Pensions

[Newyorklady]

There have been a lot of posts on here recently about pension savings.
Im interested to see what you think pensioners need additional to the state pension to have a decent standard of living.
Say for instance mortgage paid off so no rental costs.
If it was me I’d like to still enjoy a couple of holidays abroad a year, eat out twice a month, occasional trip out.
Im struggling to see why people claim you need huge amount to be able to do this.
My private pension will be approx £1,000 a month and I think I can still be able to do these things. I have already accrued full state pension.

I agree I think so long as I can get my home repairs up to date before retirement then state pension plus a bit of a top up (less than yours) should be fine.

I think obviously it depends what kind of lifestyle you want. My NHS pension will be about £900 per calendar month and dh's around 1k. With 2 state pensions which when we are able to claim them will be around 1k a month we are hoping to be fine. We live quite frugally, will only need one car and hope to do a bit of travelling. I guess the problem is if one of you dies and you are only left with one state pension and more or less the same bills. As we both have private pensions we should be ok in this scenario as it's still enough to live off but I work in benefits advice for older people and the most frequent scenario we see is the woman left on her own through bereavement or divorce with a low state pension and low private pension and they are the ones who struggle.

You can use something like the MSE budget calculator to work out what your idea of a decent retirement would cost. Mine is £70-80k so better keep working for a bit!

Massively depends on the standard of living you are used to and plan for.

Our basic home running costs are about £2k pm. Socialising / eating out costs about £500 more. We like to travel quite a bit and set aside a chunk for home maintenance & improvements.

My sibling is squirrelling virtually every spare penny for retirement. High earner so already has a substantial pot.
Even to the point of not going on holidays. Currently lives very frugally.
Im just struggling to see why he feels he needs so much. He has no children.
Me and husband don’t live extravagantly apart from holidays.
We have a large house so plan to downsize considerably once we are empty nesters.
I feel we will be ok on what pots we have. They aren’t substantial pots but around £1800/£2000 a month combined. They aren’t massive but I feel enough to live a modest lifestyle.

They aren’t substantial pots but around £1800/£2000 a month combined.

In what world are two pots yielding a combined £24k pa not substantial? That's about £600k.

I live on a state pension and manage, including my rent.
If I had an extra £1000 per month on top of that I would really think myself rich!!

But it's very subjective, it depends what you consider to be a good lifestyle - I couldn't afford overseas holidays these days, for instance, but I did so much travelling over my working years that I've seen most places and don't wish to go abroad again. My idea of a holiday is to stay with friends; I'm lucky to have friends all over the UK which helps.

Years and years ago when I was married, my FIL paid thousands into pension schemes and spent a great deal of time berating us for not doing the same. He was going to have such a good retirement.... Except he didn't. He had a stoke at age 62 and died shortly afterwards, and didn't see a penny of it. Neither did his widow as there was some clause that stopped her having a share, due to the stroke and a period of time before the death or something..

It put me off pension schemes for life. I vowed to spend all my money doing what I wanted to do, long before retirement. And I did, including travelling the world. Now I'm older I'm pleased I did those things when I was younger and fitter, these days I'm happier at home....perfectly content in fact.

work out what your costs are. My council tax is £400 per month, so that takes a big chunk out of £1k. even before i've thought of insurance, food, gas/electric, emergency repair fungs, care tax/insurance/maintenance.