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.

If you just want to survive it’s enough but if you want to travel extensively it’s nowhere near enough.

I’d not even consider retiring yet if that was my income.

It's what we live on at the moment, until I get my state pension. It's plenty as we own our house and run one car. We aren't extravagant people, we never have been. We eat well (Morrison's, Booth's, Aldi, M&S) but we don't smoke and rarely buy alcohol. Holidays are paid for from savings. We still save every month, not because we try to, it's just what's left over.

Money saving expert forum have a ‘How much to live on’
retirement thread been going ages. I went at 55yrs because of ill health, but my life has got very small no dependents or mortgage, better off now than ever when I was working, but not clubbing or smoking, Spend most of my time attending hospital apts not just me but elderly parents. I made the right decision for me.

Its all horses for courses really isnt it?

For me? That's a lot of money

If we were to retire together right now, our joint income would be £2200 a month

Right now we live and save pretty well on £3500 a month

We dont have a champagne lifestyle , there are no world cruises on the horizon , but we arent those sort of people

we are 61 and 64 at the moment , both working 20hrs a week

At the moment we need two cars and the associated costs - that will halve

Right now we are also carers for mother and we live in a big house, time will come that she's no no longer here and the house will seriously be too big so we will downsize - halving heating and rates and electric

We live a simple life, rural, dog, cat and hens. Our travelling is in small 3/4 night blocks - uk mainly and some European cities - one a year at least to Europe , two a year uk

What we are doing, and have been doing the past 10 years , is keeping on top of house and home - not letting it get dated , making the improvements it needs to make it relevant to a young family so it will sell

We have saved for the big hurrah for when mum is no longer with us - 3 months Australia and Aisa - as long as we are still fit enough :)

So for me, yep that income is plenty

There's many different ways of enjoying retirement. As a PP has already mentioned - Epic Retirement on FB is worth joining. Even those on tiny incomes still travel the world - they house swap, pet sit, rent theirs out , do cheapest flights to wherever and take an underseat bag ( which is what we do )

Retirement is a huge adjustment , which is why we are doing it slowly. We are both happy with the work life balance we have right now - he does 3 days, I do 5 early mornings , plenty of time to be together , and also plenty of time to do our own things and time to be with others and him being self employed, he choses what days he works so we get our breaks away without a problem

Once you stop working or reduce the working week, day to day life becomes cheaper

That’s the bigger issue.

Sounds plenty to me

Solo living isn’t cheap. Generally speaking, two will always live cheaper than someone on their own.

I'll tell you what retirement on £3800 a month looks like to me. Bloody heaven! If you've paid off your house then you're going to have to go some to spend that much, even with travel. Travelling is great but the best bits of it are free. If you've been on a budget your whole life just continue, without having to work. If I could pull in that much in retirement I'd retire tomorrow. Life's for living, not bloody working!

Make provision now for the future…….ensure your home is registered severed tenancy, best way I can explain it as you both own half, not jointly own the whole property. I know that wasn’t your question but it’s worth thinking about if you haven’t done it already.

If you have enough years in on your N I contributions and after calculating your living costs then go for it…..you’ve stated that your work involves manual handling and with respect, you’re not getting any younger…..so enjoy the years ahead.

In London doesn’t seem that much as some here are saying.

We retired age 57 three years ago. We still have a small mortgage (£600 pcm for one more year) and a son at uni who we need to top up (£700 rent pcm). Our combined pension is maybe 4k ish but we've travelled a LOT, been to every festival we want and gone a bit mad with freedom for three years. We've used a bit of our savings to fund some of this but we still have those key outgoings that you don't hsve. So, I think you'd be absolutely fine. Do it while you're both fit and active.

Please don’t be swayed by people not in your position, not at your stage of life, not thinking about the realities of being a pensioner with a deflating salary…

There can be a real “race to the bottom” mentality here. Just remember many of the people posting along the lines of, “ you were lucky! You had ‘tpot to piss in and one day at Cleethorpes every year” will a) have their whole working lives ahead and b) have not enough understanding of the costs of aging. Aging increasingly means we will be around until 85-90. You’re currently 57. That’s 30 years of inflation ahead.

30 years ago my rent (in an admittedly manky flat) was £30 per week, or around £130 per month. For similar now, I’d be looking at £500 per month at least, ex bills, and it would be equally horrible.

Not sure everyone got that this is joint income, but income aside it sounds like you aren’t 100% ready to retire, could you semi-retire and reduce your days/hours / change roles (I know likely to be difficult but something to consider) so that you have more time together and are less stressed but still have a bit more money coming in and you’re not fully retired.

We are now 73 and 76 and have been retired for ten years. We bought a very nice camper with our lump sums and updated with a new one 5 years ago with some savings. Our total pension income was around £3000 pm on retirement. We owned our house and managed quite well on that amount despite council tax of over £3000 a year. I will say that it is essential to have time for travel before 70 as after that health and vehicle insurance becomes very expensive. We sold our house 2 years ago as we were away 6 months of the year and house/garden were becoming a burden. We have a room/bathroom in our son’s house when we are in the country paying rent to him that covers all his bills including groceries. Pensions now around £3500 pm and goes a long way, even funding most of our travels. My advice is if you are ready for retirement do it and start your travels. You will never get these years back to spend together.

As a single parent that is more than I can currently earn, so that looks like a dream!

Well it’s more than some family’s bring in, working with a mortgage and kids, so as long as you don’t have massive outgoings I think you will be fine

We have retired early, bought a Motorhome and I do voluntary work we are in our later fifties. DH does still do some consulting and stuff.

With no mortgage a thousand a week is plenty to live off. Plus you have savings, hope you are making the most of them. Our pensions are known but our income fluctuates due to the performance of investments. Have you factored in what your savings make you PA?

Lots of my friendship circle have retired early, my mate and her DH did at 59 and 61 during covid. He is now seriously ill and not expected to live 12 months. When you’re hitting about 60 then in theory you may have around 20 years of being alive left. What people don’t really think about is how many healthy years they have.

Plus what sort of travelling? You can travel out of school holidays so much cheaper.

To those of you who are raising children and are incredulous at the OP's question, with respect, this is the Retirement board and those already retired or contemplating it are at a different stage in life than you are. We've raised our children - with all the associated costs of childcare and university - and had the challenge of paying off mortgages.

Now we have to decide if our retirement funds will provide a comfortable income for, in the OP's case, possibly another 30 years, including care costs should the need arise.

OP - I'm 62 and, like you, would find retirement at this stage "soul destroying." I work 30hrs per week and purchase extra holiday allowance. But I do have a cushy office job. Could you drop your hours so you don't have to draw your pension, can carry on saving but still have time with your DH and do some travelling.

Extremely nice… that’s about what we’ll live on as a couple while I’m at university the next few years. If you budget a bit you’ll have a nice life

£3.1k for two people without a mortgage is amazing retire on, esp if you’ve not got a mortgage!

id suggest you do a ‘living below your means’ budget spreadsheet.Dont just guess the amounts, actually compare them to your spending exam month.

You are very likely to outlive your husband. If you're 57 years old, you could live for another 30 years. Your husband made the choice to marry somebody much younger and no doubt enjoyed having a younger spouse. I don't think he's thinking of your future at all in this, only his. I think at 57 you'd possibly end up being very bored if you retired. A colleague of mine with an older husband did retire early to spend more time with her husband. She was bored and unhappy and went back to her old job within a year.

Where is this income coming from? Is it from assets you own, like property or DC pension schemes or ISAs? Or is it Government promises like public sector pension schemes/ state pensions jn which case there are no actual assets except your house, and if one of you dies or public policy changes you may be left with no much at all?

I think so.
Do you both drive, do you both have cars, will you both want to buy new cars, how many holidays do you want to go on, new furniture, will you need a gardener or cleaner or both? meals and travel, gym, cinema, tv packages, what about things like dental costs?

It’s all very well in the lovely summer months, but winter could be frugal and very boring. You also sound like you’ll be bored if you leave now. Could you go part time? Or look for part time work? It’s all relative I suppose, but that wouldn’t be enough for me personally.

If your job is MH how about a compromise - a PT job in retail which allows days together, you to still work, stops the £800 shortfall which you can put straight into savings?

OP I retired at 59. I still work one day a week but end up paying most of my earnings into a private pension. DS had to give up work at 60 ish after having a stroke. Between us our net income ( pensions) is about £3600 a month. My earnings, from my very part time job, net between 1500-2500 a month but are really to support DS at uni.
DH has 3 years until he can draw his state pension so he is drawing down his private pension up to his tax allowance limit.
Once DS is off our hands I will retire completely and will draw down my private pension so our joint income from pensions will be around £4000 a month net ( net of tax).

We have found our current financial situation very comfortable. With no commute, travels costs are low. We also both qualify for senior citizen rail passes which can save you a lot of money on day trips. And it means travel is less stressful.

When DS is at uni our food bill and energy bills halve. We don’t have to watch our money too much. We live off my pension and use DH’s for replacing stuff. We have gradually been improving our energy consumption by replacing appliances with ultra efficient versions. Even the car does twice the miles to the gallon than the last one. A deliberate move to cut down general running costs.

We had new double glazing and had to have the central heating boiler replaced. They have cut our energy bills by at least a third, when DS is not around.

On the whole we don’t have to go out as much. Having the time to prepare decent meals and just having a more relaxed attitude to life means you spend less.

I love the fact that I can choose to have days when I just read a book or watch a box set without feeling guilty. Reading a book costs nothing, well only the cost of the book. I can potter in the garden, walk the dog. Meet up for a coffee with friends and I’m no longer constantly in a rush.