Retirement at 50 - how much would you need in your warchest?

[richy_rich]

Say for example you have paid off your mortgage, are debt free and kids have left home so you only have the monthly bills to pay, how much do you reckon you would need in a warchest to survive?

Obviously it depends on how lavish your lifestyle is, how long you live and how you invest your warchest but anyone done any rough approx calculations before?

I did a quick search on here but never found the exact question being asked - if it has been then please point me in the right direction.

Cheers, RR (early 40's but dreaming!)

[Paddy]

Depends on how long you live, some people kick the bucket in their 50s some in their 90s

[Old Greg]

Say for example you have paid off your mortgage, are debt free and kids have left home so you only have the monthly bills to pay, how much do you reckon you would need in a warchest to survive?

Obviously it depends on how lavish your lifestyle is, how long you live and how you invest your warchest but anyone done any rough approx calculations before?

I did a quick search on here but never found the exact question being asked - if it has been then please point me in the right direction.

Cheers, RR (early 40's but dreaming!)

Would you be looking to bleed you own radiators or get a man in to do it for you?

[BrilloPad]

BBC News - Thousands in their 50s fear losing homes, says Age UK

[SimonMac]

I am aiming to retire at 55, for which i have projected will need a pension worth at least £600,000

[pjclarke]

Monthly pension contribution needed to build a pot of £600K, assuming a return of 6% pa:

Over 40 years £301.28
Over 30 years £597.30
Over 20 years £1298.59
Over 10 years £3661.21

I believe current rules mean you cannot start drawing from an actual pension until you reach 55, so at 50 you would have to be taking the income from a investment pot of some sort. Average yield from FTSE companies is about 3.7%pa, you can get around 3% from cash savings account (you could probably do slightly better than this with such a large sum, or by accepting more risk, but this is a pension fund we're talking about).

So invest it in the FTSE and you'd get a monthly income of around £1,850 or £427 a week. BUT at such a relatively young retirement age, you'd probably want to re-invest some of the income to prevent inflation from eroding the value of your war chest. The CPI is currently 2.9% so lets say you divert 2% back into the fund. That would leave you with £850 / month or just under £200 a week. I hope you like soup.

This is a simplified example, with no tax (etc) being taken into account, I think £600K is an absolute minimum.

Phil (51, child at home, mortgage with 7 years to run :-()

[DimPrawn]

I am aiming to retire at 55, for which i have projected will need a pension worth at least £600,000

£600,000 pa?

Seems reasonable.

[Bunk]

Walter White reckoned he needed about $750k to see his family ok.

Heisenberg appears to be going for the round $100M.

He's not in the drugs business, he's in the empire business

[Bunk]

Say my name.

[KaiserWilly]

How much do you need per month to survive?

In December 2012, £100,000 would buy an annual income of £5,230, or 435 quid a month. It's then easy to make a projection.

I'd say 300K plus state pension (from age 65) should be enough to lead a modest life.