How much do I need to retire?

There is no universal figure, only yours, and it depends on the life you intend to lead, your health, your other assets and whether you plan to work part-time.

Start with what you will actually spend

Start from what your life will cost, not from what your pension is worth. The number you need is whatever pays for the retirement you have in mind.

The useful move is to split spending into three layers, because not every pound has the same job.

Then bring every source into view

Almost nobody has just one pot. There are old workplace schemes, a personal pension, the State Pension, ISAs, savings, maybe a property or a business, and maybe some part-time work. Added up together they often come to more than people expect, and the gap is rarely where they thought.

One pension statement will not tell you whether your cash reserve is enough, how a partner's income fits in, when the State Pension starts, or whether drawing from one account before another changes your tax.

66State Pension age today, and rising
55earliest most pensions can be touched, rising to 57 in 2028
£230.25full new State Pension a week, 2025/26
11 yearsthe gap between 55 and 66 you may have to fund yourself

State Pension figure: gov.uk, 2025/26 rates. Amounts depend on your National Insurance record and change each April.

Pension benefits and the tax treatment of them depend on your circumstances and on current rules, which can change.

What moves the number most

When you stop
Retiring three years earlier means three more years of spending funded by three fewer years of saving. It is usually the single biggest lever.
Whether you stop completely
Part-time work for even two or three years takes a great deal of pressure off the early years, which are the expensive ones.
Housing
A mortgage that runs into retirement, or rent, changes the essential layer more than anything else on the list.
Inflation
It quietly increases what you need every year, and it bites hardest on a fixed income over a long retirement.
Care
Later years can carry costs the early ones do not. Most plans ignore this until it is close.
Tax
Which pot you draw from, and in what order, changes what you keep. Getting the order wrong is an avoidable cost.

Related questions

Is the State Pension enough on its own?

For most people, no. The full new State Pension is £230.25 a week in 2025/26, which is around £11,970 a year, and what you get depends on your National Insurance record. It covers part of the essential layer. (Source: gov.uk.)

Is the “two-thirds of your salary” rule any use?

As a rough sanity check, and no further. It ignores whether your mortgage is paid off, whether you have children still at home, what you intend to do with your time, and what you already hold. Two people on the same salary can need very different amounts.

How do I know if I am on track?

Add up what you hold, project what it is likely to produce and compare that with what your retirement will cost. The gap, in either direction, is the number worth knowing. That is what the free health check produces.

What if I have left it late?

It is rarely too late to improve the position, though the levers change. Later on, the effective ones are working a little longer, contributing more while you still have earnings, taking benefits in the right order, and being realistic about the lifestyle layer.

Where this fits

Working out your number, and how to close the gap, is where every retirement conversation here starts. There is no charge for it.

Pensions and retirement adviceGet a free health check

Will your pension pay for the retirement you want?

Whether your pensions will cover the retirement you want, and by how much they miss.

Open the calculatorAll three calculators

Start with a free conversation.

Tell us what is on your mind: a pension you have lost track of, a fixed rate ending, a will you keep meaning to write. We will tell you honestly whether we can help.