How much pension for a comfortable life?

My thinking is the same as Petra.

nobody can be this naive.

Spot on Petra. How could anyone be as naive as this and yet have all the facts and dates about pension / N.I. changes at their fingertips? This sounds like an extremely switched on person, and certainly doesn't sound like someone who would need to come on here and ask advice about how much money they need in retirement.

#takingusforfools

abby in one breath you say you don't know how much you spend, and then you brag as to how much you spend on maintainance of your BIG garden.
Then you say you are saving. If you don't know how much your spending, how do you know how much your saving. As my mum would say: don't try and kid a kidder.

I am surprised that anyone could earn a pension of £10, 000 pa on a salary of £13, 000 pa
I think I've been short-changed!

If you live on your salary of £13, 000 (minus tax and NI) how come he is worrying about living on £18, 000 (his pension) plus whatever your pension would be even if you retire now, plus what sounds like a very substantial amount in savings.

Quite honestly, when so many pensioners are struggling to survive on tiny pensions, I think your DH's problems are not about money.

LuchkyGirl. I have let one person or another ruin almost every stage of my life

This seems to be something many do not understand ( is this the baby boomer attitude I hear so much of - spend it?) and seem to want to see reds under beds and wind ups at every corner. My mother, my school, teachers, various employers, my brother again and , yes my husband.

The only luck I had was my family inheritance ( shared with my step brother) and then , real luck, my elderly childless aunt died and left me her fortune (seriously). She too spent her life like me. But that should not figure in my calculations.

I do not intend wasting her gift to me, spending it on keeping my early retirement going. I have worked for my NI contributions and I am being made to work even longer before I get my state pension, the least that should happen is that I should get it, in its entirety and not give more scumbags money by leaving my work and letting someone else do it probably less well than I do it.

It was a simple enough straght forward , if slightly rude
(as no one discusses money really) question.

Thanks to those who gave the straight forward answer, that seems to confirm my feeling that what I will get will be plenty (I have took the liberty of reading between lines in some cases and reckon around £15K pa is "enough" for my lifestyle which doesnt include eating out and holidays but does include a nice home and a car).

Some seem to forget what I said about my hubby now seeming to think that what he has as a pension is now his ( Thanks to the government telling him this and feminists , I suspect making it a case of all women must do their own bit). He promised to look after me when we married but times have changed.

He made some provision for after his death in his pension,but I will need a full state pension to ensure I can live after he goes .... and despite all, I do not want to see him go too soon.

Thank you for the replies.

abby in one breath you say you don't know how much you spend, and then you brag as to how much you spend on maintainance of your BIG garden
Then you say you are saving. If you don't know how much your spending, how do you know how much your saving. As my mum would say: don't try and kid a kidder

Petra, I didnt say that! Go and read it again.I was asked what I would do when my large garden was too much to handle and what I would do when I had to "downsize" to a smaller house in the town because of ill health.

My reply was that I could afford a town house without selling my own ( and then you all concentrate on something that was not the issue, but just a n irrelevant fact - I can afford to move if I have to) and now you twist and turn that comment into one I never made saying I brag about having a man in to do my garden.

I DO NOT have a man in to do my garden presently. It is my only hobby and interest in life ( as is my house, I would rather not move anywhere). I said, I could afford to get a man in when the time came using my savings at that time. Not now.

You have the wrong end of the stick there. The only kidder here is you.

I am surprised that anyone could earn a pension of £10, 000 pa on a salary of £13, 000 pa
I think I've been short-changed!*

Jalima, I did not say that either. What I said was that as far as I could project, that would be the amount I would have in pension when I retire at 66. That is based on the government state pension forecast that tells me that when I get there ( should I make it and not die of stress and typing fatigue here) I will have around £10K take home, made up of an amount from the new state pension ( the alleged £155 a week) + a little bit. . I will have my full 35 years in at that time (my retirement age will be 66).I do not have any pension attached to my current (a little over) £13K part time employment is irrelevant,except I was asked what it was.

Leaving everything else aside, abbey, the maximum state pension is around £8000. Where does your estimate of £10000 come from?

Abbey with all due respect, this is the strangest thread I have read in a while.

Spending your inherited fortune on an "early retirement" is not wasting it. And as I presume you are in your sixties, it's not really an early retirement, is it?

Why you are hanging on for your State pension because you are entitled to it, but you don't actually need it, is impossible to understand. Well for me anyway. Your explanation is a "dog in the manger" approach.

As for your husband's pension (as he perceives it), you don't need that either.

And finally, as you own a fortune, you don't need to worry about how much is needed for you to retire on. You'll be fine.

OH! how I agree with Grannyknot. I was going to be rather rude, but I have decided to say that having money is a worry, not having money is also a worry, the bigger worry, really, because if you have money you can forget about it, and enjoy the day, so I would suggest you do just that.

Leaving everything else aside, abbey, the maximum state pension is around £8000. Where does your estimate of £10000 come from?

The state pension plus a little bit I am going to get from an earlier employment which had a pension attached to it. Hence £10K

The least I can say is yours is certainly seems to be a First World problem Abbey. I have still not worked out what the problem actually is as you appear to know you will have 'enough and more' in retirement. Although there may be reasons why you are doing it both you and you husband seem, to me, to be finding problems where none exist.

I agree with GK and PRINTMISS.

is-

In defence of the £10k from £13k pension figure. Our joint pension is NOW very close to our joint income when we were working. Taking that we no longer have a mortgage, and children to finance through uni, the effective income may even be higher than when we were working.
This is due to 2 things :-
I paid extra into my pension fund ever since I was 21 as I always planned to retire at 60.
All our pensions, private and state are index linked and have increase compound for the last 14 years.

So depending on your age, a pension can be similar to the salary that created it. I don't think we anticipated this effect when we retired, it is however what is making life financially comfortable for us now.

HOWEVER - Abbey you are too long dead to not enjoy the money you have NOW It is now that you are able to enjoy it, as you get older, you will be able to do less and not be able to enjoy it. As someone said so well, there are no pockets in shrouds.

I am 61. I need to gain another four years NI contributions to bring me up to 35 years paid in NI contributions for a full state pension I am told by the DWP that if I am short on NI,it will cost me at least £5 a week for every year of NI am I short.

I do need those contributions. When my husband dies I will not have a big income. My circumstances will be considerably reduced, especially if I am losing £20 a week (four years lost NI contributions). That would mean £6K instead of £8K in state pension.

I cannot make any back payments ( have checked). The bill for making voluntary/self employed contributions is eye watering.I could sign on but then they would expect me to find a job - any job ( maybe cleaning toilets) and if I have to do that, then I may as well be miserable in my present job instead.

I am afraid the state pension does have to factor in.

My savings may well have to be used, as someone said earlier, to fund my old age, care,maintenance of my home etc. to ensure I am not euthanised because I am a burden ( as may well be the bright new world future in the UK). There is no one to help.

I know for example that I will have to pay for cataract operations at some point in the future - maybe 20 years time or maybe next year, I dont know. My eyesight seems fine and my prescription isnt particularly strong now . I am a life time glasses wearer and the prescription has not changed in the last 15 years but I have cataracts apparently.( Thank you spec savers - told me I have cataracts but not how long before, or if ever, I will go blind). The NHS rations such things.

I will need my money at some point.

But to plan one has to know what ones needs will be and I dont think anyone can afford to be blaze and say, it doesnt matter. Its not about now,with hubby alive, its about when I may be alone and need the financial back up and the income.

Financial advisers and banks etc. seem to inflate the amounts needed. They say I have to have a pension pot which is also blindingly costly. Asking people what it actually costs them is a far more realisitic way of judging things I feel. Hence the question.

But I think I have my answer , so thanks to all.

I have just worked out the compound increase on my pension over 14 years, it works out a about a 50% increase, very significant.

I pleased that you have come to a decision.

My choice would be to enjoy today and not worry about tomorrow, too many of our friends have not made it until tomorrow.

In defence of the £10k from £13k pension figure. Our joint pension is NOW very close to our joint income when we were working. Taking that we no longer have a mortgage, and children to finance through uni, the effective income may even be higher than when we were working.

Funny you say that wobblybits, because I have in fact found this to be the case with my husbands work pension and state pension combined. His work pension is index linked and now stands at about £12+K ( as much as I earn pretty well) and then he gets £123 a week from his state pension (he got a small SERPS addition). Thats on the old pension which I think was £113 a week when he first got it. So, he ( we ) get £12K+ 6K from his pension now. I have £13K coming in and so we have a considerable unspent income given our lifestyle.

We get as much in pension and my earnings as we have ever had.

The downside of that is I have to work and so cant be at home doing things with him and my job is pressured.

Also, his pension includes half his pension as a widows benefit which will come to me if he passes away. Thats a fair amount of money really. Far more than we expected.

So, calculating my own income.I will get £8K from the "new" state pension ( assuming I put in the NI contributions) and also my own little £2K ( it might be a bit more) making £10K. Thats brings our joint income ( I reckon ) to a round £28K. when I retire. Which is pretty well what we have now..... OK a first world problem. I am comfortably off. But I do not take it for granted. Lots of things can happen. The bankers all go bust again and we have to pay or even instead of paying paltry interest on savings, they actually charge me for having money in the bank (it has been mooted).

Without my contribution though, we would be on £19K.

Assuming all things remain constant, if I have £8K pension + my own small £2K pension and then my husbands widows benefit, I would likely have a retirement income of around £15K. Which is pretty well what people say I will need. But I will have to work to 66 to do it.

At the risk of annoying you Abbey - go get a life - YOURS! Your husband, you say, seems worried (I would say obsessed) with how much money he needs or feels you both need to live. You indicate you already have plenty from various sources. You sound fed up with working, but also are really into the pounds and pence angles of contributions/loss per week/month re contributions - real nitty gritty calculations.
My advice (and it's well meant, whatever you choose to think) is to :
1. decide what you WANT to do. If it's to stop working, then stop.
2. tell your husband to stop ranting on about what HE needs.
I'll now get off my soap box.

We live on an income of £14000 a year. Run a car, eat well, go out, have 2 cats. You don't need as much as you think to retire, anything is better than working, but we enjoy a really nice life.

Bear in mind that £30k is above the average wage. One financial adviser I spoke to considered that amount to be 'enough to live on comfortably provided you are sensible'

Worrying about money is one thing, but worrying about being euthanised if you become a burden is crazy! Why not just seek professional financial advice and be done with?

Hi Wobblybits. I actually think £8000 is the maximum state pension now, as SERPS and the second state pension no longer apply. The (roughly) £155 is what you get whether you've worked 30 years or 50, and though there is a minimum salary requirement, you don't earn extra pension for a higher one.

That's a thought though, abbey, you only need 30 years now, not 35.