Retire early (living off savings)
Discussion
covmutley said:
Your eating out budget looks sparse if includes wine too?
Since we moved oop North there aren't so many places worth eating out in my area tbh plus we've learned to cook for the first time and really enjoying that much to my surprise. There's no way we could afford the lifestyle we had when we were working (and living in Covent Garden). Good wine I do miss but looking back I am embarrassed about how much we used to spill down our throats. That said, if I still had the disposable it would be hard to resist.Hang On said:
OddCat said:
Good grief. No mortgage, no kids, no holidays. Not wishing to pry, but on what do you spend £42k per annum ? Can you give a broad breakdown ?
Sure. We keep a very good track of the pennies. Broadly it is:4k on house related bills / utilities / council tax etc.
3k on house maintenance / decorating / gardening.
5k on petrol / insurance / servicing / maintenance for the cars.
2k on food and toys for the cats
12k for the weekly shop for food, soft drinks, household products, personal care etc
1k for media including broadband, TV, cd's books etx.
1k on daily contact lenses and opticians
14k on eating out and wine.
The last one is the overspend. Budget is 8k.
PositronicRay said:
Spend on eating out and wine looks ample to me, it'd cover my holidays too.
Wife insists it is not going over the 8k this year. So far we are dry since Jan 1st and can already see the savings. First time without booze for 30 years. Back on the wine in Feb though, just hopefully in a more measured fashion.toon10 said:
I have my own spreadsheet.
<snip>
What I've discovered from this is that
a) I'm a nerd.
b) I have far too much time on my hands.
c) My financial adviser loves me and pretty much everything he needs for reviews is there in a simple to read format.
Sounds to me like you ARE the financial advisor.....what value does he add?! I'm only half joking....<snip>
What I've discovered from this is that
a) I'm a nerd.
b) I have far too much time on my hands.
c) My financial adviser loves me and pretty much everything he needs for reviews is there in a simple to read format.
Have to confess.....equally nerdy here....with hideous spreadsheet for budgetary planning....and sadly still using Quicken 2000 for the detail .. & for small holiday business, almost the only reason I need a windows vm on my Mac! I waste far too much time faffing with all that....
Tried switching to M$money but things didn't transfer well....wish there was a modern equivalent of Quicken!)
OddCat said:
Good grief. No mortgage, no kids, no holidays. Not wishing to pry, but on what do you spend £42k per annum ? Can you give a broad breakdown ?
No mortgage, no kids, no holidays, no utility bills, no car bills bar fuel ........ yet my other half can & does comfortably spend that. If I asked that question I'd get a punch on the nose. 
However she does appear to have more shoes, bags, clothes, makeup, jewellry than the average department store.
GT03ROB said:
No mortgage, no kids, no holidays, no utility bills, no car bills bar fuel ........ yet my other half can & does comfortably spend that. If I asked that question I'd get a punch on the nose.
However she does appear to have more shoes, bags, clothes, makeup, jewellry than the average department store.
The next expense will be that '........small extension that can become my walk-in wardrobe/clothes store'. However she does appear to have more shoes, bags, clothes, makeup, jewellry than the average department store.
Don't ask me how I know........
Robertj21a said:
GT03ROB said:
No mortgage, no kids, no holidays, no utility bills, no car bills bar fuel ........ yet my other half can & does comfortably spend that. If I asked that question I'd get a punch on the nose.
However she does appear to have more shoes, bags, clothes, makeup, jewellry than the average department store.
The next expense will be that '........small extension that can become my walk-in wardrobe/clothes store'. However she does appear to have more shoes, bags, clothes, makeup, jewellry than the average department store.
Don't ask me how I know........
Day 1 She says: "I think we need to downsize"
Day 2 Shes says "I've seen lots of nice properties I'd be happy in, what do you think of these?"
Me: "But they all appear to be 100k more than what we currently have?"
She says "You don't sound very keen on this"
...and people wonder why I'll never have savings enough to retire on......
Hang On said:
OddCat said:
Good grief. No mortgage, no kids, no holidays. Not wishing to pry, but on what do you spend £42k per annum ? Can you give a broad breakdown ?
Sure. We keep a very good track of the pennies. Broadly it is:4k on house related bills / utilities / council tax etc.
3k on house maintenance / decorating / gardening.
5k on petrol / insurance / servicing / maintenance for the cars.
2k on food and toys for the cats
12k for the weekly shop for food, soft drinks, household products, personal care etc
1k for media including broadband, TV, cd's books etx.
1k on daily contact lenses and opticians
14k on eating out and wine.
The last one is the overspend. Budget is 8k.
:-)
Fair play to you for living the life! Those cats would be fine with a bit of paper tied on some string, you do know that lol.
Ps top tip- Costco do contact lenses and fluids at ridiculously less than you've spent. I reckon mine cost me less than £200pa all in including eye tests and it's the same stuff I had from my previous optician.
Hang On said:
PositronicRay said:
Spend on eating out and wine looks ample to me, it'd cover my holidays too.
Wife insists it is not going over the 8k this year. So far we are dry since Jan 1st and can already see the savings. First time without booze for 30 years. Back on the wine in Feb though, just hopefully in a more measured fashion.Rates, utilities, ins, running modest hatchback, groceries, wine (I think, Mrs PR does the shopping) is covered by around £13k p.a. entertainment (eating, drinking, cinema, the odd concert and theatre trip) around £5k.
Additionally, My car, holidays etc 5-12k
A lot of people are getting anal about monthly budgets (I used to) but since retiring I've found it unnecessary to break it down like that, I look at how much I need to draw down annually.
Mrs wife-beast has a small pension that covers day to day stuff. I have a pot for everything else. Think 'pot' not a 'salary' mentality, so if we have an extra f
k off holiday, or a new car one yr it doesn't matter. Just balance the books the following yr. Sounds blasé, but if you're having to watch the pennies each month that's no fun. Edited by PositronicRay on Thursday 18th January 07:59
PositronicRay said:
Looking @ your list
Rates, utilities, ins, running modest hatchback, groceries, wine (I think, Mrs PR does the shopping) is covered by around £13k p.a. entertainment (eating, drinking, cinema, the odd concert and theatre trip) around £5k.
Additionally, My car, holidays etc 5-12k
A lot of people are getting anal about monthly budgets (I used to) but since retiring I've found it unnecessary to break it down like that, I look at how much I need to draw down annually.
Mrs wife-beast has a small pension that covers day to day stuff. I have a pot for everything else. It's a pot not a salary mentality, so if we have an extra fk off holiday, or a new car one yr it doesn't matter. Just balance the books the following yr. Sounds blasé, but if you're having to watch the pennies each month that's no fun.
Agreed. We keep an eye on the pennies because we have no pension at the moment. I am 54 and will get a small company pension from an old employer at 65 and state pension at 67. So everything comes from savings right now.Rates, utilities, ins, running modest hatchback, groceries, wine (I think, Mrs PR does the shopping) is covered by around £13k p.a. entertainment (eating, drinking, cinema, the odd concert and theatre trip) around £5k.
Additionally, My car, holidays etc 5-12k
A lot of people are getting anal about monthly budgets (I used to) but since retiring I've found it unnecessary to break it down like that, I look at how much I need to draw down annually.
Mrs wife-beast has a small pension that covers day to day stuff. I have a pot for everything else. It's a pot not a salary mentality, so if we have an extra f
k off holiday, or a new car one yr it doesn't matter. Just balance the books the following yr. Sounds blasé, but if you're having to watch the pennies each month that's no fun. That said, I retired in 2011 and you know what has happened to global equities since then. Six years of draw down and I am left with 15% more than we had at the beginning so it feels like we are spending winnings to some extent. I don't trust valuations at the moment though so still taking a broadly cautious outlook.
If we still have a decent sum when the pensions are due then there will be some serious shopping going on.
Hang On said:
PositronicRay said:
Looking @ your list
Rates, utilities, ins, running modest hatchback, groceries, wine (I think, Mrs PR does the shopping) is covered by around £13k p.a. entertainment (eating, drinking, cinema, the odd concert and theatre trip) around £5k.
Additionally, My car, holidays etc 5-12k
A lot of people are getting anal about monthly budgets (I used to) but since retiring I've found it unnecessary to break it down like that, I look at how much I need to draw down annually.
Mrs wife-beast has a small pension that covers day to day stuff. I have a pot for everything else. It's a pot not a salary mentality, so if we have an extra fk off holiday, or a new car one yr it doesn't matter. Just balance the books the following yr. Sounds blasé, but if you're having to watch the pennies each month that's no fun.
Agreed. We keep an eye on the pennies because we have no pension at the moment. I am 54 and will get a small company pension from an old employer at 65 and state pension at 67. So everything comes from savings right now.Rates, utilities, ins, running modest hatchback, groceries, wine (I think, Mrs PR does the shopping) is covered by around £13k p.a. entertainment (eating, drinking, cinema, the odd concert and theatre trip) around £5k.
Additionally, My car, holidays etc 5-12k
A lot of people are getting anal about monthly budgets (I used to) but since retiring I've found it unnecessary to break it down like that, I look at how much I need to draw down annually.
Mrs wife-beast has a small pension that covers day to day stuff. I have a pot for everything else. It's a pot not a salary mentality, so if we have an extra f
k off holiday, or a new car one yr it doesn't matter. Just balance the books the following yr. Sounds blasé, but if you're having to watch the pennies each month that's no fun. That said, I retired in 2011 and you know what has happened to global equities since then. Six years of draw down and I am left with 15% more than we had at the beginning so it feels like we are spending winnings to some extent. I don't trust valuations at the moment though so still taking a broadly cautious outlook.
If we still have a decent sum when the pensions are due then there will be some serious shopping going on.
Just added a few quick calculation columns to my spreadsheet for 2017. It seems I spent :
£2790.92 on food (so slightly more than expected, although that includes Christmas)
£2837.79 in petrol (if I was retired and living on a budget, that would reduce significantly!)
£4150 in cash - considering I rarely use cash this was a surprise!
£4800 into another account to handle household bills
Car expenses (other than petrol) are paid for out of a separate account which I pay into each month and that would be a lot less if I was running a budget car in retirement.
The rest of the spreadsheet is mostly Amazon purchases (far too many!) and holidays. My total spend was a lot more than just the figures above.
Still think I could live on £15k a year if I entered retirement mode - but it does highlight just how much of my spending is a tad frivolous.
£2790.92 on food (so slightly more than expected, although that includes Christmas)
£2837.79 in petrol (if I was retired and living on a budget, that would reduce significantly!)
£4150 in cash - considering I rarely use cash this was a surprise!
£4800 into another account to handle household bills
Car expenses (other than petrol) are paid for out of a separate account which I pay into each month and that would be a lot less if I was running a budget car in retirement.
The rest of the spreadsheet is mostly Amazon purchases (far too many!) and holidays. My total spend was a lot more than just the figures above.
Still think I could live on £15k a year if I entered retirement mode - but it does highlight just how much of my spending is a tad frivolous.
davek_964 said:
Just added a few quick calculation columns to my spreadsheet for 2017. It seems I spent :
£2790.92 on food (so slightly more than expected, although that includes Christmas)
£2837.79 in petrol (if I was retired and living on a budget, that would reduce significantly!)
£4150 in cash - considering I rarely use cash this was a surprise!
£4800 into another account to handle household bills
Car expenses (other than petrol) are paid for out of a separate account which I pay into each month and that would be a lot less if I was running a budget car in retirement.
The rest of the spreadsheet is mostly Amazon purchases (far too many!) and holidays. My total spend was a lot more than just the figures above.
Still think I could live on £15k a year if I entered retirement mode - but it does highlight just how much of my spending is a tad frivolous.
Sounds doable, take it easy for the 1st yr and see how it goes.£2790.92 on food (so slightly more than expected, although that includes Christmas)
£2837.79 in petrol (if I was retired and living on a budget, that would reduce significantly!)
£4150 in cash - considering I rarely use cash this was a surprise!
£4800 into another account to handle household bills
Car expenses (other than petrol) are paid for out of a separate account which I pay into each month and that would be a lot less if I was running a budget car in retirement.
The rest of the spreadsheet is mostly Amazon purchases (far too many!) and holidays. My total spend was a lot more than just the figures above.
Still think I could live on £15k a year if I entered retirement mode - but it does highlight just how much of my spending is a tad frivolous.
FWIW, Now retired we don't need so many rewards, routine slap up weekend dinners out are replaced by having the time to plan and cook, lunch and a chat @ the local + an occasional curry. Holidays although still pleasant are less crucial to sanity, hotels bore us for more than a night or two, so self catering and take the dog.
Keep an eye on the wine bill creep though.
davek_964 said:
£2837.79 in petrol (if I was retired and living on a budget, that would reduce significantly!)
You'll want to be sure about that assumption. YMMV (literally) but I used to do 8,000 miles a year when I was working and commuting. In retirement I do 15,000 including quite a lot of A to A trips. You might just retire and remember why you used to enjoy driving now you can get out when the roads are quieter.Hang On said:
davek_964 said:
£2837.79 in petrol (if I was retired and living on a budget, that would reduce significantly!)
You'll want to be sure about that assumption. YMMV (literally) but I used to do 8,000 miles a year when I was working and commuting. In retirement I do 15,000. You might just retire and remember why you used to enjoy driving now you can get out when to roads are quieter.Robbo 27 said:
Really interesting thread.
What has surprised me is the widespread will to retire before the regular retirement date, it is something that the previous generation might have liked but it simply wasnt possible.
I'm not sure that's really true - in fact if you had a 'decent' job, I think it was easier - far more final salary pensions available then.What has surprised me is the widespread will to retire before the regular retirement date, it is something that the previous generation might have liked but it simply wasnt possible.
One of my ex's dad worked for BT. Given a golden handshake early retirement in his early 50s - now mid 80s and very comfortable.
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