How much money for a confortable retirement?

[Mindfulness99]

I will be 52 this year, DH is 8 years older; I am hoping to retire with him in 5 years time.

How much do we ned for a comfortable retirement; assuming no debts. DC19 will only be 19 so may still need help; however they are not sure they want to go to university.

Perhaps I should continue to work part time but would like some flexibility to travel. We are both from overseas/different continents each.

Comfortable

It drives in what your income is currently, how tight your current budget is, whether you’ve a mortgage still etc

0.5 million for two people living a "comfortable life" isn't it?

Well it depends what your outgoings are. If you'll have paid off your mortgage by then, then it's council tax, bills, and food, plus whatever else you spend money on. Do you/he have private pensions? Neither of you will be eligible for state pensions in five years - more like seven for your DH.

£59k per year as a couple according to this website, which looks pretty well thought out.

https://www.retirementlivingstandards.org.uk

Im wondering what the hell I am doing wrong given my high income salary doesn’t let me do the things on the mid level one 😅(And the reason is … mortgage and kids at school and uni)

Thank you; will look at the link

No mortgage hopefully; so money will be food, bills, house repairs, holidays, hobbies, a bit of help for kids if they are not fully independent

Doing a quick calculation around 50k does sound right.

Is it 4 percent of the total savings? So we need more than a million? Is this right? 1,250,000?

I shall stop looking at pension and retirement. May have to continue part time for a few more years

To have an income of £50k you need a significant pension pot. What is in your pensions?

£50k if you have paid mortgage off is on the high end. I think £40k more than enough, are we talking net?

Remember that you’ll also get state pensions in time, so you can potentially withdraw at a slightly higher rate than 4% in the intervening years.

Have a look at https://try.guiide.co.uk/simple/?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMImZ7Q-qmwjAMVaJVQBh1EVQWUEAAYASAAEgK9d_D_BwE

Also worth using a budget planner like the MSE one to get an idea of what your idea of comfortable is likely to cost as it could be much less or much more than the average.

£40k isn’t going to allow travel and a comfortable lifestyle and supporting a child at university (which generally means paying their rent so that in itself is between about £7k and £12k pa)

Assuming you want £50k, remember when you each hit state pension age that’s around £12k so roughly half of that can come from that. So you need to work it out in stages. How much do you need before that kicks in and then after.

Op has another 15 years or so before she can get state pension though

Nobody can answer that. So much depends on your outgoings, commitments etc, and what you mean by "comfortable".
But if you are having to ask the question, then I suspect that your current pension pot may not be enough......

I’m planning on £2k a month at 55 , half for bills and things like Christmas / birthdays and car expenses , food and half to fund meals out , hobbies and holidays

Just go part time. 57 is early to retire when you are still supporting kids.

50’s and retired early. We get 50k from our public service pensions between us and top up 2k a year in dividends. I will go back to part time (self employed very flexible) work as we are feeling the pinch having to support a child in Uni to the tune of 10k a year and possibly more if they do a masters.

For comfortable lifestyle and supporting a child in Uni I would aim for 60k a year.

No mortgage and no car finance.

Thank you all for your comments. Very useful information. It sounds like 60k is probably more realistic. We both have families in different continents, outside of Europe and DC2 will only be 19 in 5 years

I think it is more likely I will have to go part time in 5 years time and fully retire at 60 when DC2 be 22 and DC1 26.

Dh and I plan to retire when I’m 60 and he’s 67, between the two of us we’ll have an annual income of 50k then when I’m 67 I’ll also get my old age pension (let’s hope) to add to the pot.

At the point we retire we should have no debts, no mortgage, and 1 good car. We won’t be jetting off to the Maldives twice a year but should be able to have the odd holiday and have a decent standard of living.

we are also future proofing our house. Looking at getting solar panels, having a small extension for a downstairs shower room, plus looking at a new kitchen and bathroom and boiler before we retire too so hopefully won’t have any ‘big ticket’ items to replace due to being worn out to buy.

Yes I would say £50k here also.

£2k a month - £24k a year would be fine for day to day if our mortgage was paid off.

But it wouldn’t give any spare for renovations and house maintenance ( ie new roof, windows, heating). Wouldn’t cover help like a gardener or paying someone to paint/fix things ( we diy where possible now, but when old probably not). And wouldn’t be enough for travel, helping Ds out etc. So min another £20k I think ( £10k a year to for house maintenance ( not spent every year, but large projects will be pricey), £10k travel and Ds and other luxuries .
So £50k a year would be ‘comfortable’

We probably won’t ever fully retire to be able to afford it. Luckily both our work can be done at home as as full or part time as we like, so we can adapt as needed

Loving how all these amounts are more than I earn now, including massive mortgage thanks to Liz Truss.

Also loving how my “gold plated” pension (that I was told on other threads should be taken away and is unfair to the private sector who “pay my wages”) will never get me close to these amounts, despite paying in since I was 21 in what is supposed to be an excellent pension scheme in a professional role.

Is that for a couple, and including two state pensions, LividSunshine? That seems to be what most people are talking about (c £24k from two state pensions plus personal pension on top).

Don’t they say you need a pension pot of £1m? Mine is almost that, give or take several hundred k!!

They say you need a £1m pot to roughly give a pension income of about £35k