Enjoying Retirement

[Fusion777]

Carbon Sasquatch said:

I just read - well skimmed - the Loughborough research and found it quite amusing.

Those aspects you've quoted are the reality for lots of retired people though (I assume you're alluding to the lack of glamour)- not Porsches and yachts.

[Carbon Sasquatch]

Fusion777 said:

Those aspects you've quoted are the reality for lots of retired people though (I assume you're alluding to the lack of glamour)- not Porsches and yachts.

An aftershave allowance in the minimum spend ticked me - as did eyebrow threading (comfortable)

I think the Loughborough naming is better than Which who called their top tier Luxury.

Really it just made me think how far off my own spending levels & priorities most of the examples were.

[Fusion777]

Carbon Sasquatch said:

An aftershave allowance in the minimum spend ticked me - as did eyebrow threading (comfortable)

I think the Loughborough naming is better than Which who called their top tier Luxury.

Really it just made me think how far off my own spending levels & priorities most of the examples were.

Yeah, the aftershave inclusion is a bit odd. Personally I'd say there's a case for alcohol and holidays not to be included if we're talking a "minimum" level. They are niceties rather than essentials, but where do you draw the line?

They've explained their methodology and surveyed a good sample size of people, so it's a reasonable survey. It also illustrates how different perspectives can be. Personally I and many others find PH to be quite distorted in what's viewed as "typical" (the director stereotype that we all chuckle at, but there's a grain of truth in it).

[ARHarh]

Carbon Sasquatch said:

I just read - well skimmed - the Loughborough research and found it quite amusing.

Loughborough research paper said:

A minimum retirement living standard
Female hairdressing: £15 for a dry cut every 6 weeks Male hairdressing: £8 a month
£25 per person, per year for perfume/aftershave
A moderate retirement living standard
Female hairdressing: £35 every 6 weeks, plus £10 for home colour Male hairdressing: £12 a month
Female: £20 a month for beauty treatments
£60 per person, per year for perfume/aftershave
A comfortable retirement living standard
Female hairdressing: £90 every 6 weeks for cut and colour
Male hairdressing: £15 a month
Female: £35 per month for beauty treatments e.g. nails and/or eyebrow threading/waxing £120 per person, per year for perfume/aftershave

Loughborough research paper said:

A minimum retirement living standard
Bus: Free bus pass
Rail: £100 per person per year, PLUS £30 senior railcard (and rail fare for holiday each year)
A moderate retirement living standard
Rail: £100 per person per year, PLUS £30 senior railcard (and rail fare for holiday each year) Car: 3 year old Ford Focus, replaced every 10 years
£60 per person, per year for perfume/aftershave
A comfortable retirement living standard
Rail: £200 per year per person, PLUS £30 senior railcard
Car: Couple: 5 year old mid-range SUV (Nissan Qashqai) replace every 5 years, PLUS older second car, smaller run around (Ford Fiesta) 8 years old, replace after 5 years; Single: 2 year old mid-range SUV (Nissan Qashqai) replace every 5 years

https://www.retirementlivingstandards.org.uk/Retirement-living-standards-in-the-UK-in-2021.pdf


As has been said repeatedly - you need your own expenditure list

Edited by Carbon Sasquatch on Friday 13th May 11:59

This probably explains why I managed to retire at 55. I have not paid for a hair cut since 1996, I have not paid for a train journey since 1979, (except preserved railways). My cars are far older than 5 years and I maintain them myself.

[okgo]

Those haircut prices are hilarious. My wife just got back from hers, it was more than all of the ones mentioned in every standard of living added together.

[OldSkoolRS]

ARHarh said:

This probably explains why I managed to retire at 55. I have not paid for a hair cut since 1996, I have not paid for a train journey since 1979, (except preserved railways). My cars are far older than 5 years and I maintain them myself.

I will still need a haircut, but the train journey and car age/self maintenance is definitely me. In fact DIY generally has probably saved me thousands over the years and I'm still more than capable of doing it now (maybe even part time as a 'handy man' if I really wanted some extra cash).

Fusion777 said:

Personally I and many others find PH to be quite distorted in what's viewed as "typical" (the director stereotype that we all chuckle at, but there's a grain of truth in it).

Seeing some of the posts even on this (very friendly) thread has some people planning to retire on more than I earned and I thought I had a fairly decent job and was in the 40% tax bracket for the last 10 years or so.

I've lived well within my means apart from a brief period 25 years ago post divorce where things were really tight for a while paying a mortgage on my own. Because of this I'm already living off far less than my wage was and just allowing it to build up: This is what I'll be 'drawing down' on for the next few years/until I trigger my various pensions (non of which are huge or even enough to reach the tax threshold).

I think I also realised some things during Covid (though I was out working on site myself at the time), more about making memories than vacuous spending on things that I didn't really need and keeping our spending for more 'bucket list' type things, such as special holidays to places we really want to go to rather than just to 'get away from work'. Thankfully we have relatives in some of these places, so will be able to stay with them (as they have with us) and not worry about the long haul flights as I won't be back at work straight after. Booking well in advance and out of usual school holiday seasons also helps keep the costs down on these trips too.

We both have hobbies that we can occupy ourselves for free at home, so even if it doesn't seem very PH Director level it's stuff we like to do and haven't had the time to do properly when working.

As said above though; everyone has to work out their own requirements.

[gotoPzero]

okgo said:

Those haircut prices are hilarious. My wife just got back from hers, it was more than all of the ones mentioned in every standard of living added together.

Its an old report.

Now a basic gents hair cut in somewhere thats stabby is £10 ish.

I have mates who spend £20-£30 for a normal trim in town.
They get a "free" coffee and a hair cut from someone who looks like they should be in ZZTop though.

Meanwhile I go and see my man Omar, who is £9 plus £1 tip. I sit down, I shut up and I leave without getting anything for "free" other than his bad attitude.

[Carbon Sasquatch]

gotoPzero said:

Its an old report.

I know we're in an inflationary period, but October 2021....

[gotoPzero]

Carbon Sasquatch said:

gotoPzero said:

Its an old report.

I know we're in an inflationary period, but October 2021....

LOL, but you cant escape since the new year things have gone upwards rapidly.
Perhaps "out of date" is better.

[Carbon Sasquatch]

Makes me glad to be bald.

[GT3Manthey]

gotoPzero said:

Its an old report.

Now a basic gents hair cut in somewhere thats stabby is £10 ish.

I have mates who spend £20-£30 for a normal trim in town.
They get a "free" coffee and a hair cut from someone who looks like they should be in ZZTop though.

Meanwhile I go and see my man Omar, who is £9 plus £1 tip. I sit down, I shut up and I leave without getting anything for "free" other than his bad attitude.

I like the sound of your guy .

Can’t be bothered with the faff and a Turkish coffee !

Pleasant weekend everyone

[Jaguar steve]

Carbon Sasquatch said:

As has been said repeatedly - you need your own expenditure list

Absolutely.

There's no one size fits all range of categories that survey was based on, it'll depend on your own wants and needs and capabilities and willingness to save money by doing stuff yourself rather that forking out for somebody else to do it for you.

Some can live well on a budget and have sufficient cash left over for hobbies and holidays that others couldn't even contemplate surviving on.

Our baseline living costs for example including food and drink, all our utility bills and council tax as well as running three cars is a smudge over £900 a month - the rest of our income is ours to do whatever we like with.

[Carbon Sasquatch]

Jaguar steve said:

Our baseline living costs for example including food and drink, all our utility bills and council tax as well as running three cars is a smudge over £900 a month - the rest of our income is ours to do whatever we like with.

Wow - I'm comfortably double that.... but I guess it depends on what it really covers.

400 for all house related bills - then I'd struggle to spend under 500 on supermarket shopping. Then the car insurance, tax, maintenance & fuel, a few bits of eating out, phones etc & I'm around 2k.

Sounds like I need to have a word with myself (and my wife )

[TwigtheWonderkid]

Carbon Sasquatch said:

then I'd struggle to spend under 500 on supermarket shopping.

For two adults! Are you shopping in Wholefood Supermarket? I've still got my youngest son at home, and we spend £400 for 3 adults. But we could cut that back by half if we had to.

[Carbon Sasquatch]

I can't remember the last time I spent under £100 for a weekly supermarket shop - right - I have a target

[James6112]

Trimming the outgoings, in advance of retirement
Cancelled Sky & similar frivolity..

All direct debits £500 a month (ok, £750 when the energy fixed rate ends June 2023!)
Food/fuel etc £500
So £1000 a month at the moment for the essentials

Pretty good

Will easily get £3k a month until I die (index linked)

[Jaguar steve]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

For two adults! Are you shopping in Wholefood Supermarket? I've still got my youngest son at home, and we spend £400 for 3 adults. But we could cut that back by half if we had to.

Our spend is usually around £300 a month for two and that includes several bottles of wine and beer. We could cut down too but that's around our value/quality sweet spot and includes lots of fish and seafood but not a great deal of meat or processed food.

We usually cook from scratch which saves quite a bit over ready meals and very rarely have takeaways as they tend to make both of us feel a bit crap.

[mikeiow]

GT3Manthey said:

gotoPzero said:

Its an old report.

Now a basic gents hair cut in somewhere thats stabby is £10 ish.

I have mates who spend £20-£30 for a normal trim in town.
They get a "free" coffee and a hair cut from someone who looks like they should be in ZZTop though.

Meanwhile I go and see my man Omar, who is £9 plus £1 tip. I sit down, I shut up and I leave without getting anything for "free" other than his bad attitude.

I like the sound of your guy .

Can’t be bothered with the faff and a Turkish coffee !

Pleasant weekend everyone

I guess when MrsMikeIOW leaves me I might have to start paying for cuts again - it's been a few years....decades.....
As Carbon Sasquatch said: you need your own Number - just like figuring out your own personal inflation rate.

Enjoy the weekend!!

[ARHarh]

Carbon Sasquatch said:

Jaguar steve said:

Our baseline living costs for example including food and drink, all our utility bills and council tax as well as running three cars is a smudge over £900 a month - the rest of our income is ours to do whatever we like with.

Wow - I'm comfortably double that.... but I guess it depends on what it really covers.

400 for all house related bills - then I'd struggle to spend under 500 on supermarket shopping. Then the car insurance, tax, maintenance & fuel, a few bits of eating out, phones etc & I'm around 2k.

Sounds like I need to have a word with myself (and my wife )

We easily run all household bills on £700. This includes all food and cleaning supplies, all bills insurance etc. Any repairs and maintenance. We don't even try to achieve that it just happens, we don't have mains gas so could probably do it for a lot less if we didn't need to buy LPG. This has gone up from £600 11 years ago when we moved here. This all runs a for bed house, with 2 adults both at home most of the time.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

Jaguar steve said:

TwigtheWonderkid said:

For two adults! Are you shopping in Wholefood Supermarket? I've still got my youngest son at home, and we spend £400 for 3 adults. But we could cut that back by half if we had to.

Our spend is usually around £300 a month for two and that includes several bottles of wine and beer.

We don't buy alcohol, which helps. But that's offset with occasional trips to Waitrose and M&S food hall. My wife is a demon with the coupons though, we usually get at least 10% off.