UK Retirement Planner · v3.2.0

Plan your retirement with confidence

A UK-specific retirement calculator that models your savings, pensions, tax, and drawdown strategy — month by month, pound by pound.

How it works
1
Plan settings
Set your plan type (single or couple), target retirement income, and key assumptions.
2
Your details
Enter personal details, pensions, savings, ISAs, property, and income sources for each person.
3
Run projection
Calculate your month-by-month retirement projection, including tax, drawdown waterfall, and pot balances.
4
Compare scenarios
Save snapshots of your plan and compare different retirement ages, income targets, and strategies.
Plan settings · Type

Who is this plan for?

Choose whether this is a single-person or couple plan. Couple plans model both users' pots, tax, and income separately.

Plan settings · Income

Target retirement income

How much do you want to receive each month in retirement, after tax?

This is the net amount you want in hand each month. The planner works backwards — calculating the gross drawdown needed across all pots (savings, ISA, pension) to arrive at this figure after UK income tax. Each person's personal allowance and tax bands are modelled individually for couple plans.
£ / mo
Plan settings · Assumptions

Key assumptions

Core parameters that affect the entire projection.

Scotland has different income tax bands (19 %–48 %)
% / yr
Controls whether income tax thresholds (Personal Allowance, NI thresholds, rate bands) are frozen in nominal terms throughout the projection, or rise each year with inflation. Frozen is factually accurate to current policy but creates fiscal drag — more income falls into higher bands over time. Inflate with CPI assumes thresholds are eventually uprated and removes fiscal drag.
Plan settings · Spending

Spending bands

Override the monthly income target for specific age ranges — e.g. a higher amount at 65 for travel, then a lower amount from 85. Amounts in today's money; inflation applied automatically. The base target above applies where no band is active.

Plan settings · Draw strategy

Drawdown order

When B1 income falls short of your target, which pots are drawn from first? B1 always runs first. Drag or reorder B2–B6 below. This setting is saved with each scenario.

B1 — Guaranteed income (State Pension, DB, work)
The order in which flexible pots are drawn to cover any shortfall after B1. A tax-efficient order for most people is ISA first (tax-free), then savings, then pension — but this depends on pot sizes, tax position, and how quickly you want to crystallise your DC pension. This is a key Monte Carlo variable.
1
2
3
B4 (GIA) not yet active. B5 (property) modelled within B1.
Users

User profiles

Select a user from the sidebar to view and edit their profile. User 1 is the primary user; User 2 is for partner or couple planning.

User 1 · About you

Tell us about yourself

We use these details to calculate your age at retirement, project your finances over time, and determine National Insurance eligibility.

Calculated from birth date · updates automatically
The age you plan to stop working and start drawing from pensions and savings.
How many years your plan runs to. Planning to 90+ reduces the risk of running out of money — UK average is ~83.
User 1 · State Pension

State Pension

The full new State Pension for 2025/26 is £1,046/month (£12,547/year pre-tax). Your actual entitlement depends on your National Insurance record — check your forecast on gov.uk.

User 1 · DB Pensions

Defined Benefit pensions

Final salary or career average pensions with guaranteed annual income. Includes option to take tax-free cash at start.

No DB pensions added yet. Click + Add DB pension to begin.

User 1 · Annuities

Annuities

Purchased annuities providing guaranteed taxable income for life. Typically bought with DC pension funds. Income is taxed as earned income.

No annuities added yet. Click + Add annuity to begin.

User 1 · DC Pensions

Defined Contribution pensions

Workplace pensions, SIPPs, and personal pensions with pot values. Tax-free cash rules and growth projections applied.

Annual allowance carry-forward

Unused annual allowance from prior years (you were a scheme member but did not use the full £60,000). Oldest year consumed first. Leave at £0 if not applicable.

£
Unused from 3 tax years ago
£
Unused from 2 tax years ago
£
Unused from last tax year

No DC pensions added yet. Click + Add DC pension to begin.

User 1 · Savings

Savings accounts

General savings and ISAs. Add multiple accounts — each tracked separately with its own balance, growth rate, and contribution schedule.

No savings accounts yet. Click + Add savings account to begin.
Supports General Savings and ISAs. Tax-free pension lump sums can be auto-deposited here.

User 1 · GIA

General Investment Accounts

Taxable investment accounts. Annual growth is subject to Capital Gains Tax (CGT) using a £3,000 annual exempt amount. CGT rates: 18% basic rate, 24% higher rate.

No GIA accounts added yet. Click + Add GIA account to begin.

User 1 · Property

Buy-to-let property income

Rental income from UK residential investment properties. Mortgage interest relief applied as a 20% tax credit (Section 24) regardless of marginal rate.

No properties added yet. Click + Add property to begin.

User 1 · Work Income

Work income

Part-time work, consulting, or phased retirement during your retirement years. Income is entered net of tax.

No work income added yet. Click + Add work income to begin.

User 1 · Windfalls

Windfalls

One-off lump sums — inheritance, redundancy, bonus, etc. Bonuses are taxed via PAYE; all others land in savings tax-free.

No windfalls yet. Click + Add windfall to begin.

User 1 · Bed & ISA

Bed & ISA

Each tax year, dispose of GIA holdings and immediately repurchase inside an ISA (up to the £20,000 annual limit). Crystallises gains — CGT applies on disposal — but shelters future growth from tax.

The engine disposes GIA holdings each year to the ISA subscription headroom, applying CGT on gains. An ISA account with "Surplus Sweep" enabled is used as the destination.
User 2 · About you

Tell us about yourself

Basic details for User 2 — used to calculate current age, retirement timing, and projection horizon.

Calculated from birth date
The age at which User 2 stops working and starts drawing from their retirement pots. State Pension and DB pensions start at their own configured ages independently.
The planner projects to this age. ONS data suggests median life expectancy for a 53-year-old woman is around 87. Consider planning to 90–95 to avoid running out of funds.
User 2 · State Pension

State Pension

The full new State Pension for 2025/26 is £1,046/month (£12,547/year pre-tax). Actual entitlement depends on User 2's National Insurance record — check forecast on gov.uk.

User 2 · DB Pensions

Defined Benefit pensions

Final salary or career average pensions with guaranteed annual income. Includes option to take tax-free cash at start.

No DB pensions added yet. Click + Add DB pension to begin.

User 2 · Annuities

Annuities

Purchased annuities providing guaranteed taxable income for life. Typically bought with DC pension funds. Income is taxed as earned income.

No annuities added yet. Click + Add annuity to begin.

User 2 · DC Pensions

Defined Contribution pensions

Workplace pensions, SIPPs, and personal pensions with pot values. Tax-free cash rules and growth projections applied.

Annual allowance carry-forward

Unused annual allowance from prior years. Oldest year consumed first. Leave at £0 if not applicable.

£
£
£

No DC pensions added yet. Click + Add DC pension to begin.

User 2 · Savings

Savings accounts

General savings and ISAs. Add multiple accounts — each tracked separately with its own balance, growth rate, and contribution schedule.

No savings accounts yet. Click + Add savings account to begin.
Supports General Savings and ISAs. Tax-free pension lump sums can be auto-deposited here.

User 2 · GIA

General Investment Accounts

Taxable investment accounts. Annual growth is subject to Capital Gains Tax (CGT) using a £3,000 annual exempt amount. CGT rates: 18% basic rate, 24% higher rate.

No GIA accounts added yet. Click + Add GIA account to begin.

User 2 · Property

Buy-to-let property income

Rental income from UK residential investment properties. Mortgage interest relief applied as a 20% tax credit (Section 24) regardless of marginal rate.

No properties added yet. Click + Add property to begin.

User 2 · Work Income

Work income

Part-time work, consulting, or phased retirement income. Income is entered net of tax.

No work income added yet. Click + Add work income to begin.

User 2 · Windfalls

Windfalls

One-off lump sums — inheritance, redundancy, bonus, etc. Bonuses are taxed via PAYE; all others land in savings tax-free.

No windfalls yet. Click + Add windfall to begin.

User 2 · Bed & ISA

Bed & ISA

Each tax year, dispose of User 2's GIA holdings and immediately repurchase inside their ISA (up to the £20,000 annual limit). Crystallises gains — CGT applies on disposal — but shelters future growth from tax.

The engine disposes User 2's GIA holdings each year to the ISA subscription headroom, applying CGT on gains. A User 2 ISA account with "Surplus Sweep" enabled is used as the destination.

Dashboard

Run a projection to see your results.

Run a projection to see your plan summary.

Wealth over time
Income sources
Account composition
Monte Carlo analysis

Run 1,000 scenarios with randomly varied growth rates. Volatility is set in Plan Settings → Key Assumptions.

Run Monte Carlo to see analysis.

Annual projection

In dev mode: click any year row to expand monthly detail.

Run a projection to see the annual table.

Income & account detail

Per-source annual breakdown — income, tax, growth, balances.

Run a projection to see income detail.

Retirement Goals

Post-tax amount needed per year in retirement

Pensions

Defined Contribution (DC) Pensions

For Monte Carlo simulation
Percentage to take as tax-free cash

Defined Benefit (DB) Pensions

State Pension

2024/25 full state pension: £203.85/week

Other Income

Assumptions

Run multiple scenarios with market volatility
Scenarios · Save

Save current scenario

Snapshot your current plan inputs as a named scenario. Load it later to compare approaches side by side.

Scenarios · Saved

Saved scenarios

Load a scenario to restore all form inputs. Delete any you no longer need.

No saved scenarios yet.

Scenarios · Import / Export

Backup & restore

Export all scenarios as a JSON file for safekeeping, or import from a previously exported file.

Tools

Developer mode

Captures per-month cashflow trace and surfaces projection engine outputs — PAYE tracker with NI, pot snapshots, and monthly detail. Enable, then run Calculate Plan to populate tables below.

Monte Carlo growth volatility
Standard deviation (percentage points) applied to each bucket's assumed growth rate across MC scenarios. Default 2pp: a 5% return varies ~1–9% across runs. Lower = outcomes cluster near baseline; higher = wider spread. Change with caution.
%
Standard deviation across scenarios
Tax rates · Active
2025/26 compiled defaults
Tax rates · General

Tax year & allowances

£
£
Typically £100,000
£
Tax rates · Income tax

England & Wales income tax bands

Leave Upper blank for the top band (no ceiling). Rate as a percentage — e.g. 20 for 20%.

BandLower (£)Upper (£)Rate (%)
Personal allowance
Basic rate
Higher rate
Additional rate
Tax rates · Income tax

Scotland income tax bands

7 bands. Leave Upper blank for the top band (no ceiling).

BandLower (£)Upper (£)Rate (%)
Personal allowance
Starter rate
Basic rate
Intermediate rate
Higher rate
Advanced rate
Top rate
Tax rates · NI

National Insurance

UK-wide. Leave Upper blank for the top band.

BandLower (£)Upper (£)Rate (%)
Below PT
Main rate
Above UEL
Tax rates · Savings

Personal Savings Allowance

£
£
£
Tax rates · CGT

Capital Gains Tax

£
%
%
Tax rates · Dividends

Dividend tax

£
%
%
%

Tax payments

Annual tax flow across all B flowpaths — B1 guaranteed income (PAYE) and B6 DC pension draws. Accumulation years show pre-retirement income tax where applicable.

Run a projection to see tax flow detail.

Cash Flow

Annual inflows and outflows through your current account. Shows how each income source contributes to meeting your spending target, and whether you run a surplus or shortfall each year. All figures are net of tax. Accumulation years (pre-retirement) show ISA savings contributions only.

Annual Cashflow Statement

Run a projection to see cash flow.