WWYD: 53 years old, £400,000, no commitments.

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Imagine please you are 53 years old, single, grown up kids, no husband, no house... but £400,000 in the bank.

WWYD?
What kind of life would you make for yourself?
Where would you start?

Do you work? I would look to move to 3 day pw if possible.
I would put the max into my pension.
Pay off any loans, debts.
Buy a property for myself as you don't currently own one.

I’d buy a property in the UK with some of it then do some travelling. Depends on work really. It’s not enough to retire on to fill the gap until 67.

No debt
Small pension and some index funds (£60k)
The ability to work in a senior professional role if desired

Need more info.

Do you work/ have an income?
Do you have a pension?
Where do you live - do you rent?

At 53 I'd be planning for the future and making sure I had security (which might mean my own home) and a pension to supplement the state one.

I would invest in a property, a nice duplex/apartment.

Well you need somewhere to live - so I'd buy a home first. Depending on area, you may have plenty of change left over to invest, or you may not. But you have to live somewhere so that's the starting point.

you need to do an audit of your personal skills, interests and how you want to spend your days e.g. lifestyle. I don't mean sitting on a beach all day (necessarily) but you have an opportunity to find a way you can combine all three. E.g. launch a creative business, write a book, find more time for travelling (travel while writing?), retrain in something, buy a flat and rent it out while you travel and run an online business etc etc. You've got a great opportunity to buy yourself a little time to develop something amazing. Something you LOVE. Preferably something that allows you some income to live well enough without caning through all your money.

Buy yourself a round the world ticket and start a bucket list of destinations. Spend a year travelling frugally but comfortably round the world. You’re free, go and have some fun.

Six months in Australia (or country of your choice) for a start and use some of that time to do some planning as @Squarecrisp suggested above.

Buy a house and a camper van.

I'd buy a house mortgage free that I can see myself living in long term eg think about connectivity and facilities post retirement. I would then invest most of the money either in a pension or isa plus investments, leaving enough for a holiday.

Id take a career break and go on one of those crazy 12 month world cruises, then id down size to a future proof apartment and work 2 or 3 days a week to keep me ticking over. Get some financial advice and invest or put in a pension etc to keep the funds growing. Enjoy piece of mind that im as financially secure as possible.

I’d work but maybe 3/4 days a week and put more in pension.

if there’s no particular area I needed to be in (can senior professional role be done anywhere or from home?), I’d buy a 2 bed place preferably relatively near the sea somewhere in the uk.

then I’d buy a place in Spain/Greece/bulgaria/croatia and rent it out some of the time and spend my holiday time and subsequent retirement between the 2.

Oh and camper van if any funds left over!

Your pension pot is small, so max that out as much as possible over the coming years.
Definitely buy a small property (flat?) - I can't imagine wanting to have the upheaval and uncertainty of renting into old age.

Although it's a decent sum of money, it's not enough to live off for the rest of your life.

So you're not working? I think I'd get a job as the first thing. You have 24 more years until retirement and while £400,000 sounds like a lot money, you need to bring in the max in terms of steady, reliable monthly income once you're retired. You could live into your 90s and need to plan for that.

So WWID? I'd buy a house, I'd max out my pension contributions each month, I'd get an ISA every year, I'd basically save like mad and make sure I had a diversified portfolio. You should really see an independent financial advisor who can look at everything and advise you.

Your pension is very low.
Do you have final salary pension as well?

I am (was) in a similar situation.

I have bought a house in a low priced area. It needed painting and a few bits doing so was extra cheap. Has space for kids to stay and means I never need to worry about rent again,

I took a sabbatical for a year before buying the house and travelled a lot. Really enjoyed it.

I now work part time. Much better work life balance.

I'd buy a small house/ bungalow outright, put the maximum I can into my pension (you can use the last 3 years allowance if you haven't put in the maximum), then with the remainder if any put it into ISAs. I'd work 3 days a week if possible, but as a single person you really have to prepare for hopefully a nice long retirement

I'd start with future security and buy somewhere to live that would do for ever if needed, ideally in an area where I'd be mortgage-free and have some left over.

Then I would start retirement planning. How much pension (in all forms) would I get and when, how much would I need to live on in retirement, when can I retire, what is the gap, how would I fill it?

Probably that would show up that I would need a job, so I'd get one on as much money and as little time as I could, and carry out the retirement plan, while enjoying the time from now til then.

@cheezncrackers 14 years not 24 to pension age.

1. In terms of work, throw energy and thinking time into finding a remote WFH role with as much flexibility as possible.

1. Invest in an OK property in the UK with a spare room (NOT my dream home, more somewhere near a train station, not going to lose money on it). Could get somewhere cash in Glasgow or up North. Rent spare room to lodger. Now you have a UK base and the lodgers income is tax free.

1. Then frugally travel or do other things - eg rent an Airbnb in new cities.

1. Watch out for dodgy men/cocklodgers/nurse with purse hunters. Say you're in debt if anyone tries to find out.

Oh God yes! Good point. That's not long ....

I wouldn't buy an apartment because that comes with management fees that would be difficult to pay when you retire.

If you can work from home, I'd move to the best area that you can, where you can get a house for £250-300,000. I'd pay for that in full. I'd put £20,000 or so in shorter term savings and then put the rest into long-term investments. Then I'd get a job and put as much as possible into a pension.

Can you tell us where you'd like to live?

Why are people suggesting she spends it when she doesn't have a home?

I think it’s important to realise that’s not a lot of money foR the rest of your life especially if you don’t own a property.

im 48 single no kids - I have £700k in property assets and £480k pension. I’m planning on working for a good while.

ii assume maybe you’re coming out of a divorce?

its good that the property market is flat so you don’t need to panic about that

id go overseas for three months to Asia or somewhere not expensive

then I’d come home move somewhere I could buy a mortgagee free flat for around £25th en I’d get a job and throw everything I could into my pension/retirement savings

but other people are happy to live much more frugally