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.

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Introducing the Standards

The standards show you what life in retirement looks like at three different levels, and what a range of common goods and services would cost for each level. The figures shown are the amounts of expenditure required to achieve a given living standard.

For many people their private and state pensions (full state pension for 2024-25 is £11,500 per year), and other savings could go a long way towards these costs. You may need to add other costs depending on your circumstances, such as mortgage, rent, social care costs and any tax on pension income.

Explore the categories to picture what life in retirement could look like for each of the Standards.

Minimum

Single: £14,400 Couple: £22,400

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A ‘minimum’ lifestyle covers all your needs, with some left over for fun and social occasions. You could holiday in the UK, eat out about once a month and do some affordable leisure activities about twice a week.

Moderate

Single: £31,300 Couple: £43,100

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A ‘moderate’ lifestyle provides more financial security and more flexibility. You could have one foreign holiday a year and eat out a few times a month. You’d have the opportunity to do more of the things you want to do.

Comfortable

Single: £43,100 Couple: £59,000

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A lifestyle that allows you to be more spontaneous with your money. You could have a subscription to a streaming service, regular beauty treatments, a foreign holiday and several UK minibreaks a year.

Please show values for:
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.

infographic showing the three retirement living standard yearly totals for singles and couples

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.

Show me what this means for people in the UK

Tell me the detail