Pensions

How much do I need to retire?

Find out how much your annual costs might be for a ‘minimum’, ‘moderate’ or ‘comfortable’ lifestyle in retirement. This information can help you understand how much money you might need for life after work.

By Kirsty Kerr

July 25, 2025

4 minutes

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No matter your age, it’s important to understand what your spending might look like in retirement – and how much money you might need to cover it. We bring you up to speed with what research says and give you some tips to help you answer that all-important question: “How much do I need to retire?”

First, how do you picture your retirement?

It’s important to think about what you’ll want to do once you’ve stopped working so you have a sense of what you’re likely to spend your money on. It’s then worth looking at the Retirement Living Standards, which we’ll explain in a moment.

Do you plan to do quite a bit of travelling in retirement, or go for meals out? Or do you see yourself living a quieter life?

Remember, your needs and wants might change throughout your retirement. So you might need different amounts of money at different times. You’ll need to consider things like whether you’ll have a mortgage or rent to cover, and whether you might have dependants you’ll be financially supporting. It might also be worth factoring in the potential costs of social care.

What are the Retirement Living Standards?

The Retirement Living Standards, from Pensions UK, are based on independent research by Loughborough University.

The Standards show what people’s yearly spending might look like depending on whether they have a ‘minimum’, ‘moderate’ or ‘comfortable’ standard of living in retirement.

Minimum – Your basic needs are covered, and you have some money left over for non-essentials.
Moderate – You have more flexibility and financial security than if you were at the minimum standard.
Comfortable – You have more financial freedom and can afford some luxuries.

Each Standard is based on a ‘basket’ of goods and services. Think about it this way: they aim to show what people typically spend money on. The Standards are updated periodically to reflect changes to the cost of things (e.g. changes to the price of groceries).

What might your spending look like?

	Minimum	Moderate	Comfortable
One-person household	£13,400 a year	£31,700 a year	£43,900 a year
What standard of living could you have?	Covers all your needs, with some left over for fun	More financial security and flexibility	More financial freedom and some luxuries
House	DIY £200 a year to maintain condition of your property.	£500 a year to maintain condition of your property, £300 contingency.	£600 a year to maintain condition of your property, £300 contingency.
Food	Around £55 a week on groceries, £30 a month on food out of the home, £12 per month on takeaways.	Around £56 a week on groceries, £32 a week on food out of the home, £11 a week on takeaways, £106 a month to take others out for a monthly meal.	Around £75 a week on food, £42 a week on food out of the home, £21 a week on takeaways, £106 a month to take others out for a monthly meal.
Transport	No car, free bus pass, £30 per month for two taxi trips, £180 per year to cover three rail journeys.	Three-year-old small car, replaced every seven years, £22 a month on taxis, £104 per year on rail fares.	Three-year-old small car, replaced every five years, £22 a month on taxis, £208 per year on rail fares.
Holidays and leisure	A weeklong UK holiday. TV license and broadband plus a streaming service with ads. £20 per week for activities.	A fortnight three-star all-inclusive holiday in the Med and a long weekend off peak break in the UK. TV license and broadband plus two streaming services. £43 per week for activities.	A fortnight four-star holiday in the Med with around £100 per person spending money and three long weekend breaks in the UK with £400 spending money per break. Extensive bundled broadband, streaming and TV entertainment subscription. £54 a week for activities.
Clothing and personal	Up to £450 for clothing and footwear.	Up to £1,548 for clothing and footwear.	Up to £1,548 for clothing and footwear.
Helping others	£20 for each birthday and Xmas present.	£30 for each birthday and Xmas present, £200 a year charity donation, £1,000 for supporting family members e.g. paying for grandchildren activities. donation, £1,000 for supporting family members e.g. paying for grandchildren activities.	£50 for each birthday and Xmas present, £300 per year charity donation, £1,000 family support.

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Table source: Pensions UK

The figures shown above are the amounts of annual expenditure required to achieve each living standard. They’re not gross income figures. So you'd need a total income, post tax, of £13,400 to achieve the minimum standard. But there may be other costs you need to think about that aren't included by the Standards. You can find out more in ‘the detail’ section of the Retirement Living Standards website.

The figures above apply to people living outside of London. To find out more about London figures, visit the ‘detail’ section. The figures in the table above are for a one-person household. But information for a two-person household is available online.

What else should I think about?

Retirement looks different for everyone. How and when you plan to take your pension savings, and how long you live, will all impact the amount you’ll need. So the Retirement Living Standards shouldn’t be used as a rule, but they can help you understand how much you might need in future.

Also keep in mind that retirement doesn’t have to mean giving up work overnight if you don’t want it to. For example, some people choose to gradually cut down on their work hours.

What help is available to prepare you for retirement?

To check how much you might get from your pension plan in future, you can try our pension calculator.

Aged 50+ want to know more about taking money from a pension plan? Pension Wise (a service from MoneyHelper) offer free and impartial guidance.

If you’re a Standard Life customer and you’d like to check the current value of your plan, you can do this online or on our app.

Think you might not be on track for the lifestyle you want, or simply want to help boost your pension savings? If it’s right for you, you could consider paying more into your Standard Life plan, either with a one-off payment or by increasing your regular payments. You can usually do this online or on our app. If your employer set up your plan, you can ask them how to change your payments. Remember, a pension plan is an investment. Its value can go down as well as up and could be worth less than what was paid in.

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The information here is based on our understanding in July 2025 and shouldn’t be taken as financial advice.

Your own personal circumstances, including where you live in the UK, will have an impact on the tax you pay. Laws and tax rules may change in the future.

Standard Life accepts no responsibility for information on external websites. These are provided for general information.