Re: What is a decent amount of income
Aytee – I was in a similar situation some 12 years' ago at the age of 60 when I semi-retired. A personal pension was utilised to pay my mortgage off allowing me to move home to another area where houses were less expensive. I managed to buy a better house for the same amount as I sold my previous property for. With what was left in the pension an equity was purchased which gives me a small pension every month, this amount will remain the same for life.
The first thing I ensured I did was to sit down and work out all my outgoings, where possible I found better deals for broadband and utilities etc. From that I knew exactly what I needed as income every month. I was still working part-time, self-employed. At the age of 65 I could then fully retire taking the State Pension.
At the time of semi-retiring I had savings but they were not invested well enough to keep up with inflation, building society interest rates were appalling. I contacted an Independent Financial Adviser who went through everything with me. He then knew what was needed so advised on low risk investments. One of these was connected to life insurance which meant a small amount was paid out to me every month, no tax payable. Another investment gave me another amount a month, again tax free. Other investments were giving a far better turn than building society accounts. As many investments as possible have been invested in ISA accounts, maximum this year is £20,000 so no tax payable. This is done every year to the maximum amount so as much as possible comes under the 'umbrella' of ISAs whether that is in share ISAs or other ISA investments. My Independent Financial Advisor meets with me once a year for about two hours to discuss how it's all going. He is also available for advice over the phone for anything I might be thinking of doing, that's all in with the charges paid each month.
Full retirement was now eight years' ago and I still have my same capital investment. Charges for investing plus the two amounts paid out each month have still left me with slightly more than I originally had as savings.
My house will always be a back-up so if necessary I could always downsize and use any equity to live on. I could also consider equity release but advice on that seems to be that it's not good as, depending on what age you live to you can finish up with no equity in the house and owing money on it, although you might have owned it outright at the start.
You don't mention if your savings are invested so I would suggest they need to be somewhere to get at least the present inflation rate (2%) as an interest rate, more if possible. If you don't do that then your capital is slowly decreasing each month by whatever figure inflation is running at. An Independent Financial Advisor can advise you on this.
I would contact PensionWise as others have advised, link below, where there is free information. It's also possible to book a free interview to discuss finances:
https://www.pensionwise.gov.uk/en
Information (free) from Citizens Advice on this link:
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/de...ancial-advice/
Money Advice Service on this link is also free:
https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en
All the above will advise on how to get an Independent Financial Advisor. You can check out any Financial Advisor through the FCA website. All genuine Financial Advisors will be registered on there.
Good luck with this, it's important to get it right initially as that will pay off in the long run.