Re: What annual income for retirement?

Jeez we'd be rich ! Earning No where near that figure now and we are paying mortgage and rent etc now husband working 5am - 4pm in one job and 5.30pm - 8pm in second and me working 5am-8am in one job and 5pm-8pm in my second !

Re: What annual income for retirement?

I wouldn't say that £20k would provide a VERY comfortable lifestyle - adequate with no immediate worries, but hardly very comfortable.

As Willow suggests, if you enjoy good holidays etc... you'd need a lot more.
I've still a couple of years to go till state retirement age, but hopefully with our state and occupational pensions, we will be able to live VERY comfortably.

Till then, we get by OK.

Re: What annual income for retirement?

If one has worked very, very hard during their working life and been prudent about how much they put by for retirement as my husband has, then it is only right one should look forward to a reasonable standard of living in one's later years.

Re: What annual income for retirement?

Here is a simple to use calculator from Standard Life which may help illustrate how much income a person/couple would need for their retirement.
http://www.standardlife.co.uk/1/site...irement-income

I don't think it is easy to actually decide how much is needed because as others have said people's needs and lifestyles vary such a lot, but it is reckoned that you need about 2/3rds of your working income for retirement. We planned a little bit for retirement and we also saved separately from our personal pension schemes, which I think is quite important. Although we thought we knew we would manage we were not sure until we had actually jumped off and retired.

I took a phased retirement from work and my husand retired a good few years before I did. This softened the transition, I think, because we had got used to the change in stages and were drawing some retirement income before we had both committed to leaving work. I think we are quite lucky inasmuch as we were able to plan a bit, we both kept in work as long as it mattered and were able to make the transition relatively painlessly. We also both contributed to index linked final salary pension schemes which I am sure has made a difference. Mostly our outgoings - except for food are all on montly direct debit and so every month I just deduct the total amount from our monthly income. The rest of our expenditure is flexible; we don't have to watch too carefully what we spend and we still find that we can save.

Re: What annual income for retirement?

We always put into the savings account a certain sum of money each month, we would be foolish not to. Later on this year I have the expectation of receiving my share of the residue of my late father's estate now my Mother is dead. I am not sure exactly how much this will amount to, there is a property to sell too. It is likely to be a reasonable amount and I will have to decide what is done with it, share it out among our girls maybe, I will see what they suggest when I get it.

Re: What annual income for retirement?

I love how people often say if you worked hard as if some people haven't done so but still ended up not earning enough to save.

Re: What annual income for retirement?

I'd agree with roughly that figure, Alan. Interesting that noone else is prepared to give any estimate of what they would want/need.

What often surprises me is how many younger people have got so used to spend,spend,spend that they have seemingly unrealistic expectations of life in retirement.

Re: What annual income for retirement?

I've often heard that 2/3 figure quoted, but I am not aware of any evidence for it. I certainly don't think I will have that sort of income, but based on my estimates I'm not likely to need that either. Having said that, I live a fairly frugal life anyway, but do spend on holidays at the moment. But my desire to travel long haul is waning, so those costs should go down anyway.

Re: What annual income for retirement?

The calculator is really much too basic and few things are relevant to our lifestyle - however taking the nearest things, it came up with just short of £26k.

I think that's a reasonable starting figure, but a long way short of 2/3 of our working income. If we hadn't "retired" in our 50's, our occupational pensions would be a lot more, but retiring was the best career move that we made!!

Re: What annual income for retirement?

Some people, not all by any means, have spent their money very unwisely during their younger years without giving a thought to retirement. They then start to moan when they discover that they haven't enough on which to live in reasonable comfort.