Enough to retire?

[longingtoretire]

I'm longing to retire. Is a pension pot of £350,000 and £300,000 in savings/investments enough if I live frugally?

I'm happy to top up my income with a few hours stacking shelves or something similar but desperately need to quit the rat race.

Too many questions really ,
What age are you and how long before your state pension kicks in

Will you be paying rent / mortgage into retirement

What are your outgoings
What costs will you incur in retirement re capital expenditures, eg holidays , new car / boiler / kitchen , planned home improvements.

Need more info really . Over £300k sounds a lot of money but it's not really when funding what could be years of retirement.

The big question is how old are you? If over 60 and mortgage free, then yes probably. If younger, renting or mortgaged, maybe not. You need to speak to an IFA.

How old are you? What are your outgoings? Might be enough in some circumstances and not in others eg if you rent or still have a mortgage. Are you happy to use it all up or want to leave a legacy?

Might be worth working out what you would have to live on if you put your pension into drawdown and took the natural yield from your savings (ie spend the interest only). Then try to live on that amount for 3 months to see how you feel

Op you don’t seem very financially savvy in the slightest to be asking this question and providing a sentence of detail

That £300k in savings will get you £15,000 a year in interest alone currently. It will go down if rates settle obviously, but even if they went down to 3% that's £9,000 a year. Obviously if you have it invested it will vary.

Assuming your mortgage is paid off if you have that amount of money sitting in savings/investments.

Speak to an IFA about it to get an actual illustration.

Aged 42, still paying a mortgage and won’t get full state pension? No.

63, mortgage and rent free, eligible for full state pension: Yes. Easily unless you have high spending ambitions.

Depends if you are 35 or 75, in a heap of debt or debt free.

My apologies. I'm 62 with no mortgage.

Meaningful money podcasts are good for financial knowledge building. You need to talk to a financial planner not an advisor. Advisors mainly want to sell you policies etc for commission. The planner looks at where you are now and where you want to be so for you retired ASAP. Can then advise on strategy to get where you want to be.

I'm eligible for a full state pension at 67

You need proper financial advice - see an IFA. Nobody on here can offer you decent advice without knowing the ins and outs of your life, your spending, what you plan to do, your health and so on.

Not sure you need an IFA! But you do need advice, id really recommend Pensionwise , a free, government service www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/pension-wise

They really helped me make some decisions- they don't give advice but help you to understand your options much better.

You haven't answered the questions about your income requirements or housing status, but you will get your state pension in 5 years and could easily use the yield from your savings and/or drawdown some of your pension to fill the gap until then, but without knowing your income requirements it's all a bit "how long is a piece of string?"

If you've only 5 years to go for state pension I think it's just about doable but you won't have much money for luxuries or expensive holidays. You can obviously gain good interest on the £300k but the question is can you live off the internet for 5 years I told state pension kicks in or will you have to drawdown some for 5 years?

I retired early at 56 1/2. I had to wait 3 1/2 years until my teachers pension started and I got my retirement lump sum. I had a second private stakeholder pension I had invested in and I drew down £5k from that each year. I kept under the tax threshold. I managed to live on it but also had rental incomes each month. My mortgage was paid and DH still works and earns a good wage. He paid all household bills. I retired early to do caring for a family member. I got carer's allowance of about £67 per week. Family member died after a year and a half but I didn't want to go back to teaching then. When I'm 67 I will get full the state pension. I'm 61 now and when I turned 60 and started to get my teaching pension and lump sum I bought an annuity as rates were high with the rest of my second private pension and I paid £30k to get £4.2k a year for life. I also have income from btl property portfolio.

forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6228191/how-much-to-live-on

Loads of great advice over on the Over 50's board on Money Saving Expert. The How Much to Live on Board is full of people who don't have a lot of money to retire on.

Just depends on the income you need surely. I’m not a fan of annuities, but now rates have increased they have a place. And they are useful measure of ‘worst’ case from a pension perspective. A 60 year old will get roughy 4.2% with 3% indexing - so if you spent £500k on an annuity you’d have £21/22k income now, an additional £10k state pension in 5 years and £150k in the bank to bridge the gap until state pension . Does that sound doable?

This is excellent advice.

How much does a Financial Planner cost? How do they earn their commission?

This maybe something I need.

We meet our planner once yearly. He does get commission from managing our stocks and shares ISA 0.5% above the vanguard fee. To us worth it but once we had the information about what we needed to do then we could have used the ISA held by vanguard etc if we felt confident to pick a fund. Meaningful money has been so useful can’t recommend it enough there is a whole series dedicated to retirement planning.

It rather depends on what they’re dealing with and level of advice and involvement you want

beat to approach local independents

Yes, it should be enough unless you want an extravagant lifestyle. It's worth getting an IFA to help you draw up a plan to ensure your funds last as long as you need and for tax efficiency.

Yes, easily, I think the last report was average pension pot was £70,000, you are way above that + savings, if you take an average life expectancy of a woman 82, you have an average chance of living another 20 years, PP and savings together £650,000 divided by 20 is £32,500 a year, not including state pension, ( not allowing for tax ) obviously the amount can rise and fall if invested, if you last past 82 how much money do you need? Depends on health and mobility, my father is 89 due to illness, apart from going to the doctors etc ,he never goes out of his flat and doesn’t spend his state pension, go for it while you are fit and active, before it’s to late.

Yes, easily,

how on earth can you say this with knowing such scant detail

Yes easily, especially when the state pension kicks in,

Thank you for all the replies. I will consult an independent advisor but it does at least sound as if retirement could be around the corner.