Home Events Academy Insights Login Tools

Retirement Calculator

How to use this calculator

  1. Tell us if you're planning for one person or two.
  2. Pick how much you'd like to spend each year in retirement. The Minimum, Moderate and Comfortable levels come from the PLSA Retirement Living Standards, or enter your own figure.
  3. Add your birth year, the age you'd like to retire, and how long to plan for. We suggest planning to at least age 90.
  4. Tell us about your state pension. If you're not sure, check your forecast at gov.uk/check-state-pension, it takes two minutes.
  5. Add anything you've already saved for retirement and what you put away each month, including employer pension contributions.
  6. Adjust the growth and inflation assumptions if you'd like. The defaults are sensible long-term starting points, not predictions.

The calculator shows the pot you might need at retirement, the extra you might need to save each month, and a cash flow chart of where your retirement income could come from year by year. All figures are in today's money, so you can compare them to your spending now.

Retirement goal calculator

Estimate the pot you might need at retirement and how much to save each month to get there. A guide to help you plan, not a definitive answer.

Who is this plan for?
How much do you want to spend each year in retirement?
Moderate: £32,700 a year for a one-person household.Source: PLSA Retirement Living Standards
Yearly spending in today's money, after tax. The levels are from the PLSA Retirement Living Standards and switch automatically for one or two people.
About you
Your details
State pension
£
If you take your DB pension before the payable age, enter the factor your scheme applies (e.g. 0.85 for a 15% reduction). Set to 1.0 if taking at the payable age or later.
Not everyone has a defined benefit pension. They are usually from public sector or older workplace schemes, so leave at 0 if this doesn't apply. All amounts are in today's money; DB pensions are assumed to start at the payable age and rise with inflation.
Current retirement savings
£
£
DC pension savings are taxed on withdrawal (25% tax-free, remainder at basic rate). Cash, ISA and investment savings are assumed tax-free. Combined total for two people.
£
Include employer pension contributions. Combined total for two people. Assumed to split between the two savings types pro-rata.
One-off lump sum in retirement (optional)
£
For example a planned house purchase, Hajj, or helping family. Taken from your pot in that year (Person 1's age for two people), with the same tax treatment as other withdrawals.
Assumptions
%
%
%
%
Growth rates are yearly averages before inflation and before costs. Costs are your total yearly charges across platform and funds; many index fund portfolios sit around 0.3% to 0.7% a year, and over decades costs make a bigger difference than most people expect.
Your retirement numbers
Based on your details and assumptions, here is a guide to what you might need:
Extra to save each month
£—
Pot needed at retirement
£—
All figures are in today's money
Projected savings at retirement
£—
Shortfall to fund
£—
Years until retirement
—
Years in retirement
—
Pot left at end of plan
£—
Total drawn from pot
£—
Cash flow
Enter your details to see the chart.
Quick check
—
Yearly income picture Per year
Enter your details to see the breakdown.
How it works: we project your current savings and monthly saving up to retirement using your growth rate, then work out the pot needed to cover your yearly spending gap through retirement using your post-retirement growth rate. During retirement, we draw first from tax-free savings (cash/ISA), then from your DC pension. The headline shows the extra monthly saving needed on top of what you already save. Everything is adjusted for inflation, so all figures are in today's money, and saving amounts are assumed to rise with inflation each year. For two people, drawdown starts when the first person retires and new saving stops at that point.
Tax assumptions: state pension and defined benefit income are taxed at 20% above the personal allowance (£12,570 per person). Withdrawals from your DC pension (25% tax-free, remainder at basic rate) give you 85p to spend per £1 withdrawn. Withdrawals from cash/ISA/investment savings are assumed tax-free. Growth is applied after deducting your yearly costs.
Education-only. This is not personal financial advice or a recommendation. The results are estimates based on the figures and assumptions you have entered, and real returns, inflation, costs, tax rules, DB pension rules and state pension rules can all differ. Capital is at risk.

This calculator is for education only. It is not financial advice, a personal recommendation, or a prediction of what will actually happen. The results are estimates built on the figures and assumptions you enter, and on simplified rules for tax, the state pension and investment returns. Real returns vary from year to year and can be negative, inflation can be higher or lower than assumed, and tax rules, allowances and state pension rules can and do change. The Retirement Living Standards figures assume you own your home outright, so if you expect to rent in retirement you will likely need more. The value of investments can fall as well as rise and you may get back less than you put in. Before acting on anything here, consider speaking to a regulated financial adviser who can look at your full circumstances.