Saving money, but what for?

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screenman

Squire
I'm saving too, everything these days has one aim and that's to provide for retirement.

What happens if you do not get there?

If I knew I had 10 years left I would cash in everything house included and likely go back to work on Monday, lucky for me I enjoy my work and my time off work equally.
 

screenman

Squire
It's what happens if I do get there that's the bigger worry.

In honesty I feel much the same, I do not have the benefits of a comfortable pension due to a poor career choice on my behalf. Along with being a single income family for over 41 years. But hey ho! you cannot turn back the clock, cashing out when I can no longer earn and hoping there is enough to last is my option.
 

alicat

Squire
Location
Staffs
I'm saving too, everything these days has one aim and that's to provide for retirement.

Snap. The sooner I have enough spondoolies to last me for the rest of my life, I am stopping working. End of.
 

TVC

Guest
@User9609 I'm the same as @gavroche

I retired at 48 and my wife at 41 - within a year we were bored.

Lovely Wife now happily works in a 'lesser' role and I have swapped life as a retired MD of a large-ish business with all that came with it for my own vastly smaller lifestyle business.

Keeps us both sane and, because we know that we have more than enough salted away to see out the rest of our lives, we are very relaxed about working as there is no pressure to do so and it is 100% on our own terms.
My eldest brother retired at 48. He was a director of a company you have definitely heard of. He did some consultancy work for a while but found satisfaction in volunteering for a mental health charity, using all the business skills he had. Now at the age of 60 he and his wife have just bought a motor home in Australia and in a few weeks they are heading out there for six months with no itinery, just driving to see where they end up. Jammy git.
 

alicat

Squire
Location
Staffs
But what number is enough?

Depends on a lot of factors. What age you want to/need to stop working; how long you expect to live after you stop working; what sort of income you need; what you expect your state pension to be and so on. For my part, I'd rather live fairly thriftily and watch my savings grow then I can quit working at about 63, 3 or 4 years before state pension age, and enjoy myself a little before I get to the second childhood stage.
 

vernon

Harder than Ronnie Pickering
Location
Meanwood, Leeds
But what number is enough?

A penny more than not enough. :okay:
 

SpokeyDokey

68, & my GP says I will officially be old at 70!
Moderator
How much is enough? In my early career I probably had about three months cover at best, and occasionally zero ie no savings at all, and that really didn't change a lot until the last decade of my more gainful period of employment. I never really calculated it much until the mid 90's when I had around 6 years cover ie dead stop no income at all and money would run out in 6 years. This steadily increased to around 13 years by 2000 and to about 30 by 2004 (which is when my income peaked and when our mortgage was finally dead and buried. We now sit in the position of not ever running out and continuous growth.

I never once imagined I would ever be in this position in all my life esp' back in the mid 80's when, although I had a good income even then, mortgage rates were high plus young family etc and I remember having only £10 a month unassigned that we could spend how we wanted.

We are not really wealthy just nice and comfy but I think the big learning lesson for me was when I met someone who really managed his money properly and he inspired me to do the same. I can pinpoint the switch from being spenders to savers (although we are not stingy by any stretch) to the exact moment when I had several conversations with him about how to manage my personal finances better. Bit odd really - for a lot of my career I managed very large budgets and complex financial scenarios but had never applied my expertise to my personal circumstances.

I've used one of these little online calculators in the past but I now use a Excel spreadsheet to plot income/expenditure projections etc. Lovely wife takes the proverbial about my colourful cash flow and savings projection graphs although she does appreciate the comfort factor they provide.

This just plots impact on savings with regular monthly withdrawals but is useful nonetheless:

https://www.calcxml.com/calculators/how-long-will-my-money-last?skn=
 

vickster

Squire
Surely spending money on other than essentials should be enjoyable after the drudgery of earning it. I keep an eye on my bank and CC balance but certainly don't track spending
 
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