Schedule a free discovery call with a Pension Transfer Specialist
Published: 12 March 2019 Last updated: 13 August 2026
This free calculator shows you what your own retirement is actually likely to cost, based on your own spending, not a generic average.
Most retirement planning starts with one number: the "Comfortable Retirement" standard, published each year by Pensions UK, the trade body for the UK pensions industry. It's currently £45,400 a year for a single person and £62,700 for a couple, and it gets quoted everywhere from the national press to pension provider websites. It's a useful benchmark, but it's built around an average UK household. If you're used to a six-figure income, it can undershoot what you'd actually consider comfortable by a wide margin.
This calculator gives you a more accurate starting point. Enter what you actually spend, or expect to spend in retirement, across categories like food, holidays, transport and housing, and see exactly how your own number compares to the published standard, whether you're planning as a single person, a couple, or specifically for retirement in London.
It's a free tool, designed to give you a realistic starting point for your own retirement planning. It is not a substitute for regulated financial advice.
What this retirement cost calculator covers:
Whether you're planning alone, as a couple, or specifically for retirement in London, the calculator works through the same categories Pensions UK uses, so your numbers are directly comparable to the published standards:
- Food and groceries
- Eating out
- Clothing
- Holidays and travel
- Leisure and hobbies
- Transport, including running a car
- Housing costs and maintenance
- Gifts and family support
For each category, you enter what you actually spend now, or what you expect to spend in retirement, and see immediately how it sits against the Pensions UK allowance for someone in your situation.
Retirement Cost Calculator
Compare your estimated retirement spending against the PLSA Retirement Living Standards comfortable benchmark. PLSA (Pensions UK) figures are pre-filled — adjust any figure to match your own expected spending. Categories not included in the PLSA standard are marked accordingly.
If you live in London, costs tend to run a little higher across housing, transport and leisure — typically a few thousand pounds a year above the figures shown here.
Your spending summary
PLSA Retirement Living Standards figures sourced from retirementlivingstandards.org.uk (2025/26). This calculator is for illustrative purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Figures shown are estimates. Tax on pension withdrawals is not included and may significantly increase the gross income required. 2020 Financial Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Reviewed by Simon Garber, Managing Director and Pension Transfer Specialist at 2020 Financial.
This calculator is for general planning purposes only and does not constitute personal financial advice. 2020 Financial Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN 497332). Tax treatment depends on individual circumstances and may change. Please seek regulated financial advice tailored to your personal circumstances before making any decisions. Figures cited are from the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (now Pensions UK) Retirement Living Standards 2025/26.
Simon Garber, DipPFS, is a Financial Advisor and qualified Pension Transfer Specialist with over 20 years advising UK clients on retirement planning, pension transfers, and protecting long-term wealth through 2020 Financial.
Arrange a virtual coffee with a specialist
No hard sales. No obligations. Just an open, honest chat with a retirement specialist to help you understand your current position and hopes for the future.
Why a national average won't tell you what retirement costs you
Most retirement cost estimates give you one number: the Retirement Living Standards published by Pensions UK (formerly the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association, or PLSA). Pensions UK is the trade body for the UK pensions industry, and its Standards have become the most widely cited benchmark for retirement costs, regularly quoted across the national press and built into tools used by pension providers throughout the UK.
It's genuinely detailed research. Pensions UK publishes the full underlying basket of goods behind the Comfortable Standard, item by item, down to a £3.53 Asda hand towel replaced every two years and a £25 supermarket-brand slow cooker expected to last a decade. On the lifestyle side, the basket allows for a single small car between a couple, one mainstream package holiday a year, and an eating-out budget of roughly one mid-range meal a week for two.
That's a perfectly sensible way to cost a household budget for the population as a whole. It's not how anyone managing a £150,000-plus income furnishes a home, holidays, or eats out. The Comfortable Standard was built to describe a reasonable lifestyle for the average UK household, not what "comfortable" looks like for someone whose income, and spending habits, sit well above it.
This retirement cost calculator works differently. Rather than asking you to accept somebody else's basket of goods, it asks what you actually spend, on food, holidays, transport, leisure, housing costs and gifts to family, and shows you exactly how that compares to the published Comfortable Standard for your situation.
The calculator gives you your own figure, built from your own numbers. The Pensions UK standard sits alongside it for comparison.
We've written about why this matters in more detail in The Biggest Flaw in 'Comfortable Retirement' Estimates, our Managing Director Simon Garber's analysis of why the published benchmarks consistently undershoot for higher earners, and in Comfortable Retirement Costs 2026: How UK Retirement Standards are not a one-size-fits-all solution.
What to do with your result?
Once you've worked through the calculator, you'll have a personalised annual spending figure to compare against the Pensions UK Comfortable Standard. That number answers one question: what you're likely to spend.
It doesn't answer the other one: whether your pension, savings and other assets can sustainably support that spending, for however long your retirement lasts, in a tax-efficient way. That's where a conversation with a specialist becomes worthwhile.
If your numbers raise more questions than they answer, our Retirement Ready Planning Session is built specifically to give you that clarity: whether you're on track, what age you could realistically retire, how to make the best use of your tax-free cash, and how the pension inheritance tax changes coming in April 2027 might affect your plans.
Frequently Asked Questions
The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association, now known as Pensions UK, working with Loughborough University, publishes three annual benchmarks for UK retirement spending: Minimum, Moderate, and Comfortable.
For 2026, the minimum standard required is £13,900 a year for a one-person household and £22,500 for two people. A Moderate lifestyle costs £32,700 for one person and £45,400 for two, while a Comfortable lifestyle costs £45,400 and £62,700 respectively.
The standards reflect everyday costs across spending categories such as food, essential household bills and transport, as well as the social activities and hobbies.
Figures are after tax, and assume that your home is owned outright.
DOWNLOAD OUR FREE EXPERT GUIDE
Fancy digging a little deeper on what you need to put in place for a comfortable retirement? Take a look at our free guide.
Download the definitive guide to comfortable retirement planning
