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

[Yorick]

After retirement, if you get bored, volunteer!

Lots of things can be interesting, I have done Citizens Advice, Coastwatch, and Trustee of a local Multi Academy Trust, but that is just my choice. Huge range of stuff you can do, ranging from the odd hour every few weeks to pretty well full time, and to suit just about every interest.

I volunteered to all the charity shops in Thame. Offering mainly my computer skills. Didn't get 1 answer.

You should have offered to help the old bideys behind the counter with a good stuffing

Tongueing?

[Pirahna]

After retirement, if you get bored, volunteer!

Lots of things can be interesting, I have done Citizens Advice, Coastwatch, and Trustee of a local Multi Academy Trust, but that is just my choice. Huge range of stuff you can do, ranging from the odd hour every few weeks to pretty well full time, and to suit just about every interest.

I volunteered to all the charity shops in Thame. Offering mainly my computer skills. Didn't get 1 answer.

Wifey volunteers at the charity shop in the village. The clientele are mostly old Spanish ladies with nothing to do so they pop in for a chat, it has to be the best way to learn Spanish ever.

[Couchy]

Council tax, utilities, tv, food that’s the essentials and at the moment that costs us under £600 at the moment. Cars bikes holidays eating out are all extra so £1500-£2k a month is enough assuming you’re happy with a simple lifestyle. I’d be happy with my mtb, cheap car and a few weekends away and lots of mtb riding.

[Tricky]

After retirement, if you get bored, volunteer!

Lots of things can be interesting, I have done Citizens Advice, Coastwatch, and Trustee of a local Multi Academy Trust, but that is just my choice. Huge range of stuff you can do, ranging from the odd hour every few weeks to pretty well full time, and to suit just about every interest.

I volunteered to all the charity shops in Thame. Offering mainly my computer skills. Didn't get 1 answer.

[Mr Moofo]

We could spend a lot less if I didn't have access to the internet to keep on buying stuff.
The converse being that in the next 15 years probably one of us will be dead , so you mights as well have what you want, whilst you are here.

I buying thrill is certainly helped by using Amazon and the ability to return stuff easily

In real terms we - the household account is a 1500 GBP per month and that is currently enough for food and all bills , other than council tax. Never get away from a supermarket with a. bill less than 180 GBP (and normally significantly more). We run two cars, which we don't need - but I like mine clean and the wife runs round in a car that looks like Stig of the Dump lives in it. Then there is the three motorbikes ...

Totting this all up the other day, the dog is surprisingly expensive to run.

[Couchy]

Council tax, utilities, tv, food that’s the essentials and at the moment that costs us under £600 at the moment.

That's low, I estimated our bills at a grand, but it's more - our council tax is £300pm, utilities £500 a month (gas/electric/water), internet £55, and we rarely spend less than £250 a time at the supermarket and that's three times a month, we don't drink alcohol at all, or it would be more.
There are then the odds and sods like TV license, tax and insurance on three cars, petrol/diesel, a tenner a day at the convenience store for bread, milk, bacon butty, coffee, etc. Even fish & chips on a Friday night is a tenner each.

There are obviously some bills that we can reduce, so we could drop the above quite a lot by being careful, but even with the above I reckon £2-2.5k a month in my hand would be plenty, and that's including a couple of weekend out, so I think we could do it on what you suggested, but £1.5k a month would be right on the edge, I think the aforementioned £30k a year plus a lump sum to dip into for special occasions still stands as a decent aiming spot for that comfy life.

It’s low but it’s not estimated it’s our actual bills, ctax £180 utilities £170, TV £14, insurance £15, the rest is food. I may be £50-£100 off on the food as some spend is cash when we just stop by the shops. Our energy cost has gone up from £80 to £160 though so it was cheaper. I haven’t included broadband or virgin TV as they aren’t essentials but TV licence is there.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Seems the key to happy retirement is to live in a house whcih actually has windows and roof insulation. £500pcm on utilities!

BTW - I've just done a quick mental sum. I reckon if we stopped paying for school and mortgage and changed nothing else our monthly bills would be ~£1700pcm. I'm clearly the last of the big spenders

[weeksy]

Seems the key to happy retirement is to live in a house whcih actually has windows and roof insulation. £500pcm on utilities!

To some on here it seems it's to live with as little as possible

I'm a simple boy, but £14 on TV package and no broadband... well that's crazy talk.

[cheb]

Broadband yes, TV subscriptions no.

[Horse]

our monthly bills would be ~£1700pcm. I'm clearly the last of the big spenders

To be fair, though, most of that goes on thread lock for the Trumpet

[Mr. Dazzle]

When I retire I won't be able to steal if from work any more.

I didn't think of that!

[Le_Fromage_Grande]

We spend about £2500 a month, which conveniently is what we'll have coming in from the state pension and my work pension.

[Mr. Dazzle]

My latest projection indicates between £2300pcm and £4700pcm income when I retire, not including Mrs. D.

I think I might leave it a few more years before making any decisions

[Count Steer]

Seems the key to happy retirement is to live in a house whcih actually has windows and roof insulation. £500pcm on utilities!

To some on here it seems it's to live with as little as possible

I'm a simple boy, but £14 on TV package and no broadband... well that's crazy talk.

To be fair, the question was how much do you need to be 'comfy' so it's mainly been aimed at how little do I need? In reality the answer to the question 'how much do I need to retire on?' is 'as much as possible'

[Yorick]

Since we retired, our expenditure each year has been about £25k.
Biggest cost is the private health care about £3,000 a year.
We get about £10k income from apartment and draw the rest from savings.
Spent about £50k doing the villa up, but we're seeing the pension pots rise nicely each year.

I get state pension in 2 years so dragging about £15k out of my personal pensions tax free each year while I can. Adding that to our ISAs.

[weeksy]

Since we retired, our expenditure each year has been about £25k.
Biggest cost is the private health care about £3,000 a year.
We get about £10k income from apartment and draw the rest from savings.
Spent about £50k doing the villa up, but we're seeing the pension pots rise nicely each year.

I get state pension in 2 years so dragging about £15k out of my personal pensions tax free each year while I can. Adding that to our ISAs.

Without getting too deep here, it sounds like you're going to have lots of money 'left' .... what's the logic behind that ?

I'm kinda hoping by the time i drop dead, my lad is all sorted with a house, life and job and leaving £3.24 to him will be perfect for me. Mrs Weeksy is of the logic of "you'll need that money for when you're in a care home"
my thoughts are "if i'm in a care home and shitting the bed, i'm way beyond giving a fuck whether they take 10 mins or 20 mins to wipe my arse"

[Mr. Dazzle]

"if i'm in a care home and shitting the bed, i'm way beyond giving a fuck whether they take 10 mins or 20 mins to wipe my arse"

You could be in a care home because your body is shot but your mind is still 100% though. So staring at the wall 14 hours a day might be a bit rubbish.

Being able to have carers come to your house, or having a nice care home would be good in that situation right?

[Yorick]

Since we retired, our expenditure each year has been about £25k.
Biggest cost is the private health care about £3,000 a year.
We get about £10k income from apartment and draw the rest from savings.
Spent about £50k doing the villa up, but we're seeing the pension pots rise nicely each year.

I get state pension in 2 years so dragging about £15k out of my personal pensions tax free each year while I can. Adding that to our ISAs.

Without getting too deep here, it sounds like you're going to have lots of money 'left' .... what's the logic behind that ?

That's why I want to buy a SM bike.
Also we just worked out that from now on, we have £10k a year for 'treats'.
Mrs Y is going to India next week for a 2 weeks yoga retreat.

[Yorick]

Some have seen our apartment and it is stunning.
When we're older we're gonna get a carer in and offset part of the salary with the rent.
We also have 2 bedrooms on ground floor so we can move down here to save climbing stairs.

[weeksy]

Without getting too deep here, it sounds like you're going to have lots of money 'left' .... what's the logic behind that ?

I'm kinda hoping by the time i drop dead, my lad is all sorted with a house, life and job and leaving £3.24 to him will be perfect for me. Mrs Weeksy is of the logic of "you'll need that money for when you're in a care home"
my thoughts are "if i'm in a care home and shitting the bed, i'm way beyond giving a fuck whether they take 10 mins or 20 mins to wipe my arse"

I’m the opposite, I want to leave my kids enough that they never have to have this type of conversation.

But you must be hoping that by the time you cark it, they'll be 45-50 and should be pretty sorted by then ?