If you are a sixty year old woman or thereabouts?

[Anychocolatesleft111]

I work 4/5 atm. And I am considering reducing my hrs even further, hence the following question… .

If you are a 60 year old woman, do you mind me asking please how much do you need to live on per year, once all of the monthly bills are paid off and all the necessities of life are bought and paid for?

[I know it depends on what you consider a luxury or a necessity? Clothing for example can be basic jeans and a coat to designer gear, so how do you define the “necessary”element? ]

But roughly, how much do you need for hobbies, books, cosmetics, haircuts, travel, clothes (other than basic clothes), entertainment, eating out, gifts for others, bits of cash to give to adult dc, nephews and nieces, and the occasional odd-job man?

I am fortunate to have private medical insurance as long as my dh is working and will have a private pension once I stop working completely.

Would anyone be kind enough to give me a ball park figure?

I am really scrimping and saving atm so that our DDs can go through university and am managing to live on very little atm, but that’s not realistic going forward. Also I am finding my current job quite tiring and have the option to drop another day?

I’d be v grateful for any guidance please?

I'm afraid this an impossible question to answer as it is so dependent on your lifestyle. Probably best to use the guidelines of needing 60% of your pre retirement income.

I'm 65. It's impossible to answer because we're all different. My kids went to university and got Student Loans and jobs. It didn't cost us much.

I agree with @KarminaBurana in that our situations are all different. Our children are adults with jobs and we are lucky in that we have also paid off our mortgage. I am retired, and make savings by shopping for clothes secondhand, budget for groceries and limit hair/beauty appointments to a strict monthly budget. And I know that we are the lucky ones with plenty of 60 ish women not being anywhere near as fortunate. No private medical anymore though, so I’m on a waiting list for a non urgent procedure….

I'm over 60 and have occ pensions and work 2 days a week so I have the same income. What you need to do is calculate how much you will lose for 1 day, use a PAYE calculator because you won't pay as much tax and NI. Then look at your outgoings.

It's impossible for others to give you a figure, I've never reached the high salary's mentioned on mumsnet but I've also never been able to feed my family on the weekly budgets also mentioned. So we are all very different.

What I would not do is work an extra day if my DC's could do it themselves, same as I wouldn't have worked part time to provide free childcare.

Unanswerable. I spend a lot less than my peers because I have less to spend. I don't see what age has to do with it?

I meant I wouldn't leave myself short or scrimp for the above

Im 62 but still have a teen (at uni). So so much is tied up with my kids.
Also depends on what you mean by 'necessities of life'. I might like good steak and wine. Others might buy own brand or value food and thinks that's fine.
I live in London too, do my house was £££. If I lived in my old house (I moved three years ago) it would be twice as big with a pool and cost half as much.
I have three pets too - they are 20% of my good bill for starters. Essential? That's debatable.
So you'd have to ask someone living in your area, with similar lifestyle and responsibilities.
Otherwise one person will say they survive perfectly adequately on £10k after housing and bills, another may say anything less than £30k and they feel deprived. Another might think £10k is a fortune in disposable money.

Try looking at the PLSA figures which give an approximate amount that people may spend, split according to minimal, moderate and luxury, as that might help you work out your likely spend.

I think as a household income net, You and dh, would need 30k-45k pa, because your mortgage is paid.
You might be abe to fit a holiday in to the higher end of that.

That would be all your household bills and spending. Gifts to dc all depend on how much you want to give them.

So what is your and dh income net atm?

I think really, rather than asking others what their needs are, you would be better looking back into your own accounts from the past two years and seeing what you and your DH have spent, see if you can separate out household expenses, personal expenses and anything that you spend to get yourself to work. Then consider what you could do without and what you would like to be able to do more of.

How long have your DD's got left at university? If you drop your hours, if you were to give them less, can they work to make up the difference? In dropping a day remember that you may pay less tax on the 3 days you are working as your personal allowance takes up a higher proportion of your income (probably doesn't apply if you are a high earner) and also you won't need to be paying out for travel costs for that day .

Do you know how much you'll get from your occupational pension (and at what age?) and your state pension?You need a quote from your scheme at various ages. This information will concentrate your mind. Are you planning to downsize? Will you get a tax free lump sum to invest?
Do you know how much your husband will get at what age? Will there be a widow's pension (crucial) as you are likely to outlive your husband unless he is a lot younger than you? Will you still have a mortgage or rent? Many women are poor in retirement. You'll need £20k
net plus after housing costs to live well ideally but many have to manage on less.

It depends if your mortgage will be repaid. How much your hobbies cost, how often you want to eat out, how much you want to spend on holidays and how much you want to gift DC. Then add extra on PW for coffees, an odd magazine, charity gifting, haircut, nails etc. I found I saved a lot on not having to buy clothes for a working wardrobe after I stopped work. Also I saved on putting in money people having a baby, getting married, retiring etc. I saved a lot on fuel too. I eat out 2 or 3 times a week now DH has retired too. I retired early at 58 but most of my friends are still working. DH only retired in September.

I do OK on £10k a year. I have other savings which I dip into when necessary. I'm generally frugal though so I guess others might want more.

Im 60, I work 20 hours a week on NMW and have a small pension coming in so around 1500 a month

Out of that I pay our joint mobile phone sims, my car costs - fuel, MOT, insurance, consumables etc, the Broadband and the groceries and Im not broke, I can afford what I need - which is very little tbh because we live very rural and don't be having a huge social life that needs fancy clothes and posh hair do's

Everybody is so different when it comes to wants and needs. My own personal spends are a wee bit of make up, a few skincare products, a hair cut every couple of months but I squirrel away every spare penny for weekend breaks - in the UK and Europe every couple of months and treating the grandkids

DH only works 24hrs a week and we live a good life. World cruises aren't on the agenda but we have a paid roof, nice cars, can afford our bills and have full bellies - we are happy with our choice of working less and enjoying our lives more

I'm just about to retire at 60. Income will drop but no dependants or mortgage. I don't care as I don't want to work anymore after 40 years in the same job.

I'm 'retiring' this year, I'll be 65. My house is paid for, my kids are all adults with jobs that earn far more than my part-time retail job. I earn from my novels and that's going to have to float me until my state pension kicks in in two years' time as I have no private pensions (or, at least, I've got three which will bring in about £100 per month). But I lived on nearly nothing when the kids were young. I can live on around £400 per month if I have to, that will cover my bills (my house is tiny) and I won't have luxuries like haircuts and fancy days out until my state pensions kicks in to bump up my income. My royalties are usually more than this per month, sometimes considerably more, so I reckon I'll survive.

Totally depends on your circumstances. I'm 58, work part-time. DH retired. I reckon we spend approx £2200 pm, this pays all our bills, groceries, pet food and bills, eating out/joint treats, individual spending money, holidays. Conscious of the fact I think I'd like to retire early like DH and I won't have much of a pension until old age pension kicks in, so should and can cut back.

I'm 55 and work three days. £45k pro rata. But I have rent and stuff to pay. Do yourself a spreadsheet.

I would say at 60 you have earned the right to go down to 3 days a week.It depends very much on what you earn but depending on the tax situation you might find another drop in hours doesn't impact your take home as much as you might think.
Do you have any occupational pension?

Your DDs can take out the student loan and get holiday time jobs and part time term ones.

It’s so very interesting reading all of these very different replies! And great advice too! Thank you very much everyone for responding.

I realised as I was writing my op that it was a bit of a “how long is a piece of string” question!

Thank you. I will go back to the drawing board with my own finances and start from there.

It’s not an easy task because there are so many variables but I really appreciate everyone’s input.

I know I am comfortable compared to many people, so it’s probably silly to say this, but it’s not easy changing expectations and having the realisation dawn for a while now that I am so much worse off than my parents at this stage in life, and they retired at 55 and 50 respectively!

How intriguing Vroomfondleswaistcoat
And good for you 👏👏👏

Thank you so much for this advice.

Thank you! I will think about this further!

You can make a spreadsheet of your current spending and outgoings OP. Then adjust this for when you plan to retire - eg will mortgage be paid off?, will you be giving £ to any children etc and then add up your pensions and state pension (roughly £1000 per month each).

If you are not working and you want to fill your free time with travel, interesting hobbies, doing up the garden etc you will need a good budget. You will be time rich whereas when you are busy working you are not at home in the day so save on fuel, possibly meals, etc. it so much depends on your circumstances.

Our financial adviser told us in our one off pre retirement session that you need decent amount for early retirement but in later life travel and expenditure tends to diminish, then near end of life might get expensive if need support from carersor nursing home,

Thank you very much Hollyhocksandlarkspur

That's very useful information