Retirement at 50 - how much would you need in your warchest?

[Sysman]

Interesting point someone made about getting solar to reduce further your actual expenditure. Saving £50/month now might not seem much but when you are living off your savings, it might be a big deal.

Of course for that you need a house you plan to stay in forever and that's a big assumption.

Watch out for some future government scheme to steal your house from you.

[EternalOptimist]

I worked out that I would need 330k. but thats assuming I live frugally and do a bit of work now and then, before the pension kicks in

[SimonMac]

Assuming no housing costs, you can survive in your old age with less than 600 GBP per month. Eg:

Food 300 GBP
Utilities 50 GBP
Gasoline 25 GBP
Internet 15 GBP
Prostitutes 100 GBP

To be honest if you are choosing prostitutes that charge that little your life expectancy isn't your biggest problem

[d000hg]

To be honest if you are choosing prostitutes that charge that little your life expectancy isn't your biggest problem

You don't know how often they are visiting - £100/month could be the amortised monthly budget for one who visits once every 3 months, conversely he might see a real skank once a week.

[IR35 Avoider]

There is a recently-launched Vanguard tracker fund that invests in the half of the world index that pays the highest dividends, the dividend yield was 4% at the end of March. Taking that as a rough benchmark, and assuming 12K would probably be a minimum needed to pay the bills, then 12K/4% = 300K is the minimum you need.

In practice you need to allow for dividends to temporarily halve if there were a global recession, so aim for 600K and have 12K surplus/disposable income during normal/good times.

On average over the very long-term you income should keep up with inflation, but you do need to vary spending with fluctuations in the economy.

I estimated the smoothed earnings yield on that Vanguard fund at slightly over 5%, so on the basis that you're not spending all the underlying returns, in fact your income should grow by a little more than inflation, on average over the very long term.

Note that I haven't assumed spending capital, so this plan will work for any length of retirement, including forever if a vaccination against death were to become available. (For reasons it would take too long to explain, for retirements longer than 30 years I don't believe you could safely take more income at the start, by using a plan that involved running down capital.)

[SimonMac]

There is a recently-launched Vanguard tracker fund that invests in the half of the world index that pays the highest dividends, the dividend yield was 4% at the end of March. Taking that as a rough benchmark, and assuming 12K would probably be a minimum needed to pay the bills, then 12K/4% = 300K is the minimum you need.

In practice you need to allow for dividends to temporarily halve if there were a global recession, so aim for 600K and have 12K surplus/disposable income during normal/good times.

On average over the very long-term you income should keep up with inflation, but you do need to vary spending with fluctuations in the economy.

I estimated the smoothed earnings yield on that Vanguard fund at slightly over 5%, so on the basis that you're not spending all the underlying returns, in fact your income should grow by a little more than inflation, on average over the very long term.

Note that I haven't assumed spending capital, so this plan will work for any length of retirement, including forever if a vaccination against death were to become available. (For reasons it would take too long to explain, for retirements longer than 30 years I don't believe you could safely take more income at the start, by using a plan that involved running down capital.)

Again you are missing the whole inflation factor, what will £12k a year be worth in 10 or 15 years?

[ctdctd]

Again you are missing the whole inflation factor, what will £12k a year be worth in 10 or 15 years?

No he's not - he is assuming the capital will keep pace with inflation with the dividend providing the income.

[Old Hack]

Assuming no housing costs, you can survive in your old age with less than 600 GBP per month. Eg:

Food 300 GBP - Really, for one person? I reckon £200 tops, especially an elderly person
Utilities 20 GBP - see below
Bus pass is free.
Internet Probably be canned with line by then.

I reckon, if you plan your garden, you can grow pretty much 50% of what you need. More so if you don't mind what you eat.
Turkeys piss easy to rear and kill. Cheap too. £18 should net you a big bastard, which would do many, many meals.
Chickens pay for themselves.

2 acres of willow woodland will keep a home in firewood and cooking wood in perpetuity
Solar and PV will pay for 25 years.
Ground source heat pumps will pay for 25 years.
A combination of the above will see you neutral on energy bills.

State pension is currently £144 a week, or say £650 a month.

You could save money, to be frank. My parents are pensioners, and with tiny bills, and hardly any outgoings, they save money, lots of it.

[Old Greg]

I reckon, if you plan your garden, you can grow pretty much 50% of what you need. More so if you don't mind what you eat.
Turkeys piss easy to rear and kill. Cheap too. £18 should net you a big bastard, which would do many, many meals.
Chickens pay for themselves.

2 acres of willow woodland will keep a home in firewood and cooking wood in perpetuity
Solar and PV will pay for 25 years.
Ground source heat pumps will pay for 25 years.
A combination of the above will see you neutral on energy bills.

State pension is currently £144 a week, or say £650 a month.

You could save money, to be frank. My parents are pensioners, and with tiny bills, and hardly any outgoings, they save money, lots of it.

But who wants to live on turkey piss?

[Old Hack]

But who wants to live on turkey piss?

I rear turkeys every year. I did 10 last year, gave 3 to family, kept one myself, and sold the other 6. They cost me £200 and some tooing and fromming to feed and clean. I sold the six for £420.

We ate turkey for 6 days, that's 5 people. I even froze some and then threw it away. Cheap as chips as far as food goes.