[Closed] How much could you live on - very early retirement question

If I had no wife/kids, then I could get by on bugger all. At a guess < £5K

As it stands (mid forties, 3 young kids) - retirement = never 🙂

Survive, get by or love life?

As an opening punt, I reckon to be happy £200pw, although (for me) that would be peppered with writing royalties that would pay for nice holidays.

Fixed bills like council tax, heating, insurance etc, which will only rise (above inflation) over time will add up to a few £k per year.

I'd guess it all depends on what prediction you have for state benefits over the rest of your lifetime as well....

£200 per week between us, would see me and my good lady get buy easily.

lot of variables in this..

Can you/would you like get by on £20 worth of food from Lidl every week? or do you like the odd piece of nice cheese/nice meat/bottle of wine?

Do you like to eat out?

Do you have a car? running costs? replacement cost when the time comes?

How big is your house? heating/utility bills for folk in my office range from £50ish to nearly £200 PCM.

Do you like to travel? if you do, could you accept no more 'big' holidays?

Mobile phone/TV/internet? some folk I work with give Sky/Virgin over £100 per month...

I can't really give you a figure - because as a 41 year old, with two little kids and a huge mortgage, retirement isn't something which I could even consider...

However, we live in a street full of retired people, and the difference in lifestyles between the affluent and not so well off is staggering -
The folk opposite us (aged 80 and 82) have just spent £400k on the house, have another house by the coast for weekends, have just bought two almost new cars, etc...
Lady round the corner (also in her early 80s) flies to New York 3 times a year to see her son, then gets a cruise ship home.
Whereas others are quite clearly living very close to the breadline (scruffy houses, etc)

I think if I had to pull a number out of the Sky, me and the Mrs could live on £1k per month (assuming no mortgage/debts)

work it out

fixed costs (and then allow - say 5% inflation)
then - how much money do you want on top of this

if you have a final salary pension that helps (known income in retirement) but bear in mind there are likely to be even more pension changes .........................

plogeess - double posted

Depends if you want to go on holiday or not, drive a car, go out for meals, etc.

But for me & wife I reckon we could live on not very much

at the moment with mortgage etc removed from my monthly expenditure I only have about £250 outgoings - that includes full sky package & fibre optic broadband, mobiles, etc. Ah forgot about council tax, wife pays that and I think its £200 and something a month.

So without fueling a car we could live on [s]£500[/s] £750 if I ditched sky and mobiles. But that would be without using a car, walking every where, never buying anything 'nice', not buying beer, clothes, so just surviving.

Realistically we could get by comfortably on £1000 a month but there wouldn't be much of a disaster fund.

Mine down to the lowest number you think you can get by on. Double it.

By downsizing, I reckon somewhere around 750pm is the minimum I'd want to go to for me and my wife and for that luxuries are right out. I think around 1200 is more liveable. Life in the UK isn't cheap eh...

The trouble is having spare time is expensive because of all the stuff I buy. I think my living costs would double if I didn't spend 5 days a week trapped in an office.

Interesting question, I get online statements for my credit card, but the other day I got a yearly statement. Yearly spend was in the region of £18k. Admittedly this covers all food shopping, petrol and car servicing, plus a trip to New York. But I actually get cash out of the bank for living expenses on a weekly basis so you could probably add another £5k to that.

Now I don't want for much in life, but I'm hardly living a ridiculous lifestyle and buying loads of designer tat.

So my honest answer would be loads, I'd need loads to retire. My best option would be to drop down dead before I need to retire!

Conversely I know a guy who is semi-retired at a similar age to the OP, redundancy cleared his mortgage, he doesn't spend loads on stuff he doesn't need and he drives the school bus around for a local school, he goes skiing at least twice a year, once often with the school and lives a decent life, so it can be done.

Problem I'd have is if I wasn't at work, I'd have more time for hobbies, many of which cost money......

I have a spreadsheet with a few 'scenarios' in it, and this is one of them. I would need approx £2k per month (linked to inflation and assuming no tax is to be paid on this) to live a nice enough life, ie a couple of moderate holidays, car,eating out now and again, all bills (no mortgage) covered etc.

I would need approx £2k per month

Sort of my guess as well. However all gets quite expensive if you come from a long line of long lived relatives:

£2k / month x 12 = £24k per annum x 40 years say = £960k!

I get online statements for my credit card, but the other day I got a yearly statement

I'm going to try to put all my "staying alive" expenses on one card, and "fun" expenses on another so, that after a while I can answer exactly this question....

A safer bet would be to see if your company will let you go part time.
Mine did ,it was a great 7 years,although it did reduce the works pension a bit,as I went for 3 days a week.

The answer is probably "whatever you currently live on". If you're used to magazine subscriptions, expensive new bikes, foreign holidays and a shiny new car every two years, you're going to struggle to get by on less money.

Our youngest should finish uni the same year that we turn 50 (2027). I plan on paying our mortgage off in the same year and then just working part time.

I get online statements for my credit card, but the other day I got a yearly statement

I have been putting all mine and the wifes spending on a single credit card (1% cashback with no upper limit) for the last few years, and we typically spend £30k-£35k per annum on it. scary really.

[i]I'm going to try to put all my "staying alive" expenses on one card, and "fun" expenses on another so, that after a while I can answer exactly this question.... [/i]

I put all expenditure/income on a spreadsheet anyway so I know exactly what I spend money on.

€15 A night's camping at a site in France
€15 plat du jour at the café
€10 bottle of wine
€5 breakfast
€10 Lunch
€20 transport/play money

I reckon I could survive 6months of the year on €3-4k 🙂

[i]I reckon I could survive 6months of the year on €3-4k[/i]

Think you need to take a look at your figures again if your going to spend €75 a day.

Exist? Not much money.

Live? Not enough money in the world.

It's easy enough to live on a survivors budget for a year or so. I did this when I was potless and had no work coming in. But as soon as I had new work, I ended up overspending to make up for the lean times.
Like a diet, very difficult to manage long term.

This is quite a relevant topic for me. I plan to to retire through ill health within the next twelve months. I've already had my pension figures and even though it's half my current salary I'll more than manage. Having no debts or other mouths to feed, plus very little in the way of monthly outgoings make it all possible. A colleague who recently retired said to me, you cut your cloth accordingly. I'm 41.

£2k / month x 12 = £24k per annum x 40 years say = £960k!

Also £24k net income would normally mean you need a gross income of closer to £30k assuming you where single, less if that was split between a couple. That pushes the totals to £1.8m at 2% inflation and £2.9m at 4%

The problem is that if you retire and have naff all money to spend then its going to be a long and boring life. If you've no money to go anywhere, or do anything nice then life would be quite dull.

No inflation in that calculation though ... even with 2% the total is £1.5m, 4% its £2.3m

yep, done the maths, hence I won't be retiring anytime soon...

The problem is that if you retire and have naff all money to spend then its going to be a long and boring life. If you've no money to go anywhere, or do anything nice then life would be quite dull.

I figure Gardening or bird watching would be two time consuming, yet quite cheap hobbies to cultivate in old age......

well spotted Gary! 😳

i spent most of the last 7 or 8 years getting by on around 750 quid a month including my rent. so about 450 a month or 5.5k a year without housing costs.

it was somewhat of a downsized lifestyle; i didn't have a car or anything. but once you get into the rhythm of it, it's really quite easy.

No inflation in that calculation though ... even with 2% the total is £1.5m, 4% its £2.3m

Holy crap, when you put pension figures like that it's pretty scary (given that I haven't yet started mine - 37, I know, I need to resolve that)!

you could lose the play money Stoner, or lunch and wine. 🙂

If you haven't started contributing to a pension at 37 then unless you can put serious amounts in the is there really any point. You'll need to work until you're in your 80's before you have enough to retire!

@toby the good news I started early, the bad news is I got divorced 😥
I'm 51 not retiring soon

EDIT In fairness I don't think too many are planning to retire at 40 but yes these figures are why pension provision are such a major issue and why frankly defined benefit (ie final salary_ pensions just don't work these days, the numbers are too big

you'd hope that the interest on your savings/investments would cover the inflation tho...

@doris - that was always the logic but not in the last 10 years, investment returns in many cases have been below inflation / cost of living.

Semi retirement is where it's at I reckon, 1 or 2 days per week doing something you like, to pay for the extras and nicer things.

One thing people seem to be missing out is house maintenance. The earlier you retire the more you'll have to do/need to replace.

^ +1 @ jota

I've been semi retired since I was 32 and I intend to stay that way for a long time yet.

Proper retirement kicks in when you dont have to run a household for your offspring to linger around in. Once Junior's are gone, I pack a bag and start walking 🙂

@jota has it, most early retirees do something, not just for spending but for social reasons and to keep active. Even my ex MIL kept her cleaning job at the school for social and financial reasons, they only told her to retire when they found out she was 72 !

The inflation issue is one reason why rental property is such a good long term / retirement investment.

I could live on £776* a month quite comfortably and happily for the rest of my life. No fancy holidays, no car (cheap hire van when needed), no dependents, no mortgage, loans or credit card repayments.

It would be a simple lifestyle, modest home and nothing flash. That's kind of how I am just now anyway so wouldn't be a problem.

Fixed costs would be council tax, gas and electricity, mobile phone, broadband and house insurance. This comes to £249 a month.

£427 a month for groceries, leisure and general pocket money.

Leaves me with £100 a month to put away in-case anything else comes up.

I have most of the stuff I would ever need to fill my days already like bikes, fishing, camping and hillwalking equipment. Most of it will likely outlast me.

If it ever looked like going wrong pick up a part time or temporary job or grow some weed and sell to the young uns.

*At today's rate.

[i]The inflation issue is one reason why rental property is such a good long term / retirement investment.[/i]

Agreed, my rental income earns me 50% of what I would like to live on when I retire. Well not like, ideally I'd like millions, but could happily get by on.

(ie final salary_ pensions just don't work these days, the numbers are too big

Tell me about it, I've effectively lost my 1st 7 years of pension when my employer folded and took the pension fund with them.....

The house maintenance costs were my biggest consideration before deciding that I'll jump ship. Hopefully I have enough put aside and if not then my question to the forum in years to come will be, 'how much is a 2003 Orange Sub 5 worth?'

I wonder how our imaginings compare with the basic state pension (w. Pension credit) giving a single pensioner, c.£150 pw (or £600 pm) and 100% council tax relief (assuming you have no savings)?

having looked again at my current outgoings I could live on £961.76 a month if I ditched sky and that's budgeting £100 a week spending money on food etc.

£600 a month with no council tax is doable.

I wonder how our imaginings compare with the basic state pension (w. Pension credit) giving a single pensioner, c.£150 pw (or £600 pm) and 100% council tax relief (assuming you have no savings)?

Do you not get other things such as rent etc paid for? Pretty sure the pensioner across the road has her house rent paid for by the council...

I expect you get housing benefit if you are on pension credit, yes. Wont help if you own your house outright though.

@footflaps - my Dad's firm folded after he'd served 30 years. Fortunately the Government introduced a compensation scheme and although it took 10 years he got back a decent chunk if nowhere close to what he'd lost. For 10 years he'd had half the pension he should have done.

To answer the OP's question (and at the risk of being flamed) I would like something like £35k pa net of taxes. If I had to I could live on £25k and probably less.

BTW It's quite interesting how much money you can save by being vegetarian and drinking less/nothing at all booze wise.

BTW It's quite interesting how much money you can save by being vegetarian and drinking less/nothing at all booze wise.

But tee-totallers dont live longer, it just feels like it 🙂

@footflaps - my Dad's firm folded after he'd served 30 years. Fortunately the Government introduced a compensation scheme and although it took 10 years he got back a decent chunk if nowhere close to what he'd lost. For 10 years he'd had half the pension he should have done.

Yep, my scheme is stuck in limbo. It's so large that it would fold the compensation scheme, so it's not been accepted and has been stuck in legal wrangling for 10 years +. As a deferred member, I'm not expecting to get anything back as I suspect the fund is paying out to current retires and there won't be much left for me....

My wife and I are 32 and are now mortgage free homeowners with no kids.

This topic is relevant to my interests as I'm thinking of retiring.

About 2k per month gives a good standard of living IMO. Retiring early is really not so had for a dinky professional couple. After all, your dad probably brought up a family on 40y earnings (ballpark). So 25y x 2 people with no dependents should be is ample.

My wife and I are 32 and are now mortgage free homeowners with no kids.

There's always one isn't there! I've written some other slightly less pleasant replies to this and deleted them, only because I'm envious though! 😈

My wife and I are 32 and are now mortgage free homeowners with no kids.

I'm 61 and I would hate to retire. Hobbies, holidays and pastimes are great when they are fitted in around other obligations and commitments, like working. Without that structure they're pretty pointless. Having too much to do feels crap sometimes but it's not as bad as waking up in the morning with nothing to do.

I'm on a second career. I describe myself as a carpenter (self taught), after many years in software sales. This week I'm busy making and fitting some really smart bespoke bedroom furniture for a bloke whose bathroom I transformed earlier this summer. I'll be riding down to the pub this evening, fettling the bike tomorrow, trying to fit in a Thursday night ride on Cannock Chase and am spending the weekend windsurfing at Aberdovey. Oh, yes, I've got my 4 yr old grandson to look after tomorrow afternoon. I'll put him on the kiddy seat, and strap his bike to the back of that and we'll ride down to the park and let him play on the half pipe.

If I was retired I probably wouldn't get round to any of that! I'd be hooked on daytime TV 👿

I'm 30 and mortgage free... 4 kids to feed/support though so that's any chance of me retiring in the next 20years scuppered... Maybe after that though (possibly maybe).

BigJohn - that sounds great.

I kind of understand what you mean about not having a structure to your day... Although I'd like to give it a try for a while 😉

... it's not as bad as waking up in the morning with nothing to do.

Bad? Sounds good to me!

We've done it! If you take out the exceptional, one off purchases from capital, we are spending somewhere just shy of £2k per month and thats not going beserk - we dont eat out (diet reasons), smoke, or drink in pubs (much). Everything is paid for - no debt, but, I've just gone back to work 30 hours a week to ensure that we can maintain the lifestyle, sub the kids as required and not have to worry.

I kind of understand what you mean about not having a structure to your day... Although I'd like to give it a try for a while

I did.

I'm with BigJohn on this. The idea of having nothing you have to do is great. The reality is that I missed having goals, aim, therfore of social chatter that comes with a job. Hell, even the stress. I've managed to keep myself amused through various part-time jobs and some voluntary stuff. My daughter called me a job hoarder last week. That there's another wee bit of cash coming in is, of course, welcome too.

It's only another 3 years until I'm 60, so maybe I'll slow down a bit then.

this thread shows just how much of an unsustainable pyramid scheme the 'pension plan' is. especially if you start adding house price increase into the inflation figures.

Our joint net monthly income is currently about £3k and we're managing to bring up two kids, own two dogs, pay a mortgage, run a car, and do up a house* on that.

(*new kitchen, new bathroom, some structural work, new boiler, new radiators, new external doors, some new windows, and lots of decorating in the last five years.)

Now that the house is sorted, we should be able to overpay the mortgage to clear it quicker. Once our youngest starts secondary school, in three years, my wife's going to up her hours and/or change jobs so we should have some more cash coming in for the kids' university years. Then, we'll both go part-time.

So, when we all retire and live the dream, what are we going to do to add structure to our day and to reduce outgoings/costs?

I'm thinking veg garden, allotment, foraging, and home brewing. Fun, cost-neutral(ish), and time-consuming.

I'm thinking veg garden, allotment, foraging, and home brewing. Fun, cost-neutral(ish), and time-consuming.

cool. looks like im semi-retired already then 🙂

Trailbuilding of course Mike!

Semi retirement for the win. To those who are worried about structure there are many voluntary positions out there.

I consider having nothing I have to do a luxury, but do lots, none of which brings in any money.

Run, make things, ride, fix things, swim, read, ski, play guitar and sing, waste time on the Net, clean house, walk, watch TV, siesta, dance, do voluntary things, wander around town, shop, garden, think... . many of these things in good company.

41 year old male self employed joiner,no kids or wife,get to play with tents,bikes and kites 2.5 days a week,go to work the rest of the days.

Mrs North and I are going seriously wrong somewhere. I think it falls into the "so busy with work we just throw money at everything" problem.

Time to take a set of shears to our costs. I cannot possibly own up to how much we spend each month....

Spend, or have to spend? If you had less, wouldn't you just spend less?

A lot of spending is is fixed in with specific life choices. Friends decided to move to the new town, just outside of the town where they both work, because they could get more got more house for their money. They're now tied into owning and running two cars, which probably costs them more than a bigger house in town.

It's also quite hard to give up what you're used to, which can make the jump to retirement harder. If you're used to a new car every three years, a foreign holiday every summer, meals out every weekend, and a cup of coffee on your way into work, those are hard habits to break and you risk being miserable in retirement.

They're now tied into owning and running two cars, which probably costs them more than a bigger house in town.

Commonly known as The Commuters Fallacy...
http://scienceblogs.com/cortex/2010/03/30/commuting/

Commonly known as The Commuters Fallacy...

It's a good job I have a short, bike commute. I can't imagine how much of a miserable bugger I'd be if I were driving for an hour a day.

Commuter's Fallacy?

I'm in London at least a day a week. I live north of Manchester....

Likewise, I have a 12min bike ride and a (smallish) house in the centre of town.

I'm in London at least a day a week. I live north of Manchester....

That's known as Commuter's Insanity....

I've actually done this, it costs more than I expected.

Without mortgage I reckon it costs me about £1300 a month. Mrs OD, is still working, and spends the same. That includes running and depreciating two vehicles though and we could get rid of one if both not working. We don't have mega extravegant lifestyles, but equally our days of camping are over, so three holidays a year add cost. There is also the cost of bikes and tech, both of which I could spend less on, but don't want to.

In the end I am going back to part time work as I was starting to drift a bit. Been great though, rode loads, surfed loads, fitter and leaner. I did voluntary work and an MA, but ultimately looking forward to the challenge of working again.

Haven't totalled it up - the annual CC bill (which includes a lot of stuff) is quite high but could be trimmed.

Still contributing to pensions which obviously could stop.
Not one for a new or nearly new car every 3 years (last one lasted 12 years); swapping houses every 5 years (have lived in 3 homes in last 30 years) - or even the big holidays, new bikes, clothes, kitchens and stuff.

But as for annual running costs at current levels - not sure at all. Don't have any commute expenses either at the moment, so that's a saving that can't be made..

Although i do save heavily for a pension which is doubled by work, and have several personal investments for the future, I could be dead tomorrow.

So I provide for my kids and set ourselves up to enjoy life while we can. No point saving for a future I can't predict where that means living in poverty today. As regard the future, I'd want only for regular communication with my kids, my bikes, a small quiet abode with accessible countryside, a wood burning stove and enough heartwarming good quality booze to give me a warm glow in the evening.

Not necessarily the this location by this ideology:

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