‘When can I retire?’ feels like a question about age — 60, 65, 67. It isn't. Retirement is really a question about a number: the point at which the money you've built can pay for the life you want without you working. Two people the same age can be decades apart on that, depending on what they've saved and what they spend. Here's how to work out roughly where you stand — no crystal ball, no jargon, and no pretending a rule of thumb is a guarantee.
It's a number, not an age
You can retire when your pensions, savings and any other income can reliably cover your spending for the rest of your life. That's the whole test. So there are only two numbers that matter: how much your retirement will cost each year, and how much you've built to fund it. Everything else — the age, the date, the countdown — falls out of those two. Which is genuinely good news, because unlike your date of birth, both numbers can be moved.
Start with what retirement actually costs
Work backwards from the life, not the pot. The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association publishes Retirement Living Standards — research-based estimates of what different retirement lifestyles cost. The latest published figures (2025), for a single person and excluding rent or mortgage, are roughly: minimum around £13,400 a year (essentials plus a little), moderate around £31,700 (more comfort, a car, a European holiday), and comfortable around £43,900 (more freedom and travel). Couples need more in total but meaningfully less per head, because so many costs are shared.
Two honest adjustments before you pick a lane. If you'll still be paying rent or a mortgage in retirement, add your housing cost on top — the standards assume you won't be. And your own number is allowed to sit between the bands: plenty of real retirements run happily on £22,000–£28,000. The point isn't to adopt someone else's lifestyle; it's to turn a vague worry into a target with a figure on it.
The two-step estimate
Once you have a target annual spend, the estimate is two steps. Step one: subtract your guaranteed income — for most people that's the State Pension, worth £241.30 a week (about £12,550 a year) in 2026-27 if you have a full National Insurance record. What's left is the gap your own money has to fill every year. Step two: multiply that gap by 25. That's the rough pot size that could plausibly fund it, based on the old planners' rule of thumb that drawing around 4% of a pot each year has historically tended to last a long retirement. It's a starting point, not a promise — but it's a far better starting point than no number at all.
× 25rule of thumb: your annual income gap, times 25, is a rough pot size to aim for
Count everything guaranteed on the income side, not just the State Pension. A defined-benefit (final salary) pension from an old public-sector or long-service job pays a set income for life, so it belongs with the State Pension in step one, not in the pot — and it can shrink the gap dramatically. Dependable rental income counts too, at a realistic after-costs figure. The ×25 multiplier only applies to whatever gap is left once every reliable income stream has been subtracted, which is why two people with identical pots can be years apart on retirement.
Illustrative figures, ignoring tax and investment growth for simplicity. Sam wants a retirement costing £26,000 a year, owns her home by then, and expects a full State Pension.
- Target spend: £26,000 a year.
- State Pension: about £12,500 a year.
- Gap her own money must fill: £26,000 − £12,500 = £13,500 a year.
- Rough pot needed: £13,500 × 25 = £337,500.
One more layer: Sam would like to stop at 60, but her State Pension won't start until 67. Those seven years have no £12,500 floor, so they cost the full £26,000 × 7 = £182,000 from her own savings — on top of funding the years after. That's why retiring even a few years early is so much more expensive than it sounds, and why the ‘bridge’ years deserve their own plan.
The three dials you control
- How much you save. More in, sooner, means the number arrives earlier — and if you're employed, every extra pound is amplified by employer contributions and tax relief. Our pension reality check shows why £1 in a workplace pension often costs you only around 50p.
- How long it grows. Time and compounding do more than most people believe. Money invested in your thirties has decades to multiply; the same money added at 60 mostly just sits there. Starting is the dial you can only turn once.
- How much you'll spend. The most underrated dial. Cutting a target from £30,000 to £26,000 a year removes £4,000 × 25 = £100,000 from the pot you need — usually far easier than saving an extra £100,000. Retirement is as much about the spending side as the saving side, which is also why entering it mortgage-free and debt-free matters so much.
Access ages worth knowing
Whatever your number says, the rules set some gates. You generally can't touch a private or workplace pension until age 55, rising to 57 on 6 April 2028. The State Pension comes later still: State Pension age is currently rising from 66 to 67, completing in April 2028, with a further rise to 68 pencilled in for the mid-2040s. So ‘early retirement’ usually means a sequence: ISAs and other savings first, private pensions from 57, State Pension from 67. Planning the sequence matters nearly as much as the total — ISAs are the classic bridge because they have no access age at all.
Work out your rough number this weekend
- Pick your target annual spend. Start from your current spending, strip out the mortgage, commuting and kids' costs if they'll be gone, sense-check against the Retirement Living Standards, and write a figure down.
- Get your State Pension forecast at gov.uk/check-state-pension — two minutes, and it shows gap years you might fill cheaply.
- Gather every pension. Latest statements or app balances for current and old pots — use the free Pension Tracing Service for jobs you've lost track of.
- Do the two-step estimate. Target spend minus guaranteed income, times 25. Compare it with where your pots are heading (statements include projections).
- Pick one dial and turn it. A 1% contribution rise, a spending target trimmed, or a start made on the bridge years. One deliberate move beats a spreadsheet you never open again.
If you'd like the whole picture in one place first — pensions alongside debts, savings and protection — the free Financial Freedom Score takes about eight minutes and makes a good starting snapshot.
This is where advice earns its keep. Working out roughly what you're on track for is coaching, and everything on this page is safe to do yourself. But actually structuring retirement income — which pot to draw first, in what order, how to handle tax, and how to invest as you approach and enter retirement — is regulated financial advice, and the stakes are high enough that it's worth paying for: a poor drawdown plan can quietly cost more than a lifetime of advice fees. Buzz Money Ltd is not authorised to give regulated advice, and does not — where you need it, we say so and can introduce you to Equity & General, authorised and regulated by the FCA (No. 474163), entirely optional and with no obligation. And if you're over 50 with a defined-contribution pension, book the government's free Pension Wise appointment before making any decisions — it's impartial, unhurried and costs nothing.
The good news in all of this: because retirement is a number and not a fixed age, it's something you can influence starting today. Every extra pound saved, every year earlier you start, and every bit of clarity about the life you actually want brings the number closer. Work out roughly where you stand this weekend and it stops being a source of dread and becomes a plan.