They're a bit more sensible than my a, b and c but give a reasonable feel for what you'll get with typical amounts of ££s).

It's the sort of thing a financial planning adviser will ask when you mention retirement (after asking what age you'd like to retire) and tell you you'll need 30, 50, 70k pa and how much you need to invest (via them obvs) to get it and how long you'll have to keep working.

I have a good idea as I’m pretty ocd with my personal accounts and run them like my business accounts so I know where every penny goes each week, tbh each day and by category. Just trying to work out what’s essential and what isn’t and it’s good to get others opinions and experiences.

[Nordboy]

So, those that have retired how much are you finding is enough for a comfy life assuming house is paid for ? £2k a month one person or £3k for two ?

Yeah I reckon somewhere around that, about £30k a year plus a nest egg that one could draw upon if the roof blows off or for a fancy holiday every few years.

I'm going to be destitute then, even with my so called 'golden' pension (which tbh the g'ment have now made a 'copper' pension, see what I did there ), I won't be anywhere near that!!

[Screwdriver]

Yeah me too. Nowhere near that. I decided to stock up on stuff (mostly bikes) and sell that to support myself.

The bikes have appreciated vastly more than my tiny pension.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Random little question for people who are up on these things...

I'm just opening a new ISA now with one of my existing banks. They're offering >4% on an ISA, which is pretty danged generous for a cash ISA, albeit with some withdrawal limits.

I can choose for interest to be paid annually or monthly. Why would you choose the former? What am I missing here? The rate is the same in either case.

EDIT: Ah, they're not the same rate Hidden away in the medium-size print, the monthly one is a bit lower so that the AER is the same. 4.05% is pretty good still, it's better than I was getting on my straight "non-ISA" long term restricted access savings.

[Mr. Dazzle]

The monthly interest one is usually sold as an income ISA and the the yearly one as a growth ISA.
The monthly one is usually a bit less interest but for what most people have in ISAs it's not significant and I think the only choice is whether you want a yearly 'chunk' or a drip feed.

Yeah, I was just wondering why you'd choose annually when monthly would be a better deal at the same interest rate. Signficance is, they're not the same rate. The "big numbers" rate they're showing is the AER.

As an aside, the mathematical value e, or Euler's Number, originally came about as a result of considering compound interest and payment periods. I like to think it's been put to much better use since then, but it's some kind of illustration of Human nature that such a fundamentally important number (it appears in everything from pandemic modelling to vibration via. computer science with a detour to radio communication) first cropped up when thinking about money

[Ant]

I remember back in the day raking it in with a cash ISA when the interest rates were much higher, back in the Labour days when the base rate was much higher.

[Count Steer]

Random little question for people who are up on these things...

I'm just opening a new ISA now with one of my existing banks. They're offering >4% on an ISA, which is pretty danged generous for a cash ISA, albeit with some withdrawal limits.

I can choose for interest to be paid annually or monthly. Why would you choose the former? What am I missing here? The rate is the same in either case.

EDIT: Ah, they're not the same rate Hidden away in the medium-size print, the monthly one is a bit lower so that the AER is the same. 4.05% is pretty good still, it's better than I was getting on my straight "non-ISA" long term restricted access savings.

Don't you get interest on the monthly amounts added to the pot so that the cumulative interest is the same in both cases? Hence, they're actually the same AER.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Exactly.

For equal gross rates a monthly payment would be more money overall. But they reduce the monthly rate so the AERs are the same.

[Yambo]

The aim was a “comfy life”.
You could get by on less.

And it depends when you want to retire, a state pension for two adults is £18k, so a private pension of a grand a month on top of that will get you there.

My State pension is £600 every 4 weeks (plus a few pennies) so £7800 a year. What age woman do I have to get into a relationship with to get the income up to £18000 pa?

I have my MoD pension as well of course and also a small pension from Travis Perkins that I inherited when my wife died so I am 'comfortable' when it comes to income. I own the house and I have no debt basically - my heating bill this past winter was absolutely nothing as I still have logs left over from the 1.5 tonne I bought 3 years ago. I'm not complaining.

[Count Steer]

The aim was a “comfy life”.
You could get by on less.

And it depends when you want to retire, a state pension for two adults is £18k, so a private pension of a grand a month on top of that will get you there.

My State pension is £600 every 4 weeks (plus a few pennies) so £7800 a year. What age woman do I have to get into a relationship with to get the income up to £18000 pa?

£150/week? Are you in one of the countries where increases aren't applied? The 'New State Pension' appears to be £204/week after the latest round of increases. The old 'Basic State Pension' was more complicated with Pre 97 additions, less contracted out deductions etc etc etc. Two 'New State Pensions' should give ~£21k pa.

[Yambo]

The aim was a “comfy life”.
You could get by on less.

And it depends when you want to retire, a state pension for two adults is £18k, so a private pension of a grand a month on top of that will get you there.

My State pension is £600 every 4 weeks (plus a few pennies) so £7800 a year. What age woman do I have to get into a relationship with to get the income up to £18000 pa?

£150/week? Are you in one of the countries where increases aren't applied? The 'New State Pension' appears to be £204/week after the latest round of increases. The old 'Basic State Pension' was more complicated with Pre 97 additions, less contracted out deductions etc etc etc. Two 'New State Pensions' should give ~£21k pa.

No, I'm not in a country where increases are not applied, in fact my State pension will go up by 10.1% this month I believe.

What I am, is 4 months too old because I was born before April 4th, 1951. I guess they had to have a cut off date/start date for the 'new improved old age pension' and the one that was chosen disadvantaged me and many others. The MoD also opted me (and others) out of SERPs for the duration of my army career because I would get an MoD pension. I started paying SERPs again after I left the army.

My army pension is/was non contributory so I thank all you wonderful tax payers for keeping me in the manner to which I have become accustomed (I'm still a UK tax payer btw.)

[wheelnut]

My army pension is/was non contributory so I thank all you wonderful tax payers for keeping me in the manner to which I have become accustomed (I'm still a UK tax payer btw.)

If you’re about you can show your appreciation by buying me a beer later this week.