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 moreSingle | House | Food | Transport | Holidays & Leisure | Clothing & Personal | Helping Others |
Minimum: £12,800 Covers all your needs, with some left over for fun | Minimum: DIY maintenance and decorating one room a year. | Minimum: £54 a week on food (including food away from the home). | Minimum: No car. | Minimum: A week and a long weekend in the UK every year. | Minimum: Up to £580 for clothing and footwear each year. | Minimum: £20 for each birthday present. |
Moderate: £23,300 More financial security and flexibility | Moderate: Some help with maintenance and decorating each year. | Moderate: £74 a week on food (including food away from the home). | Moderate: 3-year old car replaced every 10 years. | Moderate: 2 weeks in Europe and a long weekend in the UK every year. | Moderate: Up to £791 for clothing and footwear each year. | Moderate: £34 for each birthday present. |
Comfortable: £37,300 More financial freedom and some luxuries | Comfortable: Replace kitchen and bathroom every 10/15 years. | Comfortable: £144 a week on food (including food away from the home). | Comfortable: 2-year old car replaced every five years. | Comfortable: 3 weeks in Europe every year. | Comfortable: Up to £1,500 for clothing and footwear each year. | Comfortable: £56 for each birthday present. |
*These amounts would fund this lifestyle for people living outside London. See The Detail for more information.
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 about £13k a year to achieve the minimum living standard, £23k a year for moderate, and £37k a year for comfortable. For couples, it’s 20k-34k-55k.
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.