Will I be better off financially when adult children leave home.

[Lookingoutadirtyoldwindow]

My adult children are just about to fly the best.
I have only charged them £100 each for lodging so they could save which they have done and are now buying places of their own.
I would love to retire but would only get half my current salary in pension.
So when your children left were you significantly better off or did it make very little difference?

I didn't charge mine- they used a lot of electricity and ate a lot but they also did housework, bought takeaways and looked after the dog when I was away.

So I am much worse off without them in many ways.

The only financial benefit I could see would be if you are single and could claim a council tax refund. £100 must have covered food and most other costs are fixed.

Unless you downsize.

Yes that's what I'm thinking.
And I am not great at managing money either!,
Maybe I'll have to think again

I don't charge mine anything so hoping I will be better off when they leave !

I’ve had three DC come and go and come back and go again and I’ve not noticed any difference in household costs.

When you say your pension is only half your current salary is that gross or net? This is important as you do not pay NI or pension contributions on your pension leaving you with more net pay.

You need to look at your budget with just you in the house. Being able to retire should be a good incentive to get better at managing your money. .

You'll pay less council tax, less food if you've been buying all the food now, utilities might be a bit less, but maybe not significantly so. Can you downgrade the broadband and pay TV if you 'need' less than young adults like to have?

You could have a look at the Moneysaving expert money makeover, to get a really good luck at your outgoings, because if you trim down all your fixed costs a little, and watch your spending if you're currently spending a lot it could make it that you can afford to retire.

Also remember that the tax allowance and lack of NI on pension payments will mean that your income won't go down by half, but maybe to 60% or so of what you take home now.

Try putting your salary and pension income into an online calculator to work out exactly what it will be - it will be a different percentage if you are going from £20k to £10k pa vs £80k to £40k pa.

How old are you? I'm guessing that you're in your early 60s and are entitled to something like a full civil service pension, but not state pension yet - remember that when you reach state retirement age (65 or so now?) you'll get that, which is another £8k ish pa.

Or if you really can't afford to retire, can you cut your hours down to 2 or 3 days a week?

Is downsizing an option?

We didn't charge our adult children for keep at all, we were a lot better off when they left!
We're on a water meter so that bill went down, gas went down, electricity went down, food bill went down massively! Mine weren't greedy but both into the gym so needed to eat a lot.

Thankyou for your replies.
I think I can probably pick up some work a couple of days a week to supplement the pension so that would help.
But I suppose I was just hoping to be a lady of leisure!!