How much do I need to retire at 55 in the UK?

Minimum (£13,900 a year): a pot of about £184,000. Moderate (£32,700): about £654,000. Comfortable (£45,400): about £972,000. These are for a single person using the Pensions UK Retirement Living Standards, the full new State Pension from 67, and a 4% yearly withdrawal.

Compare the same lifestyles retiring at 67: £34,000, £504,000 and £821,000. The difference is the cost of the gap years.

The State Pension starts at State Pension age, not when you stop work. Retire at 55 and for 12 years your own savings pay the share the State Pension would later cover — £12,548 a year, or about £150,576 in total.

Many online calculators quietly assume the State Pension starts the day you retire. For early retirees it is often the largest single number in the plan. The RetireReady calculator shows it as its own line.

The normal minimum pension age — the earliest you can usually take money from a private or workplace pension — rises from 55 to 57 on 6 April 2028. If you plan to stop at 55 after that date, the first two years have to come from somewhere else: ISAs, other savings, or a partner's income.

Some older pension schemes carry a protected right to take benefits earlier. Your scheme can tell you whether yours does.

A partner's pension and State Pension, a defined benefit (final salary) pension, owning your home outright, and your National Insurance record all move these numbers a long way. So does how you take the money, because tax is not included in the benchmarks.

One thing every headline figure leaves out is tax. The Retirement Living Standards are what people spend after tax, while pension withdrawals and the State Pension are taxable income. Usually 25% of a pension can come out tax-free, so the gross figure you need is higher than the spending figure, but by less than you might fear.

How these figures are worked out: the yearly spending figures are the Pensions UK Retirement Living Standards (2026), which describe what a single person spends after tax. The full new State Pension is £12,548 a year (£241.30 a week in 2026/27) from age 67. The pot figures divide the shortfall by a 4% yearly withdrawal — a widely quoted rule of thumb, not a guarantee — and add the full State Pension for every year you retire before 67. No investment growth, inflation or tax is modelled. These are national benchmarks, not a projection for you.