Retirement planning

The sooner you start to plan for when you stop working, the better prepared you’ll be. But it can be hard to know where to start, especially if you won’t be retiring for a while. You can follow the steps below at any point before retirement to help you review and plan.

Find out how much you might get

To do this, you’ll need to add together estimates of what you’ll get at retirement from all your pension schemes.

Work out how much you’ll need

There are several tools available to help you estimate the kind of income you might need once you stop work.

The Retirement Living Standards website from the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association explains what kind of lifestyle different incomes could provide in retirement. It shows you how much you would need to meet 3 standards of living:

• Basic - covers all your needs, with some left over for fun
• Moderate - gives you more financial security and flexibility
• Comfortable - gives you more financial freedom and some luxuries

It gives you examples of what each standard of living could look like to help you think about what kind of income you should be aiming for in retirement. You’ll need to read what assumptions they’ve made for each standard to see how they match your circumstances.

Review what you’re saving and make changes

Once you know how much you need and how much you might get, you could:

• Save more
• Retire later or earlier
• Take your benefits in a different way (eg, less tax-free cash)

Find out how you can save more in your Unilever pension