FYI I was interested to see that Pensions UK, the industry trade body has recently estimated that in order to have a comfortable pension in the UK , a single person would need £45,200 (€51 980) and a couple £62,700 (€72 105). See screenshot amdink below from the BBC report today.
Comparisons between countries of costs of living, income etc are probably always a bit subjective but these struck me as being quite high, particularly in comparison with what the French economic social research institute IRES is quoted in various articles as stating. Their figures, per various articles, are €19 608 and €29 412 for singles and couples respectively. The IRES figures exclude rent or mortgages on the basis that many pensioners own their own properties.
This possibly reflects expectations of a luxurious lifestyle with eating out a couple of times a week, several foreign holidays per year and a new car every 3 years.
The actual report points to increased expectations and describes that the Comfortable Retirement Living Standard , retirees can expect to have more luxuries like regular beauty treatments, theatre trips and two weeks holiday in Europe a year. A couple could spend around £130 per week on groceries and £80 a week per couple on meals out.
Trade body for pension providers says people should put more into their pensions
A lot of the “standard” Jane pointed us to doesn’t reflect our situation (I can’t imagine getting through £200 a day as a couple on holiday without a cocaine habit, for example, let alone nearly £6000 for “activities”: is that going on Palestine Action marches, I wonder).
No it’s for “unsolicited gifts completely unconnected to elections” to Nigel Farage.
While I’m sure we all agree that saving for a pension is a very wise thing to do, and most of us don’t save anywhere near enough, as you rightly said Lord @porridge, a report produced by a pensions industry body is not necessarily impartial, despite being commissioned from a bunch of academics at Loughborough Uni.
I tend to agree with @george1 that the figures sound on the high side, though I was surprised to find via Google that “74% of people age 65 and over own their home outright – while 4.6% are paying off a mortgage.”
A separate survey from Legal & General says that “two-thirds of people over 65 (70%) are dependent on the state pension as their main source of income and are also homeowners.”
They also say that “a third of all people who aren’t currently retired (35%) own a property but have less than £10,000 saved in their pension pot. A further 22% of people hold no pensions savings at all.”
So while the Pensions UK survey may or may not be accurate in its estimates, a lot of people are going to fall short of their (Pension UK’s) targets! And equity release (or downsizing) for the win!
*a single person would need £45,200 (€51 980) and a couple £62,700 (€72 105). *
Plus other suggestions of required income and the activities it would permit that I’ve read elsewhere. My expectations are that we will have a lower income than listed here, but other resources too.
There is another organisation, slightly more neutral, that produces such figures and the last time I looked it was in the range £15-21,000 average comfort for a single person.
Though with costs of all sorts escalating in the UK recently, who knows.
If I come across the other more realistic estimates I’ll post.
My only expectation of Retirement was having the time to do what I wanted/chose to do, rather than what Others (ie Employers) wanted me to do…
I’ve never forgotten one (extremely wealthy) customer complaining to a friend
“is this really all there is to Life… just one cruise after another…”
"the whole thing’s rather boring… yawn, yawn.. "
Neither of us has a full pension but it is still enough to pay the essential bills and do what we want to do.. in our gentle way… and we thoroughly enjoy ourselves, quality time with friends in simple, glorious natural environments..
I have to say that I’m on substantially less than the numbers for a couple, don’t feel that I’m missing out on anything and I still have money left at the end of the month.
just handed over a little small change to a couple of local kids..
their eyes widened with excitement… and (very wisely) they scrutinized the coins… possibly to ensure they were not foreign/fakes
Puts into perspective that the UK state pension (currently £12,547.60 a year) is not adequate as a single source of income for more than subsistence.
I suppose one person’s definition of comfort is another person’s “bare minimum” so it is very subjective, but it is sobering to discover I might not be “comfortable” in retirement.
