Money blog: How much you need per month for the happiest retirement (2024)

It's been a busy day in our inbox - here are a few of your comments relating to our posts about how much monthly income the happiest pensioners have, and whether anyone ever actually wins on McDonald's Monopoly (they do).

£1,700 a month for retirement, that's rubbish. £2,000 minimum - council tax, energy bills, food, car costs, house maintenance, insurance, holidays, just to name a few that has to be paid each month. £1,700 wouldn't touch the sides!

Monkee knows best

If you live in a bedsit and you don't drive.

Nick R

I recently won £1,000, was stressful as you need to send the sticker away to McDonald's and they didn't confirm until a couple of weeks later with the money coming in the week after that.

MCM114N

Around 12 years ago my son did actually win an Xbox on the McDonald's Monopoly. We were really shocked as we thought it was all a big con, his win proved us all wrong.

Miss Sharon Hodgson

Question: Does anyone ever actually win big on McDonald's Monopoly? Answer: McDonald's.

"Donald McRonald"

Never ever heard of anyone winning anything from it! Pretty sure a few years ago it was also surrounded in a largescale scandal….. 🤔

The monopoly guy

Markets are currently expecting the Bank of England to cut the base interest rate next month, yet - as we reported yesterday - there are fears the downward trend for mortgages could be halted.

Swap rates (which dictate how much it costs lenders to lend) rose at the end of last week due to concern the conflict in the Middle East could impact oil prices.

If oil prices rise, so could inflation. If that were to happen, the Bank of England may take longer to cut the base rate.

We reported yesterday that smaller lenders had begun to withdraw some of their lowest rates - now bigger names are acting.

Coventry BS has announced hikes from Friday and Co-operative Bank will withdraw some of its lowest rates Thursday night.

David Hollingworth, associate director at L&C Mortgages and Money blog regular, said: "The mortgage market has seen rates falling in recent months but that may be coming to an abrupt halt."

Swap rates, he said, are good indicators of fixed-rate pricing, and these have "bounced back up".

"If that persists, fixed-rate improvements will be brought to an abrupt halt and edge back up."

He said borrowers may have been lulled into a false sense of security "with round after round of rate improvements but this is a reminder that things can change".

"This isn't a cause for panic but those that have been tempted to wait for lower rates may want to consider locking into a deal in case we see further increases," he said.

"If expectation eases again it's still possible to review rates."

How much money do you really need to retire comfortably?

It's a question many of us will have thought about at some point in our working lives - and one study claims to have the answer.

According to new research from Legal and General and the Happiness Research Institute thinktank, the happiest retirees have an average monthly income of £1,700 - equating to a pension pot of around £221,558 at retirement.

How on earth have they come to this conclusion...

...you, like us, may have asked.

The Happiness Research Institute used guidelines and benchmarks from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and United Nations (UN) to measure people's happiness.

They studied the lives of 3,000 retirees, exploring things like social connections, health and income to analyse the role money plays in a happy retirement.

A key factor of happiness in retirement was found to be financial status. But while higher incomes do coincide with greater happiness among retirees, the boost they bring begins to level off as income surpasses about £2,000 a month.

Many people don't get this much in retirement

The report found that fewer than two in five (38%) retirees receive this monthly income or more, with a "significant number" living on much less.

One in five people of retirement age (22%) live on less than £1,000 a month - lower than the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association's (PLSA) £1,200 minimum standard for covering essential costs in later life, the study found.

The research found that just over a quarter of people in retirement find their finances unpredictable, while one in five have been unable to meet the cost of housing (18%), food shopping (20%) and utilities (21%).

Sir Keir Starmer has refused to rule out increases to national insurance for employers.

A key tenet of the Labour Party's manifesto was promising to not raise national insurance, VAT and income tax.

But when asked by Conservative leader Rishi Sunak if the commitment on national insurance applies to both employer and employee contributions, Sir Keir dodged the question.

Read the full story here...

Herbal Essences have shrunk their popular conditioners by almost a third, but continue to sell them for the same price.

The product has been revamped and is now sold in tubes, rather than plastic bottles, but eagle-eyed shoppers have noticed the packaging isn't the only change.

Whereas before you could get 400ml of their Dazzling Shine, Hello Hydration, Daily Detox and Ignite My Colour conditioners for around £2, now a 275ml tube is all that is available.

That's 31% less for the same price.

On the Tesco website, the original Dazzling Shine 400ml bottle is listed at £1.95. But when we signed in and tried to add it to our online basket, it changed to show it as out of stock.

Customers are instead directed to this listing, which shows the same conditioner, but in a tube and sized at 275ml - for the same price.

This has received an angry one-star review from one customer, complaining about the reduced size.

Both of the Hello Hydration conditioner sizes are showing as available on the Boots website (presumably while they clear out old stock), but despite one being 125ml smaller, both are listed at the exact same price.

One person wrote on X: "Why are you no longer selling 400ml bottles of conditioner? Now I can only find 275ml tubes, which means I'll need to replace them more often - and they're not that much cheaper!"

Proctor & Gamble has been contacted for comment, but they're not the only example of companies shrinking their products.

Major brands have denied so-called "shrinkflation", despite selling smaller quantities of a product for similar prices.

A boss at Kraft Heinz previously told MPs that reducing the percentage of beans in a tin, without bringing down the price, was not shrinkflation.

Meanwhile the price of a Cadbury Dairy Milk sharing bar has been reduced by 10% - though it is still on sale for the same price.

Quality Street - along with Cadbury's Roses - have long been a staple of the Christmas period for millions of households across the UK.

So today's announcement from Nestle, which makes the former, may be of some interest to the many families already planning their confectionary stocks for the festive season.

The company revealed it would be trialling a first-of-its kind paper tub - with more than 200,000, containing around 150 tonnes of the chocolate treats, due to go on sale in a number of supermarkets across the country.

The sweets in their new packaging - which the firm says will have has "a luxurious design, and feel, and is embellished with gold foil" - will be available at selected Tesco stores.

Nestle said it would be evaluating the new tub's "popularity with shoppers [and] feedback from supply chain teams... as the iconic brand continues to innovate and seek ways improve the sustainability of its packaging" - which can go straight into the household recycling when empty.

Jemma Handley, senior brand manager for Quality Street, said: "We know there are some Quality Street fans who, controversially, like to put their wrappers back in the tub once they've eaten them - with the paper tub, they can put the paper wrappers back for a good reason - it can go straight into the recycling."

While the shift to more environmentally sustainable packaging will be applauded by anyone with an understanding of the catastrophic and rapidly accelerating risks posed to humanity by climate change, it will inevitably also prompt complaints from others who feel their personal preference for a plastic tub should take precedence.

Proposed protections for renters are set to be debated in parliament today after the housing secretary pledged to end "cruel" no-fault evictions.

Deputy PM Angela Rayner, who is also housing secretary, said the Renters' Rights Bill would "transform the sector".

The Renters' Rights Bill will have its second reading in the House of Commons today. The government says its speedy progress through parliament shows its commitment to enacting the protections as soon as possible.

Yesterday, we explained no-fault evictions in our weekly Basically... feature...

By Daniel Binns, business reporter

Stock markets in London are back in positive territory this morning following a one-month low yesterday.

The FTSE 100 is up 0.3%, while the FTSE 250 has risen 0.6%.

Packaging company Mondi Plc is the top gainer on the 100 today. The Weybridge-based multinational is up 3.7% after announcing it had agreed to buy assets belonging to rival Schumacher Packaging for €634m.

Housebuilder Vistry Group is again the worst performing, with its shares slumping more than 3% in early trading. The company also saw falls on Tuesday after revealing it was cutting its profit outlook by £80m due to increased costs.

Meanwhile, the price of oil is edging towards $78 (£59) for a barrel of Brent crude.

The price almost hit $80 (£61) earlier this week as fears grew over the escalating violence in the Middle East – but then dropped nearly 5% later yesterday. Wednesday's rate represents a slight rise.

It seems that lingering concerns over weakening demand in China have now overtaken worries about the fighting in the oil-rich region.

On the currency markets, £1 buys around $1.30 or €1.19 - similar to Monday and Tuesday's rates.

It comes following falls in the value of Sterling amid expectations that the Bank of England will soon cut interest rates again, making the UK less attractive to international investors.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves is reportedly considering reducing the amount people can take out of their pensions without paying any tax.

Currently, the tax-free lump sum most people over the age of 55 can take from their pension pot is 25%, up to a maximum of £268,275.

But government officials have asked a major UK pension provider to look into the impact of cutting that amount to £100,000, according to The Telegraph.

Groups including the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and the Fabian Society have explained that the lump sum should be reduced because it benefits the wealthiest.

The latter group says that while it may incentivise saving, "it undermines the case for exempting pension contributions from upfront tax".

"It also creates a disincentive to convert pension pots into long-term incomes and favours high-income groups far more than those with less," the group said.

The cost of the policy was last estimated by HMRC, in the early 2010s, at £2.5bn per year.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) estimates that in the long term, scrapping the policy will increase the tax associated with a year of pension contributions by £5.5bn.

It says the change could affect one in five retirees.

Steven Cameron, from pension company Aegon, told The Telegraph that many people will have planned their retirement finances on the basis they could exploit the current rules and that any move preventing them from doing so "would cause a major outcry".

Mike Ambery, of the pension firm Standard Life, said a change to the current policy could be subject to a legal challenge.

We reported yesterday that investment advisers were seeing a rise in enquiries from people about the potential to withdraw lump sums before the budget.

But Ross Lacey, director and chartered financial planner at Fairview Financial Management, said he advises his clients not to make any "rash decisions".

"Historically, any changes made by government on things like this have included transitional protection, so that those who would already be affected by the new rules keep whatever rights they currently have," he said.

Primark has signed its first lease for a store in Manhattan as the chain continues to expand across the United States.

The store will be opposite Penn Station, the most highly trafficked train station in the US, and will be over 54,000 square feet of retail selling space.

It will be the 11th Primark store in the state of New York, with a shop in Queens due to open later this year.

Primark now has more than 450 stores in 17 countries and has been expanding across the US for almost a decade.