Is this an ok money situation for a 54 year old

[Moneymoneymoneymoneymoney]

This is my friends financial position. What do you make of it? She is 54. I think she’s doing ok but she sometimes makes out she could have done better (divorce definitely impacted her financially).

House value (house in her name only) : £300k
Mortgage : £28k
Savings : £25k
Pension : she can take this later in the year and would yield £70k lump sum and £800pm (but she is going to wait so it increases).
Joint income with her DH : £5500 pm
Outgoings : £2500 pm

If she inherits (never a given ) she will get about £65k
If her husband inherits , he will get circa £1 million. But as DH dad is very young and fit for his age , her DH could be in his 70’s before he inherits.

So the DH you refer to is that a new DH after the divorce??

WTF you took advantage of her when she was drunk!

Bloody hell of course that's alot of spare money disposable each month

Who is they, is she remarried?

Some friends are close and share personal info?

She’s doing way better than me!

She’s been married twice. Still happily married to husband no 2. But feels her divorce from husband no 1 has given her a financial hit. Which of course it has! But I think she’s still doing ok! She moans about this constantly.

I’m trying to get some context about whether she’s doing ok for her age. I am much younger so have no reference point.

This! How do you even know these details OP?

Why, it’s none of your business and appalling you’re posting her financials on here to millions of people. And you just come across as jealous.

That pension situation is pretty dire considering her disposable income.

She’ll end up working until she’s quite old or waiting for an inheritance.

She should be putting at least 20k+ more into her pension every year otherwise retirement will be pretty frugal.

I don’t understand what context you need - you can plainly see how much disposable income she has and you have an idea of what her and DH are set to inherit?

I don’t really see that there’s a ‘reference point’ for things like this - doing well is subjective. A roof over your head can be doing well, £500 emergency fund can be doing well.

If you get divorced and it negatively affects your finances, it’s normal to be a bit pissed about that.

If she talks about it a lot, then change the subject if you’re bored.

It depends if the house is ring fenced.

Seems pretty average but it's a bit random that you're posting about it!

I’m 39 year and have a pension of £58k and I’m really worried it’s not enough. She needs to up her pension contributions a lot. She doesn’t seem that well off.

That’s an awful lot of interest in your friend’s finances. Are you talking about yourself? I would say that if the small mortgage is her/ your only debt and house is in her/ your name alone, she or you are doing pretty well. Putting as much into a private or work pension and ISAs or fixed rate savings currently around 5% interest will help secure her / your future.

I don’t think it’s the op no. I think she’s envious. Whether it’s a friend or not , I’d dispute, maybe a family member or colleague, I doubt it’s a friend.

Aside from agreeing with the others, £70k seems like a pretty big lump sum if you’re only getting £800 month from your pension. So she might have been spouting bullshit at you anyway.

She’s fucking loaded by most people’s standards.

OP . . . is your friend on Mumsnet? Just wondering how she would feel about having all her financial information, which she appears to have shared with you whilst drunk, recorded in detail on this forum for everyone to discuss . . . .

How she's doing at her age is completely irrelevant to you though?

Typically you can take 25% of your pension as a tax free lump sum. If £70k is 25% then the total pension fund can only be £280k. Leaving £210k to provide an income. £800 a month is just under £10k a year, which is too much to sustainably take from a £210k pot, especially at 55, if you want any form of indexing. However if she’s planning on drawing down 5% a year then the numbers stack up. But it’s a high risk plan!

worry about your own finances, not those of you "friend" - whom you appear not to like very much

I’m guessing she gave up a fair amount of pension in exchange for the house equity on the divorce? If so I can see why she’s moaning a bit - it’s easy to give up the pension for the equity thinking that retirement is ages away and you need the house now. But she should have prioritised rebuilding the pension post divorce.