Peter is in his mid-50s, works in sales for a global company and has a passion for vintage objects and antique clocks.
Like many office based workers, working from home during the pandemic has changed Peter’s outlook on life so he’s now considering early retirement. Learn how he’s using Moneyhub to plan the timing of his decision to retire.
““I need to know that the income will meet the expenditure over the next 20 years, so we can make decisions””
“Both of our mothers passed away very young. It makes you think. You never know what is around the corner or how much time you have. That’s why choosing to leave full-time work sooner rather than later is so important to me."
Anyone born in the 1960s will recognise the challenge faced by this Moneyhub user, resident of North Yorkshire and collector of antiques. Baby Boomers are grappling with the question…’when I stop working, how much money will I need?’
For many, the Pandemic has made the decision more urgent. Our Moneyhub user described how before the pandemic his demanding job required travel around the world “then suddenly you’re able to stay at home and not get up until 8:45am! It makes you think, especially now the pressure is starting to build again, what would it take to get to a point where you don’t have to go back to that?”
He described the problem he faces in more detail, saying: “I need to know that the income will meet the expenditure over the next 20 years so we can make decisions however my partner and I have multiple bank accounts so I really like that they are all linked by Moneyhub because harvesting all that information from different places is not simple.”
He continued: “I also use the Zoopla property connection and can see at a glance what the current value of our property is. It’s changed a lot recently as countryside locations are more desirable. Seeing the pot of equity that exists today, how it has changed and what it might be like in a year’s time makes it easier to make decisions.”
And it’s not just the ‘at a glance’ view that our Moneyhubber likes. He told us about a pension he connected to the app explaining “it might look like a single pension but actually its split between cash, bonds, far east funds…this, that and the other. Moneyhub pulls through the detail of individual funds so you can see if the decisions you are taking are moving you in the right direction.”
We asked if this lover of antiques considered himself to be especially technology-savvy? “Oh no”, he tells us. “I’m just a moderate user of technology”. As our conversation progresses it’s clear that he’s motivated by a desire to simplify things and spend more time on the things he loves. “I was one of the first to cancel paper bank statements. Tallying paper receipts and statements! Why waste your life doing that when really what you want is a summary to tell you what you're earning and if you're spending more than that. That’s what led me to look for something like Moneyhub.”
He continues by saying that “there are all these subscriptions now like iTunes, data storage, cloud storage, google drive…a couple of quid here and a couple of quid there. Moneyhub helps summarise it so you know what the total cost of your digital presence is because it all adds up. Trying to find all of those on 3 banks’ statements was difficult.”
We asked him what he knew about Open Banking’s role in bringing together his money in one place. “When you’re older there’s a realisation that the things you did when you were younger, like getting a pension or on the property ladder, start to make a big difference. And whilst I didn’t know Open Banking made it all work, I had a hunch there’d be an app to help you see the different pots of money to get an equal focus on what you earn, spend and your overall worth.”
When asked if he had any concerns about Open Banking he was clear, saying “I have no concerns at all. I know the data protection is extremely high and the Moneyhub support team is excellent. Whenever I have a query, they are always very quick to look into things, they come back to you immediately and keep you updated”.
We could have talked for much longer than our allotted hour about how he uses Moneyhub’s dashboard to monitor his monthly expenditure and track his net-worth, sets individual budgets for things like groceries and Amazon, and his plan to try the new payments feature to transfer money without having to log-in to his different banks’ apps.
Instead, and before running out of time, we asked him how he would spend his retirement. He told us
“I find these beautiful antique clocks that don’t work and would love to be able to take them apart and put them back together again but when you work full-time it’s just not possible. I want a workbench and the tools to take them apart and the time to be able to fix them.”
We joked that having all his money in one place was creating the time for him to create time and he said “yes, it’s now time to decide how to go forward and consider options in life other than working.”
