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.

@Soontobe60 Thank you for your reply. You say my pension won't go far but no way do I need £3500 a month or 3 cars. Why would someone draw their pension then to save money?

Well, given that I said ‘yes easily’ (unless intending a high spending lifestyle) with a caveat of “63, mortgage and rent free, eligible for full state pension” , and the OP has confirmed that she is 62, I can say that because 2 years I stopped work 3 years before state retirement age with a pension pot 10% smaller and savings of significantly less.

I run a modest car, have modest holidays but am reserving some of my savings for two big travel trips I want to make, I have a gym membership, NT membership, an alarm contract, make use of cinema membership and cheap daytime tickets for lots of cinema. Theatre once or twice a month by using cheap ticket networks. Out for a drink or a meal at least once a week.

The OP would do well to negotiate an early retirement package voluntary redundancy If that is possible to help limit depleting savings, and should talk to an adviser about optimising the tax and long time growth implications for using savings before drawing (taxable) pension.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandlifeexpectancies/articles/lifeexpectancycalculator/2019-06-07

is a cheery calculator for working out life expectancy. My mum’s life expectancy is older than mine because it increases as you age.

We’ve just retired , similar age , no pension pot , and similar savings
No mortgage
No regrets

Given I wasn’t referring to your post …. 😐

When you say no pension pot but similar savings - do you mean you took the decision to self invest rather than put anymore towards your pension?

if you have no mortgage you need to work out how much you need per month for regular expenditure and how much you need to put aside for irregular expenditure; you will at some point need a new ( even if second hand ) car maybe 3-4 over the course of the rest of your life; replacement appliances house and car maintenance how much annually will you spend on holidays days out buying presents etc, how much will be offset by not needing to commute to work, your heating bills will almost certainly go up your food may go down as eating lunch at home rather than buying it at work, but you may eat out more on days out.
it depends on what is important to you, if your main hobbies once retired are relatively cheap gardening cooking going walking playing tennis and visiting museums and you mostly take picnis with the occasional meal out with the odd off peak holiday in UK or Western Europe you need a lot less than if your hobbies are golf, going on cruises long haul holidays and the opera, theatre and fine dining etc

I have just done this at 55 (NHS pension) my Dh gets state pension in 4 years, I have small home business, Dh works PT my pension pays enough to live on reasonably covers all bills food fuel, regular car and house maintenance clothes eating out and small trips DH's PT work pays for all the extras holidays, birthdays christmas re-decorating and in a few years helping DD at Uni or college etc (his state pension will more than cover this later), my small business is for saving for the irregular expenditure ( my state pension will eventually cover this and money to help DD ), my lump sum is invested but would only be used for something major like new cars it is not for living expenses
I think at 62, 300K is enough to retire on

If I were you I'd go part time for until you're 67, which is 5 years away, and then fully retire. In that time, I'd make plans to ensure my income lasts and see a financial advisor.

I have retired early, I’m 57, DH is still working and hoping to take retirement in 2 years, we have just spent sometime working out our exact outgoings over the last year, no mortgage and DS still lives at home and eats a lot. We spent 27k last year. We are lucky and have final salary defined benefits pensions.

Work out your outgoings first and foremost to the penny. Then think about the spare time you have to fill. Quite a few people spend quite a lot on travel or have big plans but some are modest. My time is now filled with two voluntary jobs, a hiking group and I am about to join U3A as it’s just £20 per year with a list of classes in my local area.

That is plenty to live on especially with the £300k in savings too.
Most people aren’t in that position.
Do you have cash tied up in property too?