# Curious about how we stand financially.



## !RAY (29 Aug 2021)

Hi All

First post in a long time so please bear with me, i have been talking with my wife and we are not sure how we stand financially as we head towards retirement.

Age:52
Spouse’s/Partner's age:50

Annual gross income from employment or profession:* 50,000*
Annual gross income of spouse:*35,000*

Monthly take-home pay around *5,500*

Type of employment: e.g. Civil Servant, self-employed *both PAYE*

In general are you:
(a) spending more than you earn, or
(b) saving?
*Breaking even eating out a bit too much.*

Rough estimate of value of home 420,000
Amount outstanding on your mortgage: 140,000
*What interest rate are you paying? 0.9 above ECB Rate*

Other borrowings – car loans/personal loans etc  *No apart from Tax on the apartment about 4,000 per year.*

Do you pay off your full credit card balance each month? *Yes*
If not, what is the balance on your credit card?

Savings and investments: *have a bond to mature next year about 70,000 and 5,000 in the bank. I also have 50,000 is shares between 4 different US Based companies.*

Do you have a pension scheme? *Yes we both have, mine about 215,000 ( 2 pensions one 50,000 and the other 165,000)  and wife about 180,000*

Do you own any investment or other property? *Yes Apartment mortgage finishes in 13 years time.
Value 280,000 mortgage 160,000*

Ages of children: *No Kids*

Life insurance: *Yes on PR and BTL 


What specific question do you have or what issues are of concern to you?*
The apartment is low rent 1,200 and i have to add about 350 euro per month to pay for life insurance, management fees and the mortgage.
My main question is would we have  enough to retire on as we hit the grand age of 60, i know it depends what type of life style we would want. The answer to that is `we would like to be comfortable nothing crazy, 1 or 2 small holidays a year and Golf club membership.

The plan with the apartment is when mortgage is up or very small sell and buy a small place abroad and use the rest of the money for retirement.
Regarding the shares the plan is at retirement sell about 3,000 per year for a holiday.
So i ask myself why i am asking this question, i have been trolling Google with searches for "How much do people have/need at retirement". I have not had much luck i would think the figure would be anywhere between 40,000 to 50,000 which includes state pension for a married couple.

Any replies most welcome, sorry for long post.


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## noproblem (29 Aug 2021)

This is an ongoing discussion at the moment; See below.
Case study Have I enough to retire now ?


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## KOW (29 Aug 2021)

!RAY said:


> Hi All
> 
> First post in a long time so please bear with me, i have been talking with my wife and we are not sure how we stand financially as we head towards retirement.
> 
> ...


Hi, 
No real details on your buy to let. Your hoping to retire with about 75% of your current take home pay.
Pension one current total 215k. Pension two 180k. Lets just say over the next 8-10 yrs they were brought up to 350k and 280k. Total pension roughly at 60 630k. Take tax free lump sum between you both 157k roughly. Pension/Arf. very roughly 19k per year. No state pension for at least seven years.

Sell apartment profit 120k. Add 20k from other funds and even though you are on tracker pay off house. Lash every penny you can into your pension.


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## Brendan Burgess (29 Aug 2021)

Lots of questions on the topic, but no Key Post 






						How much do you need when you retire?
					

Hi,  Is there a detailed questionnaire or formula, for calculating how much someone needs when they retire?  Are people really thinking about the breakdown of what they will actually need, they need food, shelter, heat etc. Some may need a car, others may not. Some may feel they need health...



					www.askaboutmoney.com
				








__





						Retirement spend. A calculator or list of assumptions?
					

Hi all,  There are numerous calculators for savings and pension pot size, but is there something to forecast retirement spend?  One of the first articles at the top of a google search is a Motley Fool one suggest 80% of pre-retirement income. That seems very excessive for anyone who is fortunate...



					www.askaboutmoney.com
				









						How big a  pension fund do I need to retire on?
					

Hi all,  I am just starting to investigate the pensions issue and must admit I feel quite intimidated by how complicated it is. I was wondering if anybody could answer a very basic question just to get me started. How big a pension fund would I need at retirement age to guarantee an annual...



					www.askaboutmoney.com


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## !RAY (29 Aug 2021)

Brendan Burgess said:


> Lots of questions on the topic, but no Key Post
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Hi Brendan
I was not to sure how to start the topic off sorry.
Thanks for the links, a few  of us were having a pint  and the topic came up all around the same age. Nobody really knew, hence my question.

Ill go through the links thanks.

Regards

Ray


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## Gordon Gekko (29 Aug 2021)

I struggle with the logic of basing one’s target retirement income on a percentage of one’s current income. Yes, one has to start somewhere, but there are better ways to address the issue. What’s more relevant is one’s current and expected expenditure pattern.

I did the following:

- Produced a spreadsheet which details outgoings in granular detail, e.g. groceries right down to Spotify
- Identified the items that would fall away in retirement, e.g. mortgage, retirement provision itself, etc
- Came up with a total expected ongoing expenditure figure
- Increased that by 2% a year to take account of inflation


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## !RAY (31 Aug 2021)

Thanks for the replies. 
@KOW have thought about selling the apartment but decided against it as it is mainly paying for its self. The mortgage is about 1,250 PM plus about another 180PM  management fee and about 4,000 Tax PY. The rent is 1,250 so the mortgage is reducing every year. About 160,000 left to pay  value 280,000.
@Gordon Gekko  good advice on the spread sheet ill have a look at doing that.


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