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How much will I need to retire?
Work out if you're on track for the lifestyle you want when you stop working
In this article
- How much income should I aim for in retirement?
- How far will my retirement income stretch?
- How much do I need to save to retire?
- Where will my retirement income come from?
- When should I start saving for retirement?
- 'Saving for retirement isn't entirely down to you'
- Average pensioner income in the UK
When you stop working is up to you, but whether you can afford the retirement lifestyle you want all comes down to how much you've managed to save.
In a 2026 survey carried out by Which?, 47% of people yet to retire said they weren't confident how much money they'll need to deliver a comfortable retirement.
Here we'll give you get a better idea of how much money you'll need in retirement, and how much you'll need to save in advance to generate that income.
How much income should I aim for in retirement?
Saving as much as possible, as early as possible, into your private pensions will help put you in the strongest financial position for life after work. But it's hard to know exactly how much you should aim for.
Pensions UK has developed three ‘retirement living standards’ to help address this problem. These reflect the annual amounts you’d need for a minimum, moderate and comfortable standard of living in retirement:
| Single-person household | Two-person household | |
| Minimum retirement living standard | £13,900 | £22,500 |
| Moderate retirement living standard | £32,700 | £45,400 |
| Comfortable retirement living standard | £45,400 | £62,700 |
Source: Pensions UK retirement living standards (June 2026). The figures shown reflect annual expenditure required to achieve each standard. The research is based on in-depth discussion groups with members of the public from across the UK.
The targets for a person living alone might seem high compared with those for couples, but this reflects the fact that many costs – such as energy bills, broadband and home insurance – are virtually the same even if you live alone.
The retirement living standards are guidelines, rather than set in stone, to give people a practical view of what their spending might look like
How far will my retirement income stretch?
Each of Pensions UK's three retirement living standards is based on the actual cost of a basket of goods and services.
Here are the costs a two-person household could cover based on each living standard:
| Minimum (£22,500 a year) | Moderate (£45,400 a year) | Comfortable (£62,700 a year) | |
| House | DIY - £200 a year to maintain property | £500 a year to maintain property, £300 contingency | £600 a year to maintain property, £300 contingency |
| Food | £111 a week on groceries | £107 a week on groceries | £139 a week on groceries |
| £60 a month on food out of the home | £66 a week on food out of the home | £88 a week on food out of the home | |
| £24 a month on takeways | £22 a month on takeaways + £106 a month to take others for a meal | £33 a week on takeways + £110 a month to take others out for a meal | |
| Transport | No car | 3-year-old small car, replaced every 7 years | 3-year-old small car, replaced every 5 years |
| £32 a month on taxis | £23 a month on taxis | £23 a month on taxis | |
| £193 per year per person on rail fares | £112 per year per person on rail fares | £223 per year per person on rail fares | |
| Holidays and leisure | A week long UK holiday (£789) | A fortnight 3* all inclusive holiday in the Med (£1,206) and a long weekend break in the UK with £336 spending money | A fortnight 4* holiday in the Med (£1,789) with £115 per person per day spending money and 3 long weekend breaks in the UK with £448 spending money per break |
| TV licence and broadband plus a streaming service | TV licence and broadband plus two streaming services | Extensive bundled broadband and TV subscription | |
| £21 a week per person for activities | £45 a week per person for activities | £56 a week per person for activities | |
| Clothing | Up to £441 for clothing and footwear each year per person | Up to £1,269 for clothing and footwear each year per person | Up to £1,269 for clothing and footwear each year per person |
| Helping others | 12 gifts of £24 for birthdays and £20 for 12 Christmas presents | 12 gifts of £30 for each birthday and the same for 12 Christmas presents | 12 gifts of £50 for each birthday and the same for 12 Christmas presents |
| £200 a year for charity donations plus £1,000 for supporting family members | £300 a year for charity donations plus £1,000 for supporting family members |
Source: Pensions UK (June 2026)
How much do I need to save to retire?
Pension UK's retirement living standards are designed to give you a better idea of how much you might need to spend each year in retirement. The next step is working out how much you'll need to save in your pension to generate the gross (before tax) annual income you want.
in the table below we show the range of pot sizes you'll need to reach Pensions UK's moderate and comfortable retirement living standards, depending on whether you access your money via drawdown or an annuity.
Figures assume you get the full level of new state pension (£12,548 a year in 2026-27).
| Moderate retirement living standard | Total amount needed if using drawdown | Total amount needed if buying an annuity | |
| One-person household | £32,700 a year | £329,000-£386,000 | £335,000-£505,000 |
| Two-person household | £45,400 a year | £332,000-£389,000 | £340,000-£510,000 |
Here's how much you'd need to reach the comfortable living standard:
| Comfortable retirement living standard | Total amount needed if using drawdown | Total amount needed if buying an annuity | |
| One-person household | £45,400 a year | £552,000-£646,000 | £560,000-£845,000 |
| Two-person household | £62,700 a year | £615,000-£720,000 | £630,000-£910,000 |
Notes: The annuity figures are based on rates of between £5,000 and £7,500 per £100,000 of pension savings. Drawdown figures are based on a saver withdrawing all their money over 20 years from age 65 and assume annual investment growth of between 3% and 5%, inflation of 1% and charges of 0.75%.
Retirees living alone face a tougher challenge, given their higher relative expenditure together with lower state pension and tax-free allowance compared with a couple. This means they have to build up a bigger private pension pot, relative to two-person households.
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Join Which? MoneyWhere will my retirement income come from?
A combination of the state pension and private pensions are the building blocks of most people's retirement income.
State pension
The age at which you qualify for the state pension is gradually rising from 66 to 67 between April 2026 and April 2028.
In 2026-27, the full level of new state pension (for people who reach state pension age on or after 6 April 2016) is £241.30 a week (£12,548 a year), but not everyone gets that much.
Final salary pension
If you have a final salary (also known as defined benefit) pension, you’ll receive a guaranteed income, which is calculated based on your length of service and your earnings while you were working. Deduct tax and you should have a good idea how close you are to your target amount.
You should receive annual updates telling you how much you can expect to get.
Defined contribution pension
Defined contribution pensions are the most common type of private pension. You (and your employer, if it's a workplace scheme) pay money in, which is then invested.
The amount you get when you retire depends on how much you've contributed, how well the investments have performed, and how you decide to access your pot.
Your options for accessing this money are:
- Buying an annuity, which guarantees an income each year for life
- Pension drawdown, where you leave your pension invested and take income as you need it
- Taking lump sums
When should I start saving for retirement?
The earlier you can start saving for retirement, the better. When you pay money into a pension you benefit from tax relief. Combined with investment growth, this means any contributions you make today are likely to be worth much more by the time you retire.
Under auto-enrolment rules, the minimum total contribution for a workplace pension scheme is 8% of your ‘qualifying earnings’ – made up of 5% from you (including tax relief) and 3% from your employer.
You can opt to pay in more than this – a great idea if you can afford to do so. Some employers will even match your contributions.
Our calculations show the monthly contributions you'd need to achieve the 'moderate' retirement living standard of £32,700 a year via pension drawdown (where the overall pot required is £386,000), depending on the age you start saving.
| Age at which you start saving into your pension | Monthly contribution required* |
| 20 | £287 |
| 30 | £445 |
| 40 | £710 |
| 50 | £1,279 |
Notes: *These are estimated total contributions (including tax relief, employee and employer contributions) needed to reach Pension UK's moderate retirement living standard. We've assumed you access your pension at the age of 67 and your pot sees investment growth of 3%. The assumption is that contributions will rise in line with inflation in future as the retirement living standards do likewise.
- To get a better idea of how much your pension pot might be worth at retirement, use Which?’s free pension calculator.
One of the biggest regrets among retired Which? members is not setting more money aside for retirement while they were working: nearly half of retirees in our 2025 Which? member survey told us they wish they had saved more for retirement.
Anthea Bain, 77, from Ely, told us she never really thought about saving for retirement when she was working, describing this as the 'biggest single regret of my later life'.
Another Which? member told us she didn’t see retirement saving as a priority, despite having a well-paid job: ‘I think back now and wonder where on earth all the money went. It really is quite shocking to me now that I was so unprepared for the future.’
- Find out more: retirement regrets and how to avoid them
'Saving for retirement isn't entirely down to you'
Paul Davies, Which? pensions expert, says:
Telling someone that they should start saving early for retirement is a bit like saying you should eat your ‘five a day’ - you’ll probably agree with the sentiment but might fall short in reality.
Some of the figures we've outlined here may appear daunting, but remember it’s not all down to you. As long as you’re paying into a pension, the government will chip in via tax relief - and if it's a workplace scheme you can benefit from employer contributions too.
The other magic ingredient to help boost your savings is compound growth. In other words, your pension is not only able to benefit from investment growth on your original contributions, but also on the money you've made thanks to investment growth. Over the long term this can significantly increase the value of your pot.
Average pensioner income in the UK
According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), average pensioner incomes grew by 22% between 2002 and 2011, while average working-age incomes fell by 3%. Since then, this gap has closed.
In fact, data from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) pensioners' incomes series shows that the average weekly income for retirees (in real terms) has dipped in recent years, before rising slightly.
Average pensioner incomes were £455 per week in 2024-25, up from £439 the previous year. Couples had an average weekly income of £650, while the figure for single pensioners was £332.
Meanwhile, income for non-retired households has continued to grow.