Last time I looked at a simplistic way to calculate what “pot” you might need at retirement, see my blog here. But what if your current plans mean that you fall short of where you need to be? This happened to me, as I’ll explain in a later blog, but there are some actions you can take straight away if you can see there’s a gap.
1. List all your assets and liabilities – have you remembered everything? For example, ISAs are a very tax efficient way of accessing money before you start using your pension.
2. Re-check all your pensions. Have you got everything? You can check for any missing ones by using this Government tool.
3. Reassess your budget. Make sure it reflects current expenses adjusted for a lifestyle in retirement. Identify areas where you can save if needed.
4. Maximise pension contributions – try and maximise employer contributions if you can; sometimes they will match up to a certain amount.
5. If you’re a high earner and can contribute the maximum (currently £60k as at 2024/25) you can also carry forward unused allowances from the last 3 years.
6. Pay down debt as much as possible. Focus on high interest debt first, consider overpaying your mortgage to reduce outgoings in future, and avoid any new debt.
7. Review and adjust for investment strategy. Its often the case that workplace pensions are invested in a default fund – that might not be doing what you want it to do, if you set it up years ago. If you need to, you can engage a Financial Advisor to look at your funds and recommend changes.
An example – Cleo’s missing £’000s

Last time I looked at Cleo, who needed £667k in her pot in 15 years time to fund the lifestyle she wanted. Cleo actually has £250k in her pot currently, and used a calculator like this one to work out that, at current contribution rates, she would have £640k, £27k less than she needs.
Cleo and her employer contribute £8k a year currently including tax relief.
Cleo decides to increase her contribution by £167 a month, for which she gets basic rate tax relief. This is then invested and grows 4% annually. This means that, for contributing an extra £167 a month (£30k over 15 years) she has £62k extra in her pot by retirement. Here’s the example.
So you can see how powerful it can be to increase contributions and allow compounding to work its magic over a long period.
Here are some useful calculators, and if you would like a chat about ideas on growing your retirement fund, book an initial chat here.
Vanguard pension calculator
Standard Life pension calculator
Moneyhelper Government calculator. (please note, this looks at how much you’d need to buy an annuity rather than drawdown)
Article on what funds are needed for different lifestyles in retirement.
Important note
This blog is for education and information purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. If you need specific advice, please reach out to one of the many excellent financial advisors in the UK.
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