How much money do you need?

[whatyr]

Have you ever thought about this?

I've a modest house and mortgage will be paid off in 10 years when I'll be 53

I've a good job earn about 50k part time. Quite stressful however

Dh earns about 55k.. he is unlikely to earn much more as he finds that level of responsibility and stress more than enough

We have a 5 yo no plans for more kids

I want dc to go to uni if she wants and I want a bit of money to do nice stuff when I retire at 60 or 65

I currently pay 600 a month into pension

I wonder if I need to increase my hours to earn more or whether I could actually change careers and do something more worthwhile but be paid slightly less in time

I don't think we will ever need a bigger house but I obviously would like one if we came into money

I didn’t at your stage of life but I do now.

I am 53, modest house, mortgage paid off three years ago. Two DC who we put through uni but both now independent.

I am constantly checking my pension - 14k per annum equivalent in final salary at age 60 plus 45k tax free lump sum up to two years ago when it went to a non defined benefit one, since then I am putting 21% of a 40k salary into my pot and my employer is putting in 13%.

I keep doing the figures and thinking, I should be ok, and hoping I’ve worked it out right.

It''s a question I ask myself a lot. Will be following this thread.

I know exactly how much I "need" (and by "need" I mean would be happy with my life on - bit of wriggle room, not a disaster if the car or boiler broke down, spare cash for an annual holiday and the odd treat).

It's about £500 per month more than I have now. That's achievable by dh earning that much a month (he's currently studying and all going well will be back in employment by this time next year), or by us clearing our debts which we are doing very slowly but surely.

So I feel like I see light at the end of a tunnel. And although things have been bloody difficult for the last 5 years or so financially, I've discovered that we can be happy on a lot less than I would have guessed so there's something to be said for that.

will you both have 35 years full national insurance contributions by the time you wish to retire as that will give you both about 8500 a year from age 67 but if you want to retire earlier you need to live until then, obviously some costs will drop ie no mortgage no commuting costs
I don't know what is in your pension pot already but it is 17 years till you are 60 and £600 is 122,400 plus whatever your employer contributes which invested over that time period should be a substainable sum added to what might be in your pension already
if your DH has a similar pot you should have plenty to be comfortable but not enough for 3 cruises per year
to reflect lower costs ie no mortgage most reckon you need about 65-70% of present income to maintain living standards
you get find out how much state pension you have on gov.uk and your company should give you an annual pension statement

Op, Are you talking about now or in retirement?
Pp have mentioned both.

£2k per month is fine for me now as no housing costs, £2.5k would be great.

In retirement, £1200pm would be great as no costs of children, no housing costs and if I'm back local to my family I would car share to save on car costs.

Any more than those amounts would be enjoyed but not needed. I want to cut back my spending and I'm frugal but do like clothes but I get some cracking bargains. I want to cut back and be a lot more minimalist anyway.

I would spend on experiences but I already do that to a certain extent and when kids are independent (hopefully as one child is autistic), I will be happy to be sat at home as I'm a homebod right now anyway.

Immediate term:
I comfortably cover what I need month to month.

Short term:
I "need" enough money to pay my mortgage off. I worry a lot about my financial security and owning my home outright is my goal to help alleviate that. I am on track to clear it within 5-6years of things carry on as they are....
..that said, I worry (excessively?) about the sky falling in. It's quite exhausting at times to always be wondering "what if?".

Long term:
I have accumulated about 5 different workplace pensions over the years. A while ago I finally sorted out the latest statements/logins etc and set up a spreadsheet with all the info + latest valuations. I then update that with every statement I get, which helps me feel more in control. It's depressingly low in comparison to some schemes (i.e. public sector/final salary), but far, far better than many (six-figure pot, estimated five-figure total annual pension.

I've just checked and I have 110k in the pension pot at the moment.. I have no idea whether that is good or bad!

I will have a full 35 years NIC by April 2021 as I lost some years because of SERPS. Just got one and a bit years to do, so that’s on track.

if you have 110K in pot now and will add another 122k ( 600 x 12 x 17) with interest that will be a pot of well over 250K at least whcih would give a pension of about 9K per annum, plus 8.5K for state pension but similar or more from DH and you are looking at annual income of 35K between you
obviously these things will rise with inflation and interest as well and whatever you are not using is still accumulating interest it sounds fine to me