UK Pension Calculator

A common rule of thumb is to aim for a pension pot of 25x your desired annual income. For example, if you want £30,000/year in retirement, target £750,000. The 4% rule suggests you can withdraw 4% of your pot annually without running out over a 30-year retirement. However, this depends on your lifestyle, State Pension entitlement, and other income sources.

The 4% rule suggests you can safely withdraw 4% of your retirement pot each year (adjusted for inflation) without running out of money over a typical 30-year retirement. So a £500,000 pot could provide £20,000/year. This rule is based on historical US stock market returns and is a useful guideline, but not a guarantee.

A common guideline is to contribute half your age as a percentage of salary from when you start saving. Started at 30? Aim for 15% total (including employer). Auto-enrolment minimums (5% employee + 3% employer = 8% total) are a good starting point but may not be enough for a comfortable retirement.

The government adds tax relief to your pension contributions. Basic rate taxpayers get 20% added automatically (£80 becomes £100). Higher rate taxpayers can claim an extra 20% through Self Assessment. Additional rate taxpayers get 25% extra. This makes pension contributions very tax-efficient.

Currently, you can access your private pension from age 55 (rising to 57 from 2028). You can take 25% as a tax-free lump sum, then the rest is taxed as income. The State Pension starts at age 66-67 depending on your birth year, rising to 68 for those born after 1978.

The full new State Pension is currently £230.25/week, about £11,973/year, in 2025/26. You need 35 qualifying years of National Insurance contributions to get the full amount. You can check your NI record and forecast on the government website. The State Pension age is currently 66, rising to 67 by 2028.

You can contribute up to £60,000/year to pensions and receive tax relief in 2025/26. This includes employee and employer contributions. For high earners (over £260,000), this tapers down to £10,000. You can also carry forward unused allowance from the previous 3 years.

Usually yes. Salary sacrifice means both you and your employer save National Insurance. Your employer might pass on some of their NI saving to you. It also reduces your salary for student loan calculations and can help avoid the £100k tax trap. However, it does reduce your gross salary on paper, which might affect mortgage applications.

Which? is useful for retirement education and drawdown content. Boring Math is a better alternative when you want a fast no-signup pension pot projection plus direct links to salary sacrifice, FIRE planning, and the tax decisions that shape how much you can contribute in the first place.

Use a pension calculator when your main question is whether your retirement pot is big enough. Use a take-home pay or salary sacrifice calculator when your question is how a contribution changes this month's payslip. In practice, most useful pension planning uses both: first model the long-term pot, then check the short-term cost of contributing more.