Financial Planning for Retirement - where are you?

Pensionwise... I put in 6% of my wage each month and the company I work for puts in 10% which equates to about £266 per month... so I 'save' about £3200 a year... by the time I 'retire' that will be £79,800 not including pay rises, working for different companies, pay reductions, bonuses, other savings...

Any way... I will be at x4 my wage by retirement on that alone. The pension money itself gets invested and will grow so I might actually hit that x6 by the time I am 65.

There will likely be a significant sum in inheritance later in my life... I should be in a good position if I make it to retirement or early retirement.
 
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I'm 27 and from January next year, I'll start saving 10% of my salary into a pension, only been saving 3% for the past 7 years, which was stupid as the company will match it. Looking to buy a house end of next year/early 2016, hoping to overpay that enough that I'll be able to get a BTL before I retire, and use that to supplement my small pension.
 
Current employer pays me a 15% contribution. The legal minimum here is about 9.5% (set increase by .25% anually until it gets to 12% I believe). By my reckoning based off of a 5% growth rate and no change in "circumstances" that should give me close to AU$1m retirement fund.

I've got bugger all in the way of assets though due to moving around like the littlest hobo for the last 10 years.
 
amigafan2003 said:
Nope - retired - as in never intending nor never needing to work again for financial reasons. £18k is more than adequate with no mortgage and no debts. a lot of people don't even earn £18k a year when in employment and manage just fine. Plus when I get to 50 I can draw on my workplace pension (which is another £9k) then there is the state pension @ 68 (or whetever they change it to) so that's another £8k. So, without adjusting for inflation, I'll be drawing £35k at least at state pension age - should be more than that though as the investment pot grows over time (I'm not drawing down 100% of the return) and whatever equity release scheme on my house brings in.



http://www.which.co.uk/money/retirement/guides/equity-release-explained/
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Good for you for being content I guess but it seems a huge constraint to put on yourself with little contingency.
 
mines looking to be about 14k annually and a 60k lump sum..top that up with state pension and my wifes pension which is going to be less annually than mine but with a better lump sum

handily my mortgage will be cleared in about 4 years though so I can either save more..or buy a porsche...have not decided yet!
 
Terminal_Boy said:
I'm 49 and retirement planning/savings are on hold until my two daughters finish university as we're aiming to have them leave with just tuition fees to repay.
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What little contingency? It's a gauranteed (well, as guaranteed as pensions and investments can be) level of income until I die.

Interestingly, I didn't even spend the full £18k last year, £3k went back into the pot and I still managed to do everything I wanted to do, inc a nice snowboarding holiday in Whistler :-)
 
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amigafan2003 said:
What little contingency? It's a gauranteed (well, as guaranteed as pensions and investments can be) level of income until I die.

Interestingly, I didn't even spend the full £18k last year, £3k went back into the pot and I still managed to do everything I wanted to do, inc a nice snowboarding holiday in Whistler :-)
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I presume that was meant to quote me. I'm not having a pop at you at all. Different horses and all that. I would want more buffer than that for the unforeseens, including unforeseen changes in my expectations. (I couldn't stand just one snowboarding holiday a year!;)) I guess you don't have a family?

By contingency I mean, what if you need more money in a given year than you anticipate.
 
Skidder said:
I presume that was meant to quote me. I'm not having a pop at you at all. Different horses and all that. I would want more buffer than that for the unforeseens, including unforeseen changes in my expectations. (I couldn't stand just one snowboarding holiday a year!;)) I guess you don't have a family?

By contingency I mean, what if you need more money in a given year than you anticipate.
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Yup, three kids - 7, 6 and 4.

I can't forsee what I'd "need" more money for. Our total outgoings are £10k per year - that leaves £8k from my income + what the wife earns to spend on whatever we want. The wife is investing heavily as well so she can retire around the same age (she's quite a bit younger than I am) but even after that our disosable income is around £40k a year.

But yeah, I agree with you - everyone needs to decide on what level of lifestyle one wnats when they retire. For me, sitting in the back garden, reading a good book with a beer on the side and a steak on the barbecue isn't very expensive ;-) Some people want to travel the world when they retire - it doesn't interest me, although I do have a UK castles tour planned next summer for 4 weeks :-) But that's not expensive either. Some people want to get flash cars - I've already got a Westfield and a Cosworth - I'm not interested in the Porsche, Ferrari, Audi TT route etc (waste of money imho), but I would like to finsih my AC Cobra - but again, that's not mega money - believe it or not now that I've retired I don't have the time to finish it! Doesn't help that I've decided to do a degree - I must be mad!
 
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Fair enough, your life. But....1,2 or 3 kids wanting to go to university? Helping them secure their first homes? An unforeseen political change which means you suddenly need private healthcare. Your home burns down and you insurer plays silly ******. And so on.

you added more info: I guess that works up north :)
 
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I'm hoping to have paid off our current mortgage by the time I'm 35. After that, I'm planning to put investments into properties, rinse and repeat etc.
 
amigafan2003 said:
Yup, three kids - 7, 6 and 4.

I can't forsee what I'd "need" more money for. Our total outgoings are £10k per year - that leaves £8k from my income + what the wife earns to spend on whatever we want. The wife is investing heavily as well so she can retire around the same age (she's quite a bit younger than I am) but even after that our disosable income is around £40k a year.

But yeah, I agree with you - everyone needs to decide on what level of lifestyle one wnats when they retire. For me, sitting in the back garden, reading a good book with a beer on the side and a steak on the barbecue isn't very expensive ;-) Some people want to travel the world when they retire - it doesn't interest me, although I do have a UK castles tour planned next summer for 4 weeks :-) But that's not expensive either. Some people want to get flash cars - I've already got a Westfield and a Cosworth - I'm not interested in the Porsche, Ferrari, Audi TT route etc (waste of money imho), but I would like to finsih my AC Cobra - but again, that's not mega money - believe it or not now that I've retired I don't have the time to finish it! Doesn't help that I've decided to do a degree - I must be mad!
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I must be mad still working :)

Like you I could quite easily live on < 18k although I am now 62 and have decided to stay in work until 65.

My gross earnings are salary 50k, pension 11k, and I paid 19k tax/NI last year.
Out of the 42k remainder we have no problems saving 2k per month and we are temporarily in rented, spending (wasting) £750 per month on that. So we are living on 18k including 9k rent which we would not pay under normal circumstances being mortgage free when we do buy again.

It is partly the uncertainty of not owning a house currently which is keeping me working I will admit.
 
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