Retirement Advice

Nannarose, that is just how I would like to live, love camping and local concerts exhibitions etc.

PS: to be accurate, I should add that we get our electricity effectively for free. We installed solar panels as part of our 'pre-retirement' spend, and the Feed In Tariff effectively covers the electric bill. Our heating costs are low, despite my arthritis - we are well insulated and have a mechanical heat recovery and ventilation pump.

I'm following this with interest, and would also say that Money Saving Expert is a great site for information & advice.
I'd add to Fiachna's advice by saying that there are parts of the UK where a more 'downbeat' lifestyle is common - we live in an area where there is decent cheap local entertainment, good markets & quite a lot of bartering.
We live comfortably and happily on about £30k. But it is always difficult to know what someone else likes and regards as 'comfortable'. I have a good, old friend, in a much more expensive part of the UK who would regard herself as deprived if she didn't shop at Waitrose,eat out regularly, holiday abroad a couple of times a year and go to 'big venue' concerts at £200 a pop!
We eat well - we enjoy cooking and we preserve a lot - we shop at independent shops & markets.
We enjoy music - local concerts at about £10-20 and a couple of local festivals £50 for a weekend.
We still camp for most of our holidays, but can afford a short hotel break, say for a Xmas market.
We have an active Village Hall with social events about 4-5 times a year (barbecue with live music / Xmas dinner, £15 each)
We are mortgage-free and have savings that we can dip in to for major expenditure such as a car, and of course, emergencies.
We 'future proofed' and updated our house before retiring.
Hope that gives you an idea.

Well lucky you to be able to have a comfortable financial future. I am totally at the end of that scale dread to think of my retirement. Just live on a monthly wage.

No mortgage, no children to support, no work clothes needed, no pension contributions to pay, ( these amount to over £700 pcm for DH and me) less relations to buy for at Christmas and the ability to take breaks when there is a bargain on offer. I have a cleaner at the moment as we both work full time. If you take all these factors into account you need far less income than most younger couples to enjoy quite a nice lifestyle. We will have a little more than the OP after tax, I'm now rather lforward to it.

In a vox pop on the radio about earnings a council gardener in some big town (not London) was earning £23,000.

The average bus driver in London earns the average salary of around £28,000.

The figure sounds reasonable and if their partner has a similar paying job, family income would be about £56,000.

That is how and why many young couples do manage to buy their first house at a price of anything from £100,000 to 250,000

It is only 15K each. That is not a lot.

Its certainly doable but it still requires OP to be frugle

OK, I am not arguing or anything. It just seems like a lot of money to me. An awful lot.

P.s. 28K is a part time wage for some. And some couples have one earner on 50K+. Its average

Thanks notonan for some basic Maths. Does every couple both work full time?

Its an average, lessimore, and yes its basic maths that was my point.

The average income per person in UK is 28K
The average income per couple in UK is 56K

yes, you can live on 30k in the UK. No, it wont put you in the wealthy category and you'll still have to watch your spending.

Yes people live on much less, I have done, but the OP wants to enjoy their retirement, not just survive it. And is asking if their income will match their lifestyle expectations

You might like to consider buying a bungalow instead of a house. With an eye to the future, there may come a time when one or both of you cannot manage stairs.

As regards daily living expenses, we have made some changes, primarily in our shopping habits. We now mainly use Aldi and spend half as much on our fortnightly shop than we did before we changed, and just top up in Sainsbury's or Tesco etc for things that we cannot get in Aldi. Goat butter, for example. Expensive, but the nicest butter (imo) on the market. We manage on less than half the amount that you have earmarked, but only have one car between us.

Here is a reference to the ONS bulletin giving those figures, SCroll down to section 3 and there is a graph illustrating the distribution of incomes.

The Guardian published one of its high moral tone articles based on these figures so they must be accurate.

www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/bulletins/householddisposableincomeandinequality/yearending2018#main-points

All the comments about managing to live in retirement on £30K per annum is making me glad we decided to retire abroad because our annual income is about two thirds of that and we live a very comfortable life on it. When I was diagnosed with cancer earlier in the year I did think about whether it would be better to live in England but I am having excellent treatment here and the comments here about the cost of living there in this thread have reaffirmed that we are much better where we are. £250 a month on council tax on a two bedroom house would be the deal breaker for me. We have a bigger house and dont even pay that much a year.

Thanks notonan for some basic Maths. Does every couple both work full time?

Really don't have the energy for a scrap but 30k seems a lot to me.

Interesting discussion we moved back to the UK 2 years ago after living 12 years in Australia. One thing to keep in mind is that you will have no credit record in the UK. We kept our UK banks accounts, and credit cards but this didn’t count. If you want mobile phone contracts they do credit checks, money laundering checks etc. Also make sure you have written confirmation of you car insurance no claims bonus.

Like others have said your costs will depend on where you decide to settle. We decided on a new or nearly new build to cut down on maintenance and heating costs etc. On a bus route and accessible to town and hospital and a 30 minute drive to the coast.

Careful shopping around and doing comparisons for gas/electric/broadband/car insurance & house/mobile phone etc. Can give you good savings.

Good Luck with you move and wishing you a long and happy retirement.

I have been pondering this.....the average UK salary is around the 28K mark....

Yeahhhhhhhh
So average income for a couple = £56,000/yr!

Sorry if this has been mentioned but my husband just came upon a website which may be of interest to you (and others)..
www.minimumincome.org.uk/
Bear in mind it’s a “minimum” but you can adjust it.

OK, no problem, as you wish. I think it's a hell of a lot of money.
I am very very grateful to have a house and run a car.

I am finding this thread fascinating and terrifying in equal measure.....
We won't have anything like 30k per annum when we do finally retire, but then we don't have that now
Probably a good job that we both enjoy 'simple pleasures'

But that’s the average for an individual, a couple may both work, whereas the OP was stating £30k for a couple. It won’t fund a lavish lifestyle, but a comfortable one.

I have been pondering this.....the average UK salary is around the 28K mark....from which bills, mortgage ( if applicable) , childcare possibly must be paid.

So 30K with no mortgage must be an awful lot of money surely?

in retirement perhaps you get a lot of pleasure out of simpler pleasures like gardening?

Absolutely Pernilla.
The other thing I didn’t realise when I was working full time was how much it costs just to go to work.
We now spend far less than we used to on petrol, and I used to spend much more on instant dinners & going out for meals because I was too tired to cook.
We do spend more on heating the house in winter though!

Only advice I would give is move to somewhere near doctors, hospital, shops and library. Make sure you are near a decent bus service, though things can change on that one. So many mature people move to rural areas to live the idyll, but that can become your prison. I would have no idea re how much to live on. Maths was never my strong point. Good luck with wherever you settle.

I've found this thread very interesting and informative. I've lived in the UK all my life and at 63 am pondering the same questions as the OP. I think that when you are working full time there is a strong urge to do things that cost a lot of money in your leisure time whereas in retirement perhaps you get a lot of pleasure out of simpler pleasures like gardening?

We have something called Groupon which has a lot of cheap weekend breaks both in UK and overseas. There is a good section on city breaks. We have stayed in many 4 star hotels with spa for weekend with breakfast and evening meals for £199. Things like this stretch money further. You could also consider getting a btl and renting out. The first £12,500 each is tax free. You can also deduct some expenses for repairsxand upkeep. Interest in banks is very poor in UK. If you have pot of money also it will depend on how long you live. If you have money or a house you will currently have to pay own care home if you need it at any point in future. Buy a house near a GP with not too long waiting list. You can ask their average waiting time for non urgent appointment. It varies hugely. We wait about 5 days but my inlaws wait almost 3 weeks.