Can you manage on just a state pension ?

To be honest, I can’t think a survey of 600 odd Which subscribers is a very setup demographic to base anything on.

I might be wrong, but I’m inclined to think they are mostly middle class professionals who are used to a high standard of living with lots of extras that they think are essential.

Oh well, as far as the OPs query is concerned I think it’s perfectly possible to live without want, in her circumstances, on £14,000.

set up?

What was it I meant to say?????

I agree, the Which? survey is a small sample size and probably not representative.
So, here's a completely separate (and older) university study which had similar findings:
www.lboro.ac.uk/media-centre/press-releases/2019/october/how-much-to-retire-conversation-article/
It's from 2019 and found the minimum for a single person to have a basic standard of living was £10,200. That rose to £25k for a comfortable existence (again, for one person).
The OP is part of a couple and wondering if £14K is enough for 2 of them. They might be able to manage on that, but with no frills.

I think a lot depends on your pre-, retirement standard of living and I loved the wise comment earlier about working out what makes you happy and how much you need to spend to achieve that. If a basic standard of living with no holidays, socialising at low cost or free, not buying many clothes, maybe growing your own veg makes you happy, then I could see that working (and it's great for the environment), but the OP wants to run a car, and leaves them both vulnerable if big unexpected expenses come along.

Just do it. You won't regret it. Sounds like you are sensible with money and don't waste it. My husband and I retired at 56. The following year he got bowel cancer. You have no idea what is round the corner. It is amazing how little we actually need to spend once we finish work. Provided you can cover your bills with a small amount to spare all will be well. The next 6 years will fly by and before you know it you'll be on State Pension along with your private pensions and savings. Life is too short!

Thanks again to everyone who has posted . DH and I are still.leaning towards early retirenent with possibly some part time work if we can get it . We are all different and some may feel 14k per year is just scraping by , but that is slightly over our monthly spend now and we are quite content and do not feel we are missing out on anything important in life . I will certainly update when we decide .

That sounds like a very sensible way forward @Sandytoes and will be a great balance.
I look forward to your updates, good luck!

I would purely LOVE to have 20k readily available!....actually I would purely love to have 20k full stop. It really depends on the kind of life you want. I don;t think I could live as i do on my state pension and I don't live extravagantly.

This is a really good and informative thread! If your employer would let you would you consider going to a 4 day week and living off the resultant income? You would still be paying NI towards your state pension and it would give you a bit more freedom. I did this just before the first lockdown (great timing on my part!!) and am looking forward to when I can finally get a long weekend actually away from the house! Was planning to retire at 62 but now need to see if I have to make extra NI contributions to top up the eventual state pension. Having worked out costs I think £25k a year is about right but hard to achieve!

Full state pension is approx £9k a year. If mortgage free it’s possible to live on it. But impossible to come up with spare cash for unexpected bills eg car or house repairs without some reserve savings for back up.

I wish I hadn't retired. I have savings and try not to touch them. Thank goodness I have that cushion.

I retired on my Occupational Pension at 60 having worked from the age of 18 and will receive my SP in October when I’m 66. I was fortunate to also receive a lump sum. My husband has been receiving his SP for 4 years now but doesn’t have an OP. My SP will be reduced to start with as I was contacted out due to SERPS and as I’ve not paid NICS will be further reduced so please be aware that you will be similarly affected. We’re mortgage free and Council Tax is our biggest monthly expense. I’ve looked on umpteen comparison sites to get good deals on our utility bills so I’d check and see whether you can do anything to reduce yours etc. We do live up to our income and I really would find it difficult to live only on SPs. Is there any way you could reduce your working hours so that you’d only be working 40 hours between you and drawdown on your OP to make up the value of the other 40 hours.This would at least allow you to at least still pay NICS to maintain your full SPs when you retire at the qualify age.

Go for it while you are healthy and get to old pent ions do rise but not at the rate everything else just remember that

Part time is good for the finances but does still limit your freedom. Personally the ability to just takeoff and do what I wanted, whenever I wanted more than compensated for loss of income, not just in enjoyment but in the ability to take advantage of very last minute deals.

Having been confined to the school holidays and standard work hours for all of my life, I had no idea how cheap things could be out of peak times and how many freebies were out there. Not just travel, haircuts, food, concerts, cinema, sports facilities. All the things I’d always pad full price for.

Thank you for the advice everyone, I will look into it further.

Update ! . Having giving it some more thought DH and I still prefer having more time to having more money and having carefully checked our budgets feel we can manage on 14 k per year . We have both given notice at work and finish at the end of May . I have joined an agency and will do a small amount of part time work to top up the funds and give a little bit of fun money . I will let you know how it goes from June onwards .

Just to clarify our total income will be approx 19k per year but we are currently spending approx 14k to cover all essential costs .

Enjoy.? I’ve never regretted choosing time and freedom over money.

Best wishes for the future and it will be good to know how you get on?

Well , too late to change our minds now . We are in our last week of work and will be starting retirement and the new budget at the beginning of June . I am very( ok fairly ) confident we will be fine .

Good for you Sandytoes. I am sure you will have a great retirement. I agree with Peasblossom. The feeling of freedom is wonderful. My best wishes to you both.

I think we could live quite well on our state pensions, we have got decent pensions from previous jobs but we save some and give money to children/grandchildren/charities.

I'm not sure how easy it would be for one of us to manage on one state pension. I suppose with one pension you might be eligible to help with rates and things? I don't know but I would consider that.

Sorry, didn't realise you had taken the decision. Just ignore my post.

Hope you enjoy your retirement. I do a little work as and when, I enjoy it as it is when I feel like it, not like a fulltime commitment.

Thank you for your " happy retirement " wishes . We are not yet of state retirement age but will be living on the equivalent of x2 new state pensions . The income will come from savings and drawdown pension pots and therefore if there was , sadly , only one of us we would still have the same funds available.

Its early days but our first full month went very well . We kept to our budget for monthly expenses and money into pots/ sinking funds and managed to put a couple of hundred in longer term savings too . I was also paid for couple of days temp work, which was also saved into the rainy day pot .

I have had a few PMs asking how the retirement budget is going. So far we have spent under our income for each month and have saved the extra into our " emergency " fund . I have done a few days agency work ( average £100 per month ), which has also been saved . Really enjoying having the free time and do not feel we are missing out on anything important due to our reduced income . We may feel differently in the Winter months but so far no regrets at all .

Sandytoes Good to know things are working out well for you so far. I hope the rise in utility bills will not hit your budget too hard. Best wishes for the winter. Please keep us updated.