It all depends on your lifestyle I think. I retired (semi-forcefully, it was either that or move to Suffolk) in 2019 aged 56. My pension was split between 25 years of BTPS final salary and 7 years of Standard Life defined contribution. I had been putting £500/month into AVCs for a few years too.A difficult one to answer i'm sure, and it does depend on what individuals plan to do when they retire..... but what is a good number in £'s do people think they would need to retire. ( Savings & pensions )...........is a £600K decent
Check out the Mental Health United sessions if you’re local to Brighton / Worthing. Sessions are generally mixed ability and run 3 times a week.
The BTPS (which is/was based on Civil Service pensions) had best year of the last three but there was also the provision to calculate it on the average of the best three years in the last 10. This was because, whilst most people's salary increases year on year, some people with big, pensionable allowances which cease can find their salary significantly reduced; I was on a 24 hour rota for 18 years which, with the overtime for BH working and other associated little tickles, added about 25% to my salary. I had colleagues who found working nights an increasing struggle and so gave up in their mid to late 50s; by that stage of their career they're too late to get the promotions they eschewed 20 or 30 years previously.
Thanks for your reply
I’m a similar age and stage to you, 60 later this year. I’m still working but a combination of factors make me think I don’t want to do it for much longer.
Try watching some of the decent YouTube videos put out by financial planners like MeaningfulMoney, Chris Bourne, and James Shack. I think they have all covered this topic pretty well and the consensus seems to be that you need to start by estimating your outgoings and working back from there - they also mention that you probably need less than you think as people often don't take into account reduced spending later in retirementA difficult one to answer i'm sure, and it does depend on what individuals plan to do when they retire..... but what is a good number in £'s do people think they would need to retire. ( Savings & pensions )...........is a £600K decent
That old question. How much is enough?A difficult one to answer i'm sure, and it does depend on what individuals plan to do when they retire..... but what is a good number in £'s do people think they would need to retire. ( Savings & pensions )...........is a £600K decent
I've not factored in the state pension at this moment in time.....I've another 10 years to wait for that. I'd likely to partially retire though next year when I turn 59.....but lots to consider first.
I looked at things very simplistically to start with (particularly before I stopped work to see how viable things looked)………starting with our budget, split into ‘essential’ spending (house bills, car running costs, food….er…wine, season ticket etc). I kept things like holidays etc separate as that’s not essential spending. Whether your money is in pensions, ISAs or whatever isn’t hugely important for the purposes of working things out - I simply then looked at total savings, pensions and investments and assumed a return of 5% which I thought was reasonable. The 5% estimated return (also bear in mind this can be virtually tax free if you set things up correctly) easily covered all the essential expenditure plus a fair amount on top. I accept I won’t get 5% all the time but in 4.5 years so far it’s been much more than that overall (I’m towards riskier end of the investment profile scale overall) so we’ve splashed out on loads of expensive holidays and helped the kids out.A difficult one to answer i'm sure, and it does depend on what individuals plan to do when they retire..... but what is a good number in £'s do people think they would need to retire. ( Savings & pensions )...........is a £600K decent
Yep…….I use capital growth for income in the same way. I just skim the most appropriate investments when I need to - and sometimes when I don’t to either take some profits and/or keep a cash reserve. Key is not to HAVE to sell when you’d rather not (ie when the market has dipped).
‘Leisure spending’
The 'How Much' question is difficult and individual. Before retirement, I put together my own spreadsheet that shows years, and income streams. It also pulls outgoings figures from my budgeting spreadsheet, and hence very simplistically shows when my SIPP MAY run out. Outgoings Fixed household costs (council tax, utilities etc.), variable costs (insurances, car costs, depreciation of white goods, season ticket etc.). We have an easily accessible emergency fund, savings (S&S ISA etc.) and investments. (SIPP). I make assumptions with regards to cost increases etc. but do not allow for investment growth of falls (investments can go down and up etc. etc.) spreadsheets are updated annually with actuals.
Same here, although I’ve pretty much given up updating the outgoings side now and just update the savings numbers once a month - simply because after 4+ years I’m a bit more relaxed that it’s all ok. I’ve seen a few fairly dramatic (but mostly short term) dips in the savings valuations (I’ve been keeping a spready for 20 years) but so far it’s always recovered (which historically is almost always the case with the markets).
Especially if you are Fulham STH
.Do double-check for yourself, but I found out yesterday that £600k will generate £30k pa INDEX-LINKED as an annuity. So the insurance company is taking the risk of what inflation might do AND taking the risk of you living longer than you might think yourself. Could be an attractive proposition if you are somewhat risk averse.
Annuity rates are at 14 year high so definitely not a bad time to lock in if it's the right thing for you - it was the opposite when I cashed in my old DB scheme which meant the amount I got was much higher than it would be now (buyout amount is based on annuity rates). I reckon £600k would easily generate £30kpa anyway though (on average over a long time period), which could be withdrawn as needed and still leave £600k (or much more) to the kids/cats home or whatever.
