The three retirement lifestyles — and what they actually cost

Most people can't answer "how much do I need to retire?" — not because the answer is complicated, but because nobody has ever shown them a benchmark. The Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) publishes exactly that: the Retirement Living Standards, a national picture of what three different retirement lifestyles cost a single person per year.

Minimum (around £14,400 a year) covers the essentials with a little left over — food, utilities, a week's holiday in the UK, but no car. Moderate (around £31,300) adds financial security and flexibility: a car, a European holiday, more eating out. Comfortable (around £43,100) brings financial freedom and some luxuries — regular beauty treatments, theatre trips, three weeks in Europe. (Source: plsa.co.uk, 2024/25 figures; couples' figures differ.)

None of these is a target anyone sets for you. They're reference points — a way of turning a vague worry into a concrete comparison. When you know which lifestyle your current savings trajectory points at, you know what conversation to have.

The full new State Pension currently pays around £11,973 a year (source: gov.uk). Put that against the standards and the picture sharpens: the State Pension alone gets a single person most of the way to the Minimum standard — everything above that comes from workplace pensions, private pensions and savings.

That gap — between what the State Pension provides and the lifestyle you actually want — is the single most useful number in retirement planning. It's also exactly what our free Where You Stand report shows you, benchmarked against people your age.