Need a target amount to aim for

[gbjbaanb]

City of London IT CTY.

Would it be safer to use a basket of investment trusts such as Gadge Global income portfolio, Luni's B7 or B8 or John Barons income portfolio to produce the income instead of City of London IT on its own?

JNC

The important thing here is to split your investments up to be diversified. It's no use buying 2 funds only to find that they both invest in the same stocks.

Gadge's was deliberately set up so the ITs in it invested in different areas, and some were bond trusts which I think is more important when you're looking for a steadier income.

All that said, I would also be putting more into vanguard funds, particularly the lifestrategy ones that progressively split equity/bond percentages.

[moorfield]

City of London IT CTY.

Would it be safer to use a basket of investment trusts such as Gadge Global income portfolio, Luni's B7 or B8 or John Barons income portfolio to produce the income instead of City of London IT on its own?

JNC

JNC – it’s an interesting question. The risks presented by using only one IT I presume are chiefly those of management and governance, as well as market or geographical etc.

Personally I’d be comfortable with the idea of migrating my HYP into CTY in the very long term, once a comfortable level of income has been attained. I think CTY will likely do a better job of then sustaining it in my dotage or serious illness etc.

M

[anniesdad]

..... But perhaps the greatest thing was it required me to give consideration, more than I'd previously done, for what kind of overall lifestyle I wished to pursue and fund at the point of retirement. That was perhaps the most thought provoking element of the whole exercise. How many foreign holidays a year, long haul, w/e breaks etc? What car/s, and how often might you wish to replace them? Going out to restaurants? Utility bills etc. Children, dependents, heirs?

Once you reasonably know what you need as a retirement income, then you are hopefully well positioned to determine the capital pot and return thereon required to generate it. I'm glad I went through it, I found it illuminating etc. In fact so much so that I vowed to return to the spreadsheet every couple of years and refine the perceived outcome required as I approach that point more closely. I will no longer be nervous about going back and repeating the exercise, as I found it that useful.

I found this site interesting https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulation ... ds-compare

A household disposable income of £62k puts you in top quintile for all UK households which I think must equate to a comfortable lifestyle for most people especially if housing costs often come out of this amount. I'm wondering what incomes brackets others would use to describe luxury / comfortable / just about managing lifestyles once work had stopped and housing costs were removed.

[DiamondEcho]

A household disposable income of £62k puts you in top quintile for all UK households which I think must equate to a comfortable lifestyle for most people especially if housing costs often come out of this amount. I'm wondering what incomes brackets others would use to describe luxury / comfortable / just about managing lifestyles once work had stopped and housing costs were removed.

Isn't it all down to individual perspective? I've seen rank poverty under Labour in the 70s, and a height of wealth (for some) in the City in the 90s. I worked with the latter, did wealth bring happiness, no of course not. 'How much is enough?'
I think if asking this question you need to look ahead and visualise, then cost, the lifestyle you aspire to. Actually, costing your retirement cost of living is something people should do every few years, to ensure they're on track. There are cost of living estimators at the likes of moneysavingexpert.com.