What would a retirement on £3,145 a month look like?

[serin]

DH has retired. He is 10 years older than me and wants me to retire as well. His reckoning is that if I work another 10 years he will be 77! Just 3 years off 80 and it won't give him long to have the freedom to travel much as a couple etc.
If I retired tomrw our joint income would be £3145 per month. If I took my small private pension it would be £3800 in total.
Does that sound like a reasonable amount to live on or am I deluded?

We own the house outright and do have some savings. Our DC have flown the nest.
I grew up in absolute poverty and even whilst our children were small there were times we were really struggling. I think this has affected my attitude to money and I'm terrified of not having a steady income and returning to egg on toast every night.

Does £3800 seem ok as a long term situation? My friends are of a similar age, some retired and some not, money is never discussed so I have nothing to compare with.

It’s plenty if you’ve paid off your mortgage, and any children are financially independent. I mean most people spend 50% of their income on living and work (travel, etc) expenses, another 25% on child expenses, so it’s probably equivalent to about £100k / year for a young couple with children.

And remember, by the time he’s 80, he’s not going out much.

As an Ect (first two years) and after student loans and pension the take home is just under £2000 on average, so no, not a great deal more.

Actually,,,scrap that...it's less..more like 60k which of course is still enough to live on especially if you have no mortgage

I'll have less than half that amount. You'll be fine OP if you want to retire early..

Retire, rent out the house and go travelling, you will have plenty to live on and your state pension will kick in in 10 years, if you get bored in a couple of years you can get part time work

I've just got home from work and I'm completely blown away by all your responses. Thank you so much to everyone that has commented.
There is a huge amount of invaluable advice for me to absorb here.

For those that have less and whom I have offended, I sincerely apologise. There have been prolonged times in my life when I've gone hungry and I should have realised that it was tactless of me to give exact figures.

I'll have a proper read through later and I'm really grateful to you all.

Do some senario planning. What if you worked an extra 2/3 years full time, or 5 years part time, what if he dies first, what if you do....go through them together. Personally I would go for a compromise option. If he wNted you to retire together he really should have got your buy in 10 years ago so you could plan it properly....

It's over double what I'm on (or ever have been) so it'll be fine!

Sounds huge to me, but that's about what we earn between us with two kids. Though I have paid off the mortgage. So if you have no kids and no mortgage, I think it sounds very comfortable. TBF on our earnings I still feel like a millionaire, because it's enough to buy the luxuries as well as the necessities, after spending quite a long time trying to scrape enough together for bills.

I'd take the retirement. It sounds like you have plenty, just check your figures. Im 55 my DH is 61. We're semi-retired. I work part time and he is on flexible retirement 50%. We own our house and have pension money and lower salaries coming in but nowhere near yours and we have 3 grown up kids at home. You cant take it with you. I'm enjoying my 50's more than the hard slog of bringing up kids. I will retire fully as soon as hubby does. Unless you live for your work I would go for it.

it was tactless of me to give exact figures

No it wasn't, OP. The exact figures were required so people could advise you.

All the best.

@lilkitten where on earth do you live that a pre tax salary of £3k for a family of four makes you feel like a millionaire??! I want to move there!

That is around £965 more per monh than an equivalent family on a full Universal Credit award (with no housing costs and no disabilities) would get per month.

From your extra £965 you would have to absorb the cost of: full-cost water bills/ electricity in the absence of social tariffs; prescription costs; school meals, trips and transport- no FSM or pupil premium funding; full council tax (no rebates for low income); buildings insurance; property maintenance costs …lions share of uni living cost support if that’s the path your kids chose.

£3.1k per month pre tax is also quite some way below the pre tax income of two adults working full time for the minimum wage.

I live on less than that and have rent to pay, and two adult children in university. You are mortgage free so unless you have some huge debt or massive monthly outgoings, yes, you definitely can live on £3k a month!

Haha, a small town in the Midlands. We run a business so it's been building, but last year we took home £22k in total which was hard. This years profits are up much more. I need £1200 a month for all bills, food etc. Not entitled to any benefits (after the first 12 months on UC the threshold as SE goes so high it negates any entitlement). We save about £300 a month and have a lot of luxuries, but I've been good at living on a shoestring for so long.

Wow indeed. Some of us can only dream of that much when working, let alone in retirement.

Oh come on, it's not even the take home pay of two people on NMW,it's hardly millionaire money.

The majority who have commented its more then they earn now are not at retirement age - save your apologies

Getting older, on the cusp of retirement is a completely different story. We have new challenges, new fears, then someone mid 30s still struggling to build a career after taking time out to have children

I posted that Im not particularly worried about the income, as it will be more then we bring in now, but I dont have children so have no nagging thoughts that I need leave an inheritance. If I need to sell my home to pay for care - then it happens - its only going to a charity otherwise

So I can afford to be blasé.

Me and DH are very close in age, his health is crumbling due to occupation. He was always the earner. Ive worked PT and often ad hoc from my 30's , yet now its me on my PT hours that pays for the upkeep and living expenses so he can build a pot ( he earned it, he spent it )

DH has made no planning for retirement, I didn't understand too much so have only my NHS pension , my since then work place pensions, safe savings - bank rates, and what I can earn

I know we won't be struggling and as I say we have a lot of money in our property that Im happy to ditch asap for care home fees or to downsize considerably

I think though for you, the question is, are you ready for retirement ?

I left a physically demanding job 3 years ago, through an accident come the end, but I was finding it hard. I then was unemployable for 9 months as I recovered and when I was ready for the work place, less hours and a lot lighter - and this past year, Ive been living my best life - work 20 hours , have time to care for mother and have 2 full days a week with DH. He works 21 hrs over three days, I work 20 over 5. Means not only the 2 full on days we have 2 half days together, we can chose to have days out or do DIY or housework or just bugger off

Those hours together are plenty , we have lots of different interests to keep ourselves as individuals occupied , but we also have that time where we come together and enjoy that time just as much

Would a compromise be to drop your hours to start with and going away for long weekends? Testing the waters and seeing how you get on - your wage would drop but you’d be earning and if needs be you may be able to adjust them again.

If you’re stressed and manual handling - are you in the NHS - is retire and return an option for you on far fewer hours with leave you’d get some good travel if savvy? (All the pension advice confuses me and i’m 30 years off, and I may be making a wrong assumption about your job)

It sounds to me like you’re not ready or happy to give up work. You can still have good holidays while you’re working and your husband can take up some hobbies.

I've never had that much money every month my entire life! I've also brought up my daughter alone, got her into private education ( scholarship) and paid off a mortgage on less than that! If it was me I'd 🤔 I was rolling in it!

In answer to your question, imo, like I'd won the lottery!

Lucky you 😳😳

What sort of pension do you each have, op?

Both index linked. NHS/Public service.
I will have a small lump sum, DH has has already had his lump sum. I think I will bite the bullet and retire next Jan, just after my next birthday. That will give me some time to plan what I'm going to do with myself and look at volunteering opportunities.

Those pensions are 'gold plated!'

However, you do need to do some serious planning on what you will do when he dies. Finance advisors base their advice on men dying first as statistically that's what happens.

You need to 'do the sums' because if you work for another few years it may increase your own pension quite a lot.