How much pension for a comfortable life?

What does it matter? You're rich!

I live in a retirement flat, so I won't have to worry about downsizing in the future. I get £11300 State Pension and £9100 Private Pension, which is enough to live comfortably but not extravagantly. That's £20400 total, with £2700 going in charges for the flat. The next largest outgoing is regular contributions to my church and other sponsorship at £2200.

I suppose I'm fairly poorly off compared with people who go on cruises, but I don't know people like that. I know people like Vicky - she and her husband are currently sleeping on the pavement after their tent was vandalised. Compared to them I'm really rich.

Bear in mind, too, if you've got vast amounts of savings, you won't be able to claim any benefits but your house might be falling down around your ears. Such insecurity!! Taking it too far.

Hubby was under the changed rules. NO married mans allowance

The married man's allowance is a tax allowance that has now been abolished except for those born before 6 April 1935 and I understand that your husband is under 81.
However, I understand that you can reduce your tax bill in retirement by the non-taxpayer transferring part of their tax allowance to the taxpayer (Marriage Allowance).

We had always worked on the fact he had paid in and he would get a married mans allowance for me because that is what we were told back in the 1980's/ 90's.
I understand that to mean that you were expecting to receive a reduced pension based on your DH's contributions because you paid the old 'married woman's' lower rate of NI contributions.
I thought that most working women had realised by the 1980/90s that this was not a good idea and started paying the full stamp.

We have a simple system what's mine is hers and whats hers is hers.
That works quite well for us too wobbly

I'm sure that you would be happier if you stopped over thinking your finances and just enjoyed what is left of your life. Time is not on your side. Give your job up and tell hubby that you got the sack/been made redundant. Lighten up - you have loadsa money!

I think that your husband is right about £30K would provide you with comfortable living.

I still don't know why the original post was made - nobody can advise someone else anyway on what makes a comfortable retirement. Everyone is different and has different ideas on what constitutes a good retirement. Most people just make the best of what they have but the poster seems to have much more than enough. As for not touching savings/inheritance money, WHY THE HELL NOT!

OMG what a retirement we could have with the money and saving you have.
We have pensions of £19.000 per annum and we have a good life. We have no saving but consider ourselves lucky to be mortgage free. Our only worry would be that figure would half when one of us dies, but you cut your cloth to suite your funds.
I retired early from a job I hated and was scared at first but needn't have worried we have a wonderful life. Go for it. ?

That's plenty to live a nice life. Our pensions amount to about the same. We've both been retired for 3 years, don't want for anything and as yet have not had to dip into our savings, and can't see any reason to in the future

We had always worked on the fact he had paid in and he would get a married mans allowance for me because that is what we were told back in the 1980's/ 90's.
I understand that to mean that you were expecting to receive a reduced pension based on your DH's contributions because you paid the old 'married woman's' lower rate of NI contributions.
I thought that most working women had realised by the 1980/90s that this was not a good idea and started paying the full stamp

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There was a married mans pension allowance - that is, a married man was able to claim a pension for himself and an additional amount for his wife. Maybe I got the wording wrong?

I am sure people might understand what I meant. This had nothing to do with paying a reduced stamp but simply had to do with being married. I was even told this by the DWP themselves in 1994.We asked specifically because we were looking into my lost years NI at the time and had it been the case I needed to pay them as back years I would have done so then. My husband would claim a married mans pension they said - regardless of how many years I had paid NI or whether I had paid full stamp or not. It would cover my shartfall in years they said. It remained that way until 2011.

But then, a lot here do not seem to yet realise that the number of NI contributions has risen from 30 years to 35 so maybe not.

I am guessing no one has realised the real impact of the 2011 changes.

Yours in frustration.

I worried like mad when I was offered an early retirement deal (they don't exist any more ) I was totally neurotic about it, but went nevertheless. To my surprise, the last thing I discovered I needed to worry about was money. I found I didn't need work clothes, I could holiday when there were cheap flights or deals, I could travel out of peak hours and then free with my pensioner's pass. Now almost twenty years later I live in leggings and trainers from TKMaxx and manage to support my grandchildren through uni, without having to go without. Like others say, it just depends on how you plan to live your life and what's important to you.

As for not touching savings/inheritance money, WHY THE HELL NOT!

Because the old lady who left it me lived a frugal and miserable life to get it for me. I am grateful to my aunt. I know she gave it me because I was the only one who said to her I would look after her and she could come and live with me rather than going in a home. She never did come to live with me, she never did go into a home either, but she left me her money anyway.

I have no right to use her lifelong savings and misery to fund a high living lifestyle or funding my pension and early retirement.She worked all her life in a cr*ppy laundry folding dresses and suits for the high and mighty - that was from the age of 14 until she was 60. Had she wanted the money frittered away by a wastrel she would have left it to my brother and her brother in law (husbands brother).

The money is there to ensure for me,as she did for herself, that there is enough to maintain a home and have care in my old age. Thats why it is to be kept and not used. I will need it soon enough when I am old and need looking after.

It is not in the equation regarding my having enough funds for retirement.

I totally agree that you could retire now & live very comfortably. My DF died at age 49 of a Heart Attack.

I took Early Retirement from my Civil Service job at 50 as my late DH had retired at 65 & suffered from depression on & off. I am glad I took that time from work to be with him as he died from Cancer 3 years ago. We had lots of happy times together if I had carried on working I would have missed all that as at 57 I was widowed (my State Retirement date is 2021 when I am 66, cheers David Cameron)

I am unable to return to work due to my health & rely on my (small) Civil Service Pension & Benefits which take into account my Pension however I do benefit from Council Tax Relief & Housing Benefit (I live in a Park Home which I own but have to pay "site fees" each month).

I survive on a lot less money than Abbey will "have to. but I manage ok, run a car & go out,I eat well buying local produce & cooking from scratch.

What if neither you nor your husband ever need to pay for care? Your poor aunt will have worked her socks off just for the money she left you to be passed on to whoever inherits from you/your husband.

I'm afraid not many of us will be able to understand why you're happy to leave hundreds of thousands of pounds gathering interest (plus the £20,000 in your current accounts!)which you don't intend to touch until you're incapable of looking after yourself, yet you're obsessing about a few pounds per week extra on your pension when you retire.

Abbey you don't have a passport?? That can't be correct, surely. As others have advised, stop wasting energy doing sums and worrying about what may or may not happen in the future. Do what you want to do now and move on.

When I was a child and teen ger I was dragged all over europe every year by my mother(and father but he was about as thrilled by it as I was).I hated every minute. I have no good memories of that time and no good memories of anywhere in Europe , although I do recall an old Dutch lady coming to see my father as we were pulling up ( we took the car) in a village. For her, he was one of the brave men who liberated her from Nazi oppression..... but I digress. Nowadays they all seem happy to live under that oppression and they hate the Brits - but then most of them always did in my experience. I have no intention of repeating it again.

I am happy at home.

Ana is right. I have seen this before... the money/property might not get touched by you, but when you are gone, what will your heirs do with it? You won't ever know, unless you attach conditions to it.

Such as... if your benefactor specifically said you cannot use the money for yourself and set out special conditions, then you have an obligation. If not... it is yours to enjoy.

Do not feel guilty that someone thought highly of you and left you their money. She was a product of her time... you are a product of your time, but surely she wanted you to be happy. Working yourself to the bone is not frittering!

I'm afraid not many of us will be able to understand why you're happy to leave hundreds of thousands of pounds gathering interest (plus the £20,000 in your current accounts!)which you don't intend to touch until you're incapable of looking after yourself

Clealy but then I do not understand why others cannot see my viewpoint either. Everyone seems blinded by the money.

sp clearly. Cannot type.

Thank you MaryXYX for putting this into perspective! Most of us could live perfectly adequately on less than we do and remembering how poorly off some are, whether homeless or simply surviving on benefits, should make us thankful for what we have!

You originally asked how much you and your husband would need to live on, pension-wise. Fair enough, but you don't seem to be happy with any of the answers, abbey.

Did you really need to announce that you could buy a couple of houses with your inheritance, plus the fact that you have two current accounts with over £20,000 in each!

No wonder people are wondering what advice you actually want...

We had always worked on the fact he had paid in and he would get a married mans allowance for me because that is what we were told back in the 1980's/ 90's.
^I understand that to mean that you were expecting to receive a reduced pension based on your DH's contributions because you paid the old 'married woman's' lower rate of NI contributions.
I thought that most working women had realised by the 1980/90s that this was not a good idea and started paying the full stamp^

I think you have your wires crossed a bit abbey.
As I said married man's allowance is a tax allowance which has now been done away with except for those born before 6th April 1935 whereby the man has a personal allowance plus another allowance for his wife, giving him that bit more before he starts paying tax. An anomaly in this day and age really.

There was a married mans pension allowance - that is, a married man was able to claim a pension for himself and an additional amount for his wife. Maybe I got the wording wrong?
Yes, a wife could get a reduced pension based on her husband's contributions; either she did not work in paid employment therefore paid no NI (as many did not years ago) or opted to pay a reduced rate of NI if she was working - the 'married woman's rate'. She did not earn a State Pension in her own right, another anomaly in this day and age.

I thought most people understood this and did their retirement planning accordingly.

You do not have to fritter away your aunt's legacy, I am sure she would be happy to know that you are using it to have a 'comfortable' retirement.

If you have no heirs then the Government will be happy to take it.

I am reading Anna Quindlan's book 'Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake' and have just got to this passage about getting older, so I will quote a part ,
"Sometimes we look at the amount in the pension plan, the retirement account, the investment portfolio, and do calculations that scare us. With longer life comes the need for a larger safety net, and we fear the holes in that net."
Perhaps that is the anxiety that abbey is suffering from.

This had nothing to do with paying a reduced stamp but simply had to do with being married. I was even told this by the DWP themselves in 1994.
It had everything to do with paying a reduced stamp, which many married women did (or no stamp at all).
Had you worked from, say, leaving college at 21 and paid a full stamp even after you married then you would be receiving a full pension in your own right.
Because you opted out and paid a married woman's stamp (ie a reduced rate of NI) which was optional but not compulsory you appear not to have the requisite number of years to earn a full pension in your own right.

#shakesheadinfrustration

Ana, You are wrong. I am very happy with some of the answers. It is clear that I can live on around £15K easily -maybe less. That answers the question I asked.

However, I have to remember that I cannot access that amount of money in my own right until I am 66.My husband will not be happy if I retire and put us in reduced circumstances now ( albeit that we will have more than £20K at that.It wont be my earnings).

I have money, yes, but again I will be up against my husbands views . I have to live with him and he is a good man.Further, I am reluctant to use money given to me precisely because I am not a happy go lucky ,live life and waste money person to fund an early retirement.

However, despite my disappointments and unhappiness now, I know that in 2021 I will be able to retire and I will have enough to live on.So that does answer the question really - and yes I am happy with that answer.

As to what happens to my money when I die ( assuming hubby is gone as well). I guess all the wastrels and green eyed monsters in my wider family will be eyeing it up, as I know they already are actually. That and the begging letters I am getting from my already well endowed alma mater, who want me to leave them a legacy and I have not reached retirement yet.

However, in recent times judges have seen fit to overturn wills so I guess I will die and then they can all fight over it - and hope it does none of them any good. It was not intended as a live today and spend legacy.

I hope, daft as it sounds to be able to do a Clint Eastwood character in Gran Torino, where the money is concerned and leave it to someone who will be its caretaker and take from it only what is necessary and pass it on again to someone who needs it and will look after it in the careful manner by which it has been accrued.

Otherwise I can leave it to the cats to keep them in comfort.

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