Picture Your Future
Retirement Living Standards
More of us are saving in a workplace pension than ever before. We now have more information, more choices, and more responsibility for our retirement savings.
But will the future we want be the future we are able to get?
The Retirement Living Standards, based on independent research by Loughborough University, have been developed to help us to picture what kind of lifestyle we could have in retirement.
Tell me more| Single | House | Food | Transport | Holidays & Leisure | Clothing & Personal | Helping Others |
Minimum: £14,400 Covers all your needs, with some left over for fun | Minimum: DIY £100 a year to maintain condition of your property. | Minimum: Around £50 a week on groceries, £25 a month on food out of the home, £15 per fortnight on takeaways. | Minimum: No car, £10 per week on taxis, £100 per year on rail fares. | Minimum: A week long UK holiday. Basic TV and broadband plus a streaming service. | Minimum: Up to £630 for clothing and footwear each year. | Minimum: £20 for each birthday and Xmas present. £50 a year charity donation. |
Moderate: £31,300 More financial security and flexibility | Moderate: Some help with maintenance and decorating each year. | Moderate: Around £55 a week on groceries, £30 a week on food out of the home, £10 a week on takeaways, £100 a month to take others out for a monthly meal. | Moderate: 3 year old small car, replaced every 7 years, £20 a month on taxis, £100 per year on rail fares. | Moderate: A fortnight 3* all inclusive holiday in the Med and a long weekend break in the UK. Basic TV and broadband plus two streaming services. | Moderate: Up to £1,500 for clothing and footwear each year. | Moderate: £30 for each birthday and Xmas present, £200 a year charity donation, £1,000 for supporting family members e.g. paying for grandchildren activities. |
Comfortable: £43,100 More financial freedom and some luxuries | Comfortable: Replace kitchen and bathroom every 10/15 years. | Comfortable: Around £70 a week on food, £40 a week on food out of the home, £20 a week on takeaways, £100 a month to take others out for a monthly meal. | Comfortable: 3 year old small car, replaced every 5 years, £20 a month on taxis, £200 per year on rail fares. | Comfortable: A fortnight 4* holiday in the Med with spending money and 3 long weekend breaks in the UK. Extensive bundled broadband and TV subscription. | Comfortable: Up to £1,500 for clothing and footwear each year. | Comfortable: £50 for each birthday and Xmas present, £25 per month charity donation, £1,000 family support. |
*The figures shown are the amounts of annual expenditure required to achieve the living standard (ie they are not gross income figures).
Our mission
The Retirement Living Standards are aimed at cutting through the ambiguity that currently surrounds retirement planning. We want to help savers think in a practical way about the kind of lifestyle they might lead in retirement.
Like the ‘five a day’ or 5-a-day healthy eating maxim, the PLSA hopes the Standards will one day become a rule of thumb for retirement planning.
Roughly speaking, a single person will need to be able to spend about £14k a year to achieve the minimum living standard, £31k a year for moderate, and £43k a year for comfortable. For couples, it’s 22k-43k-59k.
By giving savers a general figure that they can understand, our hope is that savers can then start to develop their own personal targets based on their individual circumstances and aspirations.
We’ve created a series of examples to show what kind of living standard different people could have in retirement depending on their salaries, household and savings.