How much in savings would you need to give up working at 60 years old?

[AbbyGal]

Assuming you'd paid off your mortgage and had adult, financially self-sufficient children.

I'm thinking £500,000 - even if you don't earn any interest on it, that's £25,000 a year for the next 20 years. If you did live longer, then you could sell your home to pay for care fees etc.

Although I am nearly 60 I don't, sadly, have a spare half a million, but a girl can dream!!

Do you have any occupational pension? Are you entitled to full state pension? It’s not clear whether this £500k is for the whole of your life or to take you to npa and then supplement things

I would have an occupational pension and I assume I'd get a full state one too.

Less hopefully - to tide you over between 60 and 68, assuming occupational and state pension together are enough after that?

We plan to retire at 60 and are aiming for 2 million in investments/ private pensions. Plus extra aside for later care, which has airways been put away from an inheritance. Currently 45 and working hard to get there. Hopefully, we will have no mortgage by then and plan to downsize to a smaller house in a town centre or perhaps London, so that will release some equity to help DC’s into the housing ladder. We hope to travel plenty, keep our place in France and hope for a very good quality of life, hence the higher amount. I think 500k would give an okay quality of life for someone if invested well, even discounting state/ occupational pensions later on.

OP this is a ridiculous question unless you let us know how much you would be getting from your occupational pension. If it’s enough you wouldn’t need anything in savings, if it’s nothing you would need all your income from savings until SPA

My DH and I retired at 52 and 55 with pension pots worth 1.5 million plus we’ll get our state pensions. We have a very good life.
I have savings but my DH didn’t have any separable savings.
Have you looked into how much your occupational pension would be if you start taking it at 60?

OP if you're serious about wanting to retire early then it might be more achievable than you think if you have a decent occupational pension. You need to really understand your spending needs and the detail of your pension. Is your pension(s) defined benefit or defined contribtion (or both)? If it's defined benefit, when can you take it and how much is it reduced if you take it early? Does it have good inflation protection? If you are already 60 then I guess your state pension comes at 67? Have you checked exactly what you're entitled to on your state pension forecast https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension ?

If you want to talk about it more and have these details then there are lots of knowledgeable people here. Don't be put off by the figures on the millions, that works for some people but plenty of others do it with much less.

I think your figure is fine but I don't have kids so if property has to be sold for my care, no one misses out. Or the bank can do whatever equity release and take the property when i pop my clogs.

You should be able to assume a 4% return on that 500k if invested suitably so that you don't actually need to spend the capital. That should give you 20k per year. Would that be enough for what you want? You could consider taking a limo sum from your private pension also to pay for extras such as travel.

Sorry, I thought you had 500k. Maybe investigate releasing your pension early?

I retired last year at 59 and my husband retired six years ago at 60. Both on the grounds of ill health which meant we received our full pensions (both public sector workers). We both receive PIP, me at standard rate and my husband at enhanced rate. DH started receiving state pension earlier this year. Our mortgage was paid off ten years ago and we had savings of around £300k which have since been boosted by inheritance for both of us in the past ten years.
We live a very comfortable life. Since retiring our health has stabilised to some extent. We have used savings for a new kitchen, but generally don't touch them much at all. We intend to help our DC with a house deposit when they want to buy a house.
We have always lived fairly frugally, and live in the north of England where house prices aren't too crazy. I've encouraged my DC to save - compound interest is your friend!

We retired at 60 with no mortgage, joint occupational pensions totalling 23000 and had savings of 170k. We intend spending the 70k in 7 years til we both get full state pension and then we should be self sufficient and the 100k would just be for any major house repairs.
We have a good if frugal life day to day, lunch out a couple of times a month, run two inexpensive cars. We have four or five holidays a year again frugal, ryanair flights, minimal luggage and a basic apartment. We’ve stayed in some lovely places and don’t need 5 star (been there done that)
Dont forget going to work costs money, clothes, transport, lunches, collections so there’s none of that after retirement

Research suggests the Early years of retirement you will spend a little more (more travel and hobbies) than the latter - where healthcare needs are likely to increase.

Don’t forget inflation will mean that in 25 years your 25k is worth a lot less than it is today, even at just 2 or 3%, never mind 8-11% that it is now.

Then you have the issue of where you wish to retire to, and what sort of life you wish to live.

So in final answer to your question…. Probably, but not if you want a lavish lifestyle in the Uk. £1m doesn’t even get you lavish In the uk, which is why the hubbub by labour about the abolishment of the lifetime allowance and it’s punitive 55% tax rate, is crazy and will affect younger people in the longer term. Go outside of the uk with £500k however, you can find better weather, healthcare, live in luxury with sea views and amenities such as gyms, pools, games rooms, food is cheaper and healthier.

Go outside of the uk with £500k however, you can find better weather, healthcare, live in luxury with sea views and amenities such as gyms, pools, games rooms, food is cheaper and healthier
Whereabouts?

Thailand is a good place to start.

Nice Air con Apartments with sea views with the above facilities are about £250 a month.

Tis a good jumping off point too if you ever fancied a start point for exploring that part of Asia.

You'd be seven years away from your state pension so it really depends on your occupational pension, how much it is and when it can be accessed, and how much money, annually, you think you need to live off.

Bear in mind that £500k in savings will be being constantly eroded by inflation.

Selling your house could release extra money but you'd then have to factor in rent, a variable and unpredictable expense, eating into your income. Downsizing to a smaller property, bought outright, might be a better way of releasing equity.

Personally, I think it would be possible but you'd have to be prepared to live quite frugally.

I have retired and DH is about 2 years off retiring, we will be 57 and 59. We currently have 500k in savings, a house with no mortgage worth about 330k and our pensions at 60 will pay out between us around 30k PA, defined benefits. That’s with enough contributions for full state pension. Savings should hit 550k by the time we retire. So if still together that’s an income of 40k PA nit including interest. We plan to rent our house out and travel for a couple of years in a camper van round Europe and then take a year long cruise.

It depends on the lifestyle you want to have. But also don't forget the costs of maintaining a home - repairs etc - and potentially putting in things like a stair lift. And inflation.

For me, I am thinking roughly this in today's prices annually:

£5k for home maintenance/upgrades
£5k for food
£8k utilities/including broadband
£5k holidays/travel generally
£3k for exercise and stuff day to day - e.g. yoga/swimming
£5k for things like a cleaner/gardening service if we can't do it ourselves

That's about £30k a year but clearly some is discretionary

This. Pointless question as not enough information. Plus just brings out those who are loaded so have tonnes of options.

£3k for exercise and stuff day to day - e.g. yoga/swimming
My DH and I have found this is what takes up a lot of money. This and holidays.

Yes, I figure that exercise is really important when you're older especially so it's worth investing money in it

Blimey these are huge sums. We are aiming for 250k in savings that we will invest and draw down. Plus occupational pensions of around 50k between us before state pension. That seems like loads to me. But we have a v frugal life.

Look at FIRE movement calculators, and plug your numbers in.

I feel poor reading this thread. I and Dh have worked in professional jobs for years. We have a high value house but not particularly great pensions. Not going to change much any time soon.

If you're on your own and you know you can cover emergency costs within that £20k a year I think it sounds fine. Leaving yourself down to selling your property to pay for care home fees means you're not leaving much, if anything, to give to your children or grandchildren though. Not that they should expect anything necessarily - I've already told my parents I expect them to enjoy their money!

Realistically, you'd keep some of the £500k as immediately accessible and invest the rest in something that provides you with a return to supplement your income. Obviously interest rates change, but NatWest is currently offering 4.9% on a 90 day notice deposit account. If you put £400k in there it would earn you £19,600 in interest alone. Other investments could have an even better, higher, return.

Personally, DH and I couldn't live off £20k between us. £20k each, possibly.