Savings

[Nocluenoidea50]

i can’t decided whether to put some savings into a house or stay in my flat (with service charges and potential lease hold extension cost in future )
I’m 55, single, live alone ,work in a just above minimum wage job & have received all inheritance.
My job doesn’t t provide much more than ssp. I have a reasonable amount in pensions.
So my quandary is what to do from now til

I retire in around 10 years.
i could but a small house and use half my savings toward it or stay put in the flat. The price of the flat is not going up like a house would and I’d like a garden.
I can’t work out what’s a sensible amount of money to have left in savings.
Any thoughts?

Go for the small house - it will bring you joy especially as you will still have savings and a reasonable pension. It’s likely it may also save you more in the long term.

If you face mobility issues (like any of us could) in the future, then ground floor entry to the house would be a major bonus.

Together with the outdoor space and the lack of service charge/lease issues, I'd definitely go for a small house.

Thanks for both the replies so far.
i have no idea what amount I should keep left in my savings though - any thoughts?

Well the standard answer is always a minimum of 6 - 12 months worth of living costs - if your savings cover this (and more!) after buying the house then you still also have10 working years to add to the savings pot for a pleasant retirement.

Thank you @MarjorieDanvers. The leftover savings woukd cover 12 months would use about 1/3 of leftover savings. Will need to factor in a new (used) car and msybe big repairs (eg roof ) as I’m unlikely to but a new house.
Does that sound like enough?

Ooh I’m not an expert - it’s just I went for the little house at your age rather than a flat so I’m a bit biased!

Bump

It is extremely tough to work out what your big expenses will be in retirement. It is new boiler, replacement white goods, house maintenance and repairs, car repairs and replacement. When you can no longer drive, it could get more expensive still to get around if you can't manage public transport. Then you start to need more practical help and that is really hard to forecast too.

Some of the answer depends on quite how decent your pension is. Also your health if you get forced into early retirement and get a smaller pension.

There seem to be loads of pension calculators that talk about the income you need but not really about what it looks like in terms of covering those big expenses. They talk about a minimum retirement on £14k but no way does that run to roof repairs!

In your situation I would still go for a house as the service charges on a flat over, say 20 years, are likely still to exceed the cost of roof repairs on a house.

@GOODCAT thank you for your reply.
I’m more talking about how much of I should keep in savings now. Can easily cover 12 months and more expenses plus about three times that. Is that enough though? O know it’s more than many have but I have no one to fall back on at all!!Pension is separate.

Bump

If you don’t see yourself wanting to keep living in the flat in the future, then yes, I would start the process now. You don’t actually give figures on how much flat is worth and how much you would need to buy a house and how much you have in savings, but you can also draw down on pension at 55, (age will rise to 57 in a couple of years) if you were to need it.

It would be useful if you could provide figures; ie how much you have, how much the house is and how much your pension is. Generally, if you have more than a years worth of savings left over after buying the house, then you're in a good position to. I'd carry on working for a bit though to bump up a maintenance fund for the future.