2K a month to live on for the rest of your life?

[BankHolidayBulb]

Could you manage (assuming you don't work) on 2K a month for the rest of your life? Assuming no kids & no rent/mortgage. We can say it's easy now but I wonder what 2K will be worth in 30/40yrs time? What problems do you foresee?

I've made some sound long term financial investments this year as well on my meagre budget. Got 10 brand new bras for £14.92 on ebay, business seller. At 63 I reckon that's me sorted bra wise for the rest of my days. 12 pairs of knickers £9.68 & 42 pairs of tights £14.40. Should get a good few years out of those.
Quite a bit of my money has been sunk in Art. Quite the connoisseur I am. Mainly from local charity shops, oils, watercolours, a few pencil drawings, all original & quite beautiful. They're there if you search for them. The cheapest I've got was £1.50 & the dearest £10 but most were about £3 - £5. The frames alone would set you back a lot more. It's like a high end art gallery in my flat now.

We live on less than that a month already! Our household bills including mortgage (£500 per month), bills, food, fuel and pets comes to under £1400. We live in Wales so our mortgage is pretty small! We'd happily live on £2000 a month, that's a lot for where we live in the valleys.

At the moment, I would say not a chance...

Without the kids? Where do I sign up?

People who think it’s not enough for one person with no kids, no mortgage as OP said, how much would you say is enough?

RosaWaiting I think people are saying they could manage but wouldn’t want to.
Council tax, electricity, septic tank are not very interesting ways to dispose of income.
We’d want a retirement package that didn’t result in a drop in lifestyle choices or limit what we can do.

@cherry
Is this a stealth boast?
*Buying nice things for the children’s houses: unnecessary & ridiculous

• Business class flights : unneccessary
• New car every three years : unneccessary
• Entertaining; can be limited
• Not thinking before I buy something I want
• Trips to our boat; lucky you
• Weekends away to nice places ; optional
• Dog using home boarding and daycare; if retired little need
• Piano lessons: optional *

Not a single one of these is essential living, you’re coming across as very arrogant, plenty people live and pay bills on less. £2k pocket money is a great amount.

That's £700 more than I'm getting now so yes please I'll take it.

Is it for one person or two?

I think I'd be very comfortable on it, and would be able to be happy on, say £1500 now, so I could build up savings to hopefully overcome inflation similar to what it is now.

But I don't want to spend much on clothes, spend almost nothing on beauty treatments etc, which cost some people hundreds of pounds a month, am happy to run a small cheap car, have no DC with houses that I'd want to buy things for.

I don't eat or drink very much and have no expectations about regular fine dining or cocktails, I'd probably try it once, but I'd never say 'I must spend £1000 pm on regular high end meals out and cocktails or else I would be miserable'.

I have no desire for expensive household goods, Ikea is perfectly fine. I'm happy with basic TV, my idea of a good day out is a nice walk and maybe a £10 pub lunch, the other thing I spend money on is books for my kindle but I probably already have more than I could read in many years.

My basic costs that I'd feel quite comfortable at including running a car, some eating out, nice food etc, would be about £1000-1200 pm, which would then allow a holiday fund of say £400 pm which would give me several holidays per year because I'm happy with normal/standard etc, I don't want or expect 5 star luxury, I'm happy with somewhere average and look for deals to make my money go further.

I think the main problem would be if inflation went up significantly and eroded the spending power of the £2k pm.

Why did you ask the question OP?

Im a lone parent to 3 teens...2 of which are at uni and i live on less than 2k a month...i would also live like a king on 2k with no mortgage to pay.

I agree, 2k/month right now sounds lovely.
2k/month in 40 years time (im predicted to live another 44 years) sounds less appealing.

My bills atm are 3,5k less mortgage and childcare would be around 2k so I would have nothing left for pleasures.

My recently widowed Dm will be on about this much and she perceives herself very comfortable. No mortgage or kids (I don't count ).

Our monthly outgoings excluding food and savings are around 2k of which mortgage is £800 so if you take that out of the equation then we could live but not save on 2k. So no treats or security. That's for 4 of us including 2 dcs.

@Gamorasgran the £2k per month being speculated on is to support only one person though, with no housing costs to be paid from that. So if you were on your own & the DC grown up & independent could you live/live well on that?

People aren’t reading this are they?

No mortgage, no kids, 2k for one person. I don’t pretend to know how much septic tank costs but I have a couple of single friends who have them and I’m sure they’d find 2k ample as well.

I earn £1700 a month, I pay rent/bills/run a car out of that and I still manage two holidays a year. I'd be just smashing on £2k with no mortgage.

Yep, I'd be very happy on that. Where do i sign up.......

I don't think I could live as well as I do now, but I could manage if I had to. I have before, it's only in the last few years I've had more than that.

Even with no mortgage that would be a considerable pay cut, I could manage, but I would have to cut back on holidays, cleaner etc to stay within my means.

@simon
Within your means isn’t what you think, it means living within your budget.
The things you mention; cleaner, holidays aren’t essential. If you are mortgage/child free, £500pw is very generous.

Fair! For just me then yes totally.

If I look at dm she is naturally frugal which I put down to being raised in the years immediately post war) but certainly doesn't stint on food/clothes/socialising. No cleaner/gardener but She will buy relevant tech/keeps the house in a good state of repair etc. She also has a small holiday home to manage.

She doesn't buy top of the range though - John Lewis is her limit and that's a treat.

I have a similar outlook to her so yes I do think I could.

Yes, could also include my mortgage in that and still make it work.

Easily. We already both live well for a lot less than that. That includes regularly eating out, going to pubs, theatre and running a car.

I would be overjoyed with that much money

With no rent or mortgage-absolutely!