Budgeting with no pension

[Candapack]

Apologies for recent whimsical posts, it is a serious issue, and a very interesting thread.
Wife and I are very lucky, both had final salary schemes, neither had massive salaries and I was compulsorily retired at 52, at the time had just 32 years pensionable service. Wife retired at 60.
I had 4 lower paid jobs between 52 and 60, none pensionable.
Won't say what our pensions are, but worked out that to achieve the combined annual income we now have would have needed, on an annuity based system, a pension pot of more than half a million. Which we could never have got anywhere near.
I count my blessings every day that we both lived through what really were the golden years, never to be repeated, completely unaffordable.

 

[cliffanger]

Obviously anticipates having to look after his parents​

You're good ....... and sooooo right!

 

[Judge Mental]

Scotland;
Cycling, duh;
Sea fishing, oh come on now;
Theatres, just the biggest Thesp Fest on the planet. Not to mention regular tours by The Krankies, Bay City Roller tribute bands, and the like.
PLUS, Queen Nicola.
It's a no brainer, especially for a Sarth Londoner.

forgettin about the whevar bruv..and the awful coronary inducing diet. With my health I wouldn't last a year. ( stop cheering in the back row!) Then there is the language barrier...Its to late to start all over again in a new country

 

[irnbru]

Then there is the language barrier...Its to late to start all over again in a new country

Its never too late and its fun with misinterpreted words sometimes.

 

[Gellyneck]

Its never too late and its fun with misinterpreted words sometimes.

We could always use sign language!

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[maxine and jo]

You have to wonder if its worth making any plans.

I know this is asking a Q like how long is a piece of string BUT
Do you budget to reach a certain age hoping it sees you out? Is this for a single or a couple?
I hear all to often about the people that drop down dead and don't get to enjoy their hard earned cash, so whens enough enough to get by.?

My older sister once said with a glass of wine in hand "Life a bastard then you die " soooooooooooo live today and take the plunge because if you don't try you will never know, made the jump 12 years ago and love it , I am still another 10 years from retirement so i live for today every day.

 

[Chris]

I am planning to get out in 5-6 years once my son has finished university.

We have been putting a lot of money to one side to cover my daughters university costs but didn't have the spare cash to do that for my son when he was younger plus I was paying his school fees which was a drain on my income.

My pensions aren't great , nor my savings, but I do own a big chunk of a commercial property which I hope will come good.

If it doesn't come good I will get a job in B&Q.

They seem to employ old people who don't have a clue about DIY

 

[Candapack]

One or two Funsters have posted about being able to stop work once their kids are through University.
All I would say is, BEWARE.
It doesn't just stop.

 

[Chris]

One or two Funsters have posted about being able to stop work once their kids are through University.
All I would say is, BEWARE.
It doesn't just stop.

Thanks for that, cheers me up no end

 

[Bacchus]

One or two Funsters have posted about being able to stop work once their kids are through University.
All I would say is, BEWARE.
It doesn't just stop.

That's a choice.

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[Gellyneck]

That's a choice.

No it's not!!!
It's usually an order from their mother, SWMBO!

 

[WillH]

We supported our pair through Uni but the deal was they had no student loan when they graduated , they were also off the payroll. It worked.

 

[Reallyretired]

Shirley had to retire through ill health at 57, so I retired at about the same time at 58. I am now 64 and looking forward to my OAP next year if the rules don't change again. Shirley already gets hers.
I still don't seem to have time for everything, the list of jobs gets longer, possibly because I don't do any of them.
Oh well off to Yorkshire in two days, and then after a few days back home, off to the New Forest. Our pup now has his passport so all geared up for the continent in the spring/summer. I can't persuade SWMBO to go in the winter otherwise we would be down on the costas.

 

[Zepp]

Life's a bitch then you die , me and Lynne gave up our full time jobs 7 years ago we only work in the summer and travel in the winter. Hope to give up work in 1 or 2 years time.

I say live for today and sod tomorrow we are only here for a very short time and we have to live our life's your a long time dead .

Paul

 

[gus-lopez]

I

If it doesn't come good I will get a job in B&Q.

They seem to employ old people who don't have a clue about DIY

I don't think you are old enough? Most are in there 80's & 90's with a few over 100, i believe..
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...orker-refuses-feet-working-seven-decades.html

or you can work for a plumbers
Broken Link Removed
& he ran a marathon.

There's hope for you yet.

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[sonny]

Buy to let THEN PAY CAPITAL GAIN TAX
if the value of the property has gone up happened to me expensive but then I did use a accountant.

 

[martin2603]

My sister said to her daughter in law' We will be off skiing in December' Came the reply, Where are you going ? ' Madera ' sister replied. ' Oh I didn't think they had snow there.'
'No they don't' replied sister. Long pause, daughter looking puzzled. sister then says ' Spending the kids' inheritance, ' !!!!

 

[Ambilkate]

Cliff stopped working 3 years ago at 60, I stopped 2 years ago at 58. Both self employed with no pensions. We do have a house we rent out so that is our pension. We decided that there is a small window of possibly 10 years when you are healthy enough to enjoy travelling in the van, and every year after that is a bonus.

We've never looked back. We walk every day. The only stress is our Rob at 24 taking on a psychiatric nursing degree, but that is going OK.

I must say though - the Great Pensions Robbery which means women of my age have lost out on 6 years of pension is now leaving a bitter taste in my mouth - contributions all paid up years ago, I should have been getting it this week - and now have to wait until I am 66 - this will affect a lot of us Funster Females - what d'ya say to a revolution eh girls.......?

To right Gerri fuming i am i was born in 1958 so it effects me as well have signed the petition hope they have to have to bring it up in Parliament may go and chain myself to some railings or somthing want to come

 

[cliffanger]

To right Gerri fuming i am i was born in 1958 so it effects me as well have signed the petition hope they have to have to bring it up in Parliament may go and chain myself to some railings or somthing want to come

Could be a good day out! There are other little surprises that people won't be expecting with the consolidated pension as well. We are in the middle of a fight with that as well!

All legislation brought in by those on gold plated index linked pensions - so it won't affect them!

Hope you are all well and had a great Goth weekend! xx

 

[pigginchilli]

We are in our early 50s well me anyway! nades a lot younger, We have no mortgage or dependants, or debt or pension and not much money, We could live for 6 months on our savings, we are selling everything in the house as we would love to travel the uk and both work but are worried that living in a motorhome would not help us get a job, iam a farm manager and my wife is a qualified chef, what do you think?

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[Candapack]

We are in our early 50s well me anyway! nades a lot younger, We have no mortgage or dependants, or debt or pension and not much money, We could live for 6 months on our savings, we are selling everything in the house as we would love to travel the uk and both work but are worried that living in a motorhome would not help us get a job, iam a farm manager and my wife is a qualified chef, what do you think?

At your ages, I would be thinking about having to work till your both 70 before any state pension kicks in. As a farm manager and chef, you're both obviously used to hard work, and probably quite practical.
Have you thought about working together as camp site wardens? You can get info from the 2 main clubs in UK.
Good luck.

 

[DBK]

We are in our early 50s well me anyway! nades a lot younger, We have no mortgage or dependants, or debt or pension and not much money, We could live for 6 months on our savings, we are selling everything in the house as we would love to travel the uk and both work but are worried that living in a motorhome would not help us get a job, iam a farm manager and my wife is a qualified chef, what do you think?

Always adverts for chefs around here, there is a real scarcity of them and demand picks up in the spring so she could work just the tourist season then travelling the winter. Other seasonal jobs available too.

An alternative would be to see if there is any agency cheffiing she could do, possibly outside the UK. A chef I have met a few times works seasonally in the UK then flies to all sorts of odd places in the winter, Maldives, Mexico etc. Not much use if you want to take a MH of course, but good chefs will never be out of work if they are prepared to travel, which a MH allows you to do.

Only problem is the hours can be cruel of course.

Edit: Just found this account of some folk touring on a shoestring and apparently funding themselves by selling necklaces. The page also mentions an English bloke and his dancing puppet. Just food for thought, and you might have to sell the MH for a tandem! https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/page/?o=tS&page_id=443630&v=s

 

[movan]

Hi Sandra, Long thread so don't know if someone already said it, and the other thing is that if you pay into private pensions and own your own home and then have to go into a home with alzheimers then you lose it all anyway because the Council will take any pension off you to pay for the Care home ... those who don't have a pension will be in the room next door to you.

I had to cash all my private pensions in to help mum and dad in their later years sort their home, transport, food, care, etc out and I now struggle. I make ends meet and keep my mh on the road and will hopefully now use it by scrimping on basics, eg heating, water, food, clothes .... is it worth it? YES.

 

[Judge Mental]

This is a very interesting thread.

I have worked for myself for the last twenty five years as an independent contractor, this year I turned down a lucrative six months in favour of "freedom".

I am only(!) 51 can't really afford to retire as such, but my son has finished school, I have investments which cover my basic outgoings so don't have much need of income (at the moment!!), and could re-arrange things (downsize) to be comfortable enough to do the work that I want to rather than the daily grind - I have just finished the first draft of my first novel, I don't expect it to be a best seller or to win the booker prize, but I am already excited about writing the second and would rather be an impecunious writer than a wealthy commuter, or, indeed, the richest man in the graveyard (the males in my family aren't famed for longevity)

One of the things I have looked at is the "pension" which can be accessed from age 55 and annuities. The freeing up of this system is, IMHO the best thing that this government has done; OK they did it in the hope of a tax windfall from people taking out their pension savings to splash on a shiny new MotorHome, but the net result is that we don't HAVE to buy an annuity with any pension savings, and that has to be good. Personally, I think that the annuity is the work of the devil, designed principally to grab your savings when you die and keep them out of the hands of your successors, we can now invest any pension savings how we want, say in a SIPP, and we can draw slightly more than is required to preserve the capital; effectively you need a smaller lump sum because you can run it down to zero when you die instead of preserving (or even growing) it for the pension provider!

If anyone is interested I have created a spreadsheet to see how long your lump sum (from downsizing or elsewhere) might last, so for example a £200000 lump sum would last 37 years if I can invest it at 5% and draw a thousand a month from it, whereas it would only buy an annuity of around £300 a month! I don't think I will live another 37 years, and if I do I probably won't want for much.

The spreadsheet allows you to change the lump sum, the expected interest rate, and the rate of drawing to see what effect it has. It doesn't change how long you live, that's up to you and your god.

I presume I can upload the file, if so I hope that it may be of some interest to others.

Where can you get 5% from please....

 

[Minxy]

Where can you get 5% from please....

AFAIK you can't, not on a large sum anyway, this makes interesting reading and pretty much what we've done:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/savings/savings-loophole

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[Judge Mental]

2% would be 'zero risk high street' - you can get 3% on up to sixty grand (if you have a partner) from Santander, but the point of the spreadsheet is just that; change the interest rate to 2% and £200k would still last 20 years drawing £12,000 pa, if you're 65 that might be long enough!

My father only made 65 and my grandfather 55, so I am not planning on working in somebody else's office until I'm 68; I might not make any money writing, but it is still work and I can do it until they nail down the lid or I lose my last marble, in either case I shan't be troubled by lack of money

You say you can get £12000 on an investment of £200k.?

Can you give me an idea as where please as I can't see anything paying those sorts of rates

 

[Bacchus]

Where can you get 5% from please....

If I could tell you where to get a guaranteed 5% in the current market I would have retired long ago to my private island!

If you have your savings in a SIPP and can play with the funds this should be achievable by spreading your investments across the risk levels. Most fund managers will be expecting at least 8-10% to pay your high-street interest of 1% or whatever, find out what they invest in and copy them...

A friend of mine has taken a high risk attitude to his pension as it was small anyway and grown it around 20% for five years so the risk has paid off for him. I shan't name the fund because the markets believe that it is due for a "re-adjustment" (tank).

However, the idea of that spreadsheet is that you can play with the figures. You can't get much more than 3% guaranteed at the moment, but in a couple of years when the interest rates go back up (which they will) this will change

 

[Judge Mental]

If I could tell you where to get a guaranteed 5% in the current market I would have retired long ago to my private island!

If you have your savings in a SIPP and can play with the funds this should be achievable by spreading your investments across the risk levels. Most fund managers will be expecting at least 8-10% to pay your high-street interest of 1% or whatever, find out what they invest in and copy them...

A friend of mine has taken a high risk attitude to his pension as it was small anyway and grown it around 20% for five years so the risk has paid off for him. I shan't name the fund because the markets believe that it is due for a "re-adjustment" (tank).

However, the idea of that spreadsheet is that you can play with the figures. You can't get much more than 3% guaranteed at the moment, but in a couple of years when the interest rates go back up (which they will) this will change

I converted my ISA portfolio to get income rather the growthto supplent a megre pension (im 62) Its the sale of our London home and the money released from that i'm worried about as will have to invest for income as wife may retire. She has a good ocupatonal pension coming as she works in education

 

[Bacchus]

You say you can get £12000 on an investment of £200k.?

Can you give me an idea as where please as I can't see anything paying those sorts of rates

No; what I was saying is that if you take £12,000 p.a your £200k will run out - HOWEVER it will take 20 years to run out, even at a miserly 2%, and if you're 65 now you would be 85 and possibly not need as much income. Hell, I'm 51 and don't think I will need the same income in 20 years that I need now.

I guess it's partly also an exercise in how much you want to leave behind; I have only one son and I have paid for him to have a good education so that he can make his own way in life. Anything of my hard-earned left when I shuffle off is a bonus for him and a mistake by me! (he'll get the house anyway and his mum is minted...), but if you had the £200k in the above example and wanted to leave £200k, you would only be able to draw £4k per year. If you drew less your savings would grow and you could leave the kids even more (and the tax man of course...)

Personally if I make more than 65 I will be the first on my father's side for about 5 generations, so am not going to work until "retirement age" to be the richest corpse in the graveyard!

 

[Bacchus]

I converted my ISA portfolio to get income rather the growthto supplent a megre pension (im 62) Its the sale of our London home and the money released from that i'm worried about as will have to invest for income as wife may retire. She has a good ocupatonal pension coming as she works in education

Does the money from the sale of the London home need to go into "funds"?

I am thinking of a similar thing, downsizing from my "greater" London home and moving to the South Coast; one of the places I am looking at you can buy a very well positioned one bed house for about £100k - a couple of those as holiday lets would provide a nice (if taxable) income

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