Is this enough to retire on?

[Goodybaddy]

I’m 60 and have been offered redundancy in a job I’ve done for over 10 years because the company is downsizing. I’m not happy about but there’s not a lot I can do.

DH and I have close to £700k in savings, plus my redundancy pay.

Is that enough to retire on? Realistically I don’t think I’ll get another job at my age that will pay anything like my old salary plus I’m not sure I want to go through that sort of upheaval now.

AIBU to retire early?

James, I hear you, but you do see articles saying “you will need xx to retire” and I think if you’re not into this, the pension stuff can be confusing.

Considering what stealth boast are normally like on MN, I don’t think this is one!

Plenty! Go for it

This makes me feel really inadequate there was I thinking my nurses pension of £14,000 a year and £80,000 lump sum would be enough to live on and that it was good compared to a lot of people

I’m aware it’s a lot to many people on mn, but the way the op words her post it’s obviously not a huge amount and they need more than £21k currently to live on else she could easily see it would be enough, you don’t need to be a financial planner to go I currently need 17k a year and if we will have 21k plus these savings then... that’s more than we have now so should work out nicely. So she obviously is used to living on more.

Are you being serious, OP?

Female life expectancy is 87 years.

If you put the £700k into an income fund and start drawing £2k per month now, you'll have more left at 87 than you started with, assuming 5% growth and 1% fees per year.

You could take £3k per month and you'd still have over £250k at 87.

Or are you going to drip some huuuge outgoings which require £10k per month to sustain?

Even doing the very oversimplified calculation of dividing the 700k by 40 years which would take you to 100 years old and without adding any of the extra income you say you or dh have or any potential part time employment income you would get 17,500 p/y

That on its own is a £1,458 per month.

Depending on your bills I would say you are probably more than fine!

no, you will be on value beans on toast FOREVER.

@EachandEveryone that's a massive pension compared to the vast majority of people!

In the private sector you would need a pot of around £500k to produce a lump sum and annuity at that sort of rate, even waiting until 65 to retire.

My mum downsized at 70 and bought a flat with some of the money (£170k) we rent this out for £900 a month after fees to maintain etc .. way more than you would get from any account .. I would do this with some of the money .. it's really hassle free if you pay an agency to look after it out of the rent .

I think op is being prudent. Worst case they could both be in nursing homes in 10 years (god forbid). In my area £1000 a week each isn't even top end, and that 700k would be gone in 7 years

It depends. Is your Dh drawing his state pension and are you drawing down your private pension. Your two private pensions plus the 2 state pensions should be sufficient to live on though that depends on your lifestyle. You can use your savings for things like holidays change the car etc. The problem is the period of time between now and when you can draw down all your pensions. Depending on how your 700k is invested would the interest tie you over until you reach state pension age. You need to give us the time line for each pension to give proper advice. Sorry just read your update. Is the 6k pension the forecast for your state pension

If you haven’t got enough NI contributions for a full State pension then use a bit of your savings to buy some additional years of contributions before you get to state pension age.

Spark but almost no-one will spend 7 years in a nursing home and if the money gets near to running out, the council pays anyway.

Bloody hell OP, I'd retire on that amount and I'm only 46. It's probably worth paying an IFA to help you invest the money in a low risk balanced portfolio, if it isn't already so it can provide you with an income without risking the capital running out.

One thing that you should look into is whether it would be worth buying extra NI credits to top up your state pension if you are short on contributions.