What monthly income do couples need for a comfortable retirement?

[sha777]

Hi.
I'm just trying to work out what we need money-wise in retirement.
Can anyone give us a real-life experience of what they live on.
Our requirements are quite simple we have no debt or mortgage.
Couple of holidays abroad per year and like to eat out once a week .
Were hoping £2500 a month will give us that.

What do you have done? I have a cut and blow dry every 6-8 weeks and pay £35, which I think is enough!

I don’t think it’s quite as simple as that. Once we aren’t working I don’t expect we’re just going to want to sit in our home in the commuter belt. We will likely want to travel, a lot, to take up new interests which might be quite expensive, to have a nicer car for long road trips in and so on.

Live like a king on that!

Cut, roots, colour, highlights, blow dry I have a thing about my hair. But I don't spend a lot of money on make up etc or clothes tbh as I have plenty. I do like footwear and nice jackets. The things I don't understand are botox, fillers, nails etc.

One of my best friends gets those big pointy nails, and (I feel really bitchy for saying this) she's tiny (heightwise) but has hands like shovels. Seriously massive hands with big red pointy nails.

I wish I could say to her "WHY????".

But I never will, because I love her anyway.

That’s a very high amount, way more than what the majority of get, I bet and twice what we get which is enough to live on, and save some!

As I've said this is a topic often talked about but please do share what you get done for 35 pounds and where. I googled randomly and got this

I can see that OP isn't commenting anymore, @sha777

But for anyone else who is looking into this I suggest 2 Facebook groups. The first is good for anyone who wants to be financially savvy

https://www.facebook.com/groups/589924215050166

The second covers not just finances but everything retirement related

https://www.facebook.com/groups/1777292142611443

Good luck

Mines is £95, then I pay a tenner tip. I think you might be mixing posters up?

.

Sorry yes I did buy this is veering off topic. People spend different amounts according to their needs.

Exactly!

But you said mine sounded like a rip off 🤷‍♀️

To ME it does! I do think it's all subjective.

Surely it’s not that complicated to work out? It’s simply what you currently spend per month less mortgage, child-related costs and any private pension contributions? All other costs remain.

It’s a ridiculous sum that just causes panic in people. There are people living perfectly good lives up and down this country on much less than that throughout their working lives, so why on earth would they need more in retirement when their costs will be less and welfare support (free bus travel, concessions etc.) is higher? It’s nonsense.

Jesus Christ - most people aren't earning that!

Some are having several luxury holidays a year, lots of expensive meals out etc. Seems excessive to me. One holiday and a few days out or weekend breaks would be enough for me, but I suppose if you have pots of money you feel you have to spend it on something!

I have worked out a spreadsheet and reckon on today’s prices I could live with £2.5k per month (after tax) and be fine

do a spreadsheet and all your outgoings then add in extra stuff you want to do and see where it ends up

But that’s my point, there’s no nuance to it, it’s based on averages. A person who has always lived frugally is not going to start spending like a Rockefeller in retirement. Pension planning is easy: take what you spend now and remove housing, childcare and any private pension contributions. The sum you’re left with is the sum you need.

For some people that may very well be £10k a month. For most it’s likely to be much, much less than that. Using averages for things like this is pointless, it just scares people.

It's not excessive, it's great!

The people who think this is what you need are, imo, the same people who say £12500 a year is far too much to give to people who have had a long hard shift and paid into the system for over 40 years.

Tbh, the fact that they think this should be pitied, rather than scolded.

That's their bar. Money. The happiest people, imo, are the ones who get the full state pension and nothing else, except the love of their family, friends and neighbours.

Do you have anything else except money? I think relationships are more important tbh. And, I could be wrong, but imo, you are trying to shame people for not worshipping money?

However, if that's what you need, then it's great.You have it.

Different people need different things.

We tracked our spending for 12 months (9 from bank statements, and 3 in real time) to see where it was going. We made some good adjustments, but it has been a good eye opener to why budgeting efforts in the past didn’t amount to much.

Once we were clear on an our average monthly spend we booked a session with a financial advisor, who plugged the figures into a program (voyant, I think?) along with our investments, savings, school fees, pensions, age of dc and college aspirations, predicted ages of retirement, and that gave us info on how far the money would take us.

It's weird that you have come to such a bonkers conclusion!

Well I have! So I must be bonkers.