How much pension for a comfortable life?

It's all relative isn't it. I expect if you had been a billionaire, you would think yourself poverty-stricken if you were down to your last fifty million or so.

My own view is that everybody should have somewhere decent to live, which they can afford to heat and maintain properly, a reasonably good diet, enough money to buy clothes appropriate to the season, to use public transport - or maintain a car if public transport is unavailable, and money for essential white goods and furniture and inessentials such as days out, presents, a TV, one annual holiday etc. It is impossible to quantify such an amount because, to some extent, it depends on where you live. In areas where the cost of living is high - such as London or other major cities, even discounting housing costs I consider the amount needed for a fairly comfortable retirement would be at least £2,000 per month.

For Ethel.

Love it ethel , my position too . State pension, single and happy as Larry .

Well said Ethel. I am continuing to work but am well past retirement age. I too will just have the state pension. I would feel that I'd won the lottery if I could expect the amounts some gransnetters mention! As for the husband - he has an ugly soul, the love of money and all that....

I have tried a couple of times to write a message on this thread, but I am struggling to find the right words to describe my feelings.

How ridiculous to say you can't retire yet, when you are so well off. I wonder what your aunt would think about you not making use of her fortune (your word) to enable you to retire?

Why on earth does your husband fear poverty when you have so much money? Does he not know how much you have or something?

The amount you could pay for Class 3 Voluntary Contributions must be a drop in the ocean for you, yet you don't consider this is an option for you.

You know damn well you have more than enough money to retire now and live a very comfortable life.

It really makes me sick to hear some people boasting about their income,even in a roundabout way.

In the real world we have to scrimp and save for everything, my friend cannot go out as she is disabled and her savings from selling her business and house have run out, yes she gets money for her disability but after paying a carers hourly wage and lunch she hasn't much change from £100. Therefore we should regard ourselves luck that we have our health even on a low wage and not worrying about a shortfall of a few thousand like the OP.
I don't begrudge those who have worked hard and I hope they live to enjoy their money but most of us will have to rethink our outgoings when we retire. Good luck on that one. I'm off now to seen what bargains the local charity shop has,then to see what asda has marked down today, btw I work hard for my pittance and have never had more than £13.000 pa.

Bad form to brag and boast about having a fortune in the bank, even worse, complaining about a job she doesn't enjoy....let someone else have the job.?

I think the OP has always known that she is well off Wilmaknickersfit.I think perhaps she has always known whether or not she will retire too.

Maybe she is one of those people (and there are a few about) who delight in making other people feel bad or belittled . I had a "friend" like that who seemed to "get off" on my misfortune.

Could be gilly, could be.

I know the kind of 'friend' you mean. Sad people really.

Abbey - just to cheer you up, if you're still there - I heard on the news the other day that the new govt. is considering making the State Pension means tested .
I also worry that my local govt. pension will dry up one day, as it's based on a fund with worldwide investments. Who knows?
We have no savings, but do have another small house which is rented out (with a small mortgage) and we live well on just over £20k pa.
2 other points, what happens when one dies, will their pension come to the survivor?
And who knows how long we'll live, Will the money run out?

We both took early retirement - as it is a second marriage we decided to do so to spend more time together . We did our sums and decided if we felt we were short of cash we would get temporary jobs. We spent the first eighteen months doing up the house we had bought and moved into and we survived on my pension which was not a full one as taken early and the same for him. Then when we had done the house we had nothing much to do so both took temporary jobs which we could say yay or nay too - mainly we took each job for an agreed amount of time. When my state pension kicked in we thought we were rich but carried on and saved a bit more. We downsized just as OH was taking his state pension and managed to have no mortgage. This was such a boon - like having another wage coming in!
We are far from rich but have a nice life and can do things such as go out to lunch etc. Because we live in France we tend not to take holidays - feels a bit like we are on holiday all the time - and visiting family in UK or USA is all the breaks we need - although we do keep promising ourselves we will go for a road trip here other than just to the port!!
We go to UK at the weekend - are stopping at a nice place on the way up and then have a night crossing so sort of have two days out getting to the port. We both love the ride north looking at the changing colours etc and vary our route a bit to take in new things. Life is simple but lovely. OH was seriously ill a couple of months ago and almost died - I feel we have been given an extension of life so am enjoying it even more - I cannot help but think how things could have been so very different for me now.

Tricia where did you hear that about the State pensions?
I wonder how they would do the means testing. Up to a point it is already means tested as the basic amount is somewhat low and only those with little else get topped up a bit - but still hardly a fortune to live on and many older people must worry a lot of the time about affording what they need. It annoys the h**l out of me when it is referred to as a 'benefit' as if we were all scroungers!

I think it was on LBC, but not sure.
I imagine they would go from your tax returns.
Here we have to declare all our bank accounts and capital eg property values. That kind of information is accessible to the tax authorities from most of the world.

We don't have to declare the property value but they can see from the Fonciere tax and all our tax files are accessible to all the tax offices. But we do have the question with regards to the wealth tax - but that catches people with their own pension pot - not the likes of us with a Govt pension.

If anybody has any further information about means testing the state pension, I'd be interested.

The whole point of the new flat rate pension is to move away from means testing.

I wonder if this was about the old age 'perks' such as bus passes, Winter fuel allowance, etc.

I did a quick google yesterday daphne and nothing more recent than 2014 came up, and that was just articles from various sources.
I agree with you that the new system is partly intended to simplify the system and reduce top up payments, which are means tested.
If any government wants people to save for their own pension, means testing the state pension to which they have contributed all their working lives is hardly the way to do it.

Think daphnedill is right, Damian Green was reported earlier this week as advocating changes to triple lock and pensioner benefits, which I interpreted as things like the bus pass rather than basic pension, but not before 2020. Apparently to even out the impact of austerity if my memory is correct, and it may not be Sorry, can't do a link. Hope that helps find more information.

The tax system would go a long way to redressing things instead of means testing - the State pension is usually less than the personal allowance so no tax normally paid if that is your only income.

I think I may have got it wrong, Damian green's plan is probably what I heard,*Welshwife*.
And back to tax returns,I think declaring your house value only comes in when applying for benefits, or to join the french health system. And the different depts. do pass round your finance info. Including the banks (interest on accounts.)
Nothing is private any more. As an english neighbour of ours found when he tried to hide a large sum of money in a 'private' bank account.

@Welshwife

I don't really care if the state pension is called a benefit. It's just a word.

What really annoys the hell out of me is when people go on about the massive UK benefit bill without deducting the cost of the state pension and other old age 'perks' from the total.

PS. Thanks to people for the information. I'd heard Damian Green going on about the triple lock and bus pass, etc, but thought I might have missed something.

The figure for a "living" pension seems to keep pace with the personal tax allowance, i.e., £11,500 for 2017/18 and is a good place to start. If this was the basic state pension I understand it would lift all pensioners out of benefits other than housing and none means tested disability ones. After that any additional earnings would be taxed.

Having read articles which say this could be cost neutral I can only see it as a good thing. Whatever the OP needs to live on I think this would ensure the vast majority - particularly of women - where out of poverty.

The only other thing which could make a large difference is to stop the Council Tax being a poll tax by any other name and make it a local income tax.

Well, no comments since Sunday from the OP. Is she genuine?

If you read a few posts back you will see someone suggested I needed to shut up. So I did.

It really annoys me that so many here simply have to discredit a genuine question with big wooden spoon rattling and stirring - just to have a nice little gossip with nasty comments no doubt.

I do not understand how the original question was genuine when you said that you could afford to buy 2 more houses without selling your present one? To me that is more than comfortably off and we are not including your husband's pension which is more than enough for two of you alone.