Living off savings - any advice ?

Consider diversifying your savings and investments and putting some money into gold. Otherwise any serious bout of inflation may wipe them out.

Also I think it's important for you to educate yourself financially, I don't mean a formal training, but being able to take care of your money. We live in very uncertain times.

I agree with other posters - you are too young to give up on working life, as you are single and able to move anywhere basically where you can find a job, surely there must be something for you somewhere in the world!
 
The old man on the beach every day messing about in his boat. He is approached by a guy in a suit who asks him why he just sits around all day especially since he owns all the land facing on to the beach. He could sell the land, develop the sites and make a fortune. The old man asks what he would do then. The suit says, you could buy yourself a boat and just mess about all day.
 
i too would like to know what happend to fishfingers.....
Found this thread interesting as may end up living off savings too soon.
 
mtk said:
i too would like to know what happend to fishfingers.....
Found this thread interesting as may end up living off savings too soon.
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Hi - I was able to get a couple of temporary jobs after my job ended. Managed to get myself fully funded for 2014 (9k) Still trying to work out some way to turn what assets I have (the savings bonds and certificates) into what I want : a small but increasing income that I can feel safe and secure knowing will not run out.

At the moment I'm having to assume 30 years @ 10K a year, but that does mean I have to live pretty frugally.

Things generally are going well though - I feel happier knowing I have next year fully funded in advance, and have started working on funding 2015.

Dropped health insurance in the end. I did think a lot about moving abroad, but in the end the costs of the move and leaving friends behind made me decide against it.

I was able to get jobseekers benefit during the (luckily short) periods I was out of work in between jobs.
 
I have to say that both myself and my wife can live a comfortable life on about €13k per annum. The recent property tax has added a further €1800 on top of this and further increases in utility bills and health costs has added a further €1000 on top of this again. So I reckon we need about €16k per annum to have a comfortable enough lifestyle. Neither of us smoke and we drink the occasional bottle of wine picked up on a discount but not pushed either way.
 
SoylentGreen said:
I have to say that both myself and my wife can live a comfortable life on about €13k per annum. The recent property tax has added a further €1800 on top of this and further increases in utility bills and health costs has added a further €1000 on top of this again. So I reckon we need about €16k per annum to have a comfortable enough lifestyle. Neither of us smoke and we drink the occasional bottle of wine picked up on a discount but not pushed either way.
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Respect to you SoylentGreen!

Can you itemise your €13k/€16k annual comfortable life spend for us?
 
I'd love to know how you do it as well. I'd also like to know how the original poster does it. Also if the original poster ran out of savings but still had the house would he be able to sign on? Or is that means tested?
 
fishfingers said:
Hi - I was able to get a couple of temporary jobs after my job ended. Managed to get myself fully funded for 2014 (9k) Still trying to work out some way to turn what assets I have (the savings bonds and certificates) into what I want : a small but increasing income that I can feel safe and secure knowing will not run out.

At the moment I'm having to assume 30 years @ 10K a year, but that does mean I have to live pretty frugally.

Things generally are going well though - I feel happier knowing I have next year fully funded in advance, and have started working on funding 2015.

Dropped health insurance in the end. I did think a lot about moving abroad, but in the end the costs of the move and leaving friends behind made me decide against it.

I was able to get jobseekers benefit during the (luckily short) periods I was out of work in between jobs.
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Fascinating thread. If you're fully funded in 2014 that makes you 47 years of age. Your 300K / 10 give you the 30 years. 47 + 30 = 77 years of age. But if you have a state pension at 66 that would be another income. I think it's about 11K a year or thereabouts. Plus other allowances, medical card etc I assume. So you can actually afford to use more of your 300K from 2014 to retirement age. I also assume that this state pension is the contributory one, so it means your assets (shares etc) are not taken into account. Your home is not taken into account even for the means tested pension.
 
Thanks for bumping it very interesting read , would love to be in a position to stop working at 40 , may not do it but would like to have the option to even work part time or very few hours. What's amazing is the amount of money you need to plan that far ahead. Respect to anyone that has achieved it.
 
Fella said:
Thanks for bumping it very interesting read , would love to be in a position to stop working at 40 , may not do it but would like to have the option to even work part time or very few hours. What's amazing is the amount of money you need to plan that far ahead. Respect to anyone that has achieved it.
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It seems like fishfingers' biggest assets are the skills and attitude to live comfortably on small money. Hats off, I'm nowhere near being comfortable on 12k (yet).

mrmoneymustache.com reckons that in the US, invested in property and index funds, one can withdraw 4% per year and have the investment's value keep pace with inflation indefinitely.

The "security blanket" is that you can accumulate lots of useful, money saving, and (if need be) profitable skills in your new-found free time. I dare say you could happily spend a couple of months of the summer roofing a house, maintaining a golf course, driving a baler, or building a website (from the garden) if your portfolio had a bad year.
 
yes struggling with this myself.Main general issues in my view are:

1 do i have enough not to work again ? probably
2 Will state pension contributory still be there in 17 years? who knows
3 Do i want to "work" ? not sure just never really liked working in office ( maybe it was me)
4 Am I prepared to live frugally ? not sure can exist below 48k a year net although never do anything extravagant in my view . (Cannot figure out Solyent green on 18k but am impressed)
5 how to spend time ? Big question not sure

any thoughts?
 
I'm still here and still living off a small income. I also managed 4 good holidays this year. I still shop in Aldi and Lidl or whoever has the best deals. Paying about €1800 on health insurance and €1500 in property tax. Cook all our own food from scratch. Grow our own veg. Neither of us smoke and we are light drinkers. We have basic UPC package and Vodafone internet. Run two cars. Both over 10 years old with very low mileage. Not interested in designer labels, bling etc. Pay €9 for my haircut. All bills paid to date. We may change one of our cars soon but the trade in offered is so bad I would rather keep it until it falls apart. Then just use the one car.
 
mtk said:
4 Am I prepared to live frugally ? not sure can exist below 48k a year net although never do anything extravagant in my view . (Cannot figure out Solyent green on 18k but am impressed)
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48k a year net is circa 1000k a week, short on having caviar and wine every night for dinner, how on earth can you say you cannot exist on less. Millions of retirees survice adequately on the state pension of approx €220 a week. Maybe you have a lot of overheads?
 
That certainly sounds like a lot. Maybe several dependants involved? I've budgeted €35k net for myself the last couple of years, but that includes €5k holidays, €4k charities, €4k house maintenance, €3k health insurance, €2k education and hobbies, €1k motoring. Bills and food account for most of the rest. Can't think of anything else I could spend anything on.
 
I don't think it's that much at all, given I'm not stuck for anything myself. I was donating a lot more when I was working and could leverage tax deductions for charity as well. Hoping to donate most of my time to charity in the near future as an alternative.
 
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