“When can I retire?” is one of the questions we hear most. And usually, it isn’t really about age. You might already have a date in mind. What you really want to know is whether you can afford to retire then, and what life could look like if you stopped working sooner.
There are a few dates you can’t change, including when you can claim your State Pension and when you can access your private pensions. But those dates don’t necessarily decide when you can retire.
That comes down to you: what you’ve built up, the income you’ll have, the lifestyle you want and how long your money may need to support you.
This guide will help you understand the key pension ages, work out what you might need and see what could bring retirement closer.
There’s more than one age that matters
Retirement doesn’t begin at one fixed age. There are three different milestones to think about, and understanding the difference can make your options much clearer.
When you can access your own pensions
Your private and workplace pensions have rules around when you can usually start taking money. Some older pensions may also have protected rights that allow earlier access.
When your State Pension begins
Your State Pension age is set by the government based on your date of birth. It matters because it can become an important source of income later in retirement, but you don’t necessarily have to wait until then to stop working.
When you can afford to stop working
This is the age that’s personal to you. It depends on what you’ve built up, what other income you’ll have, how much you want to spend and how long your money may need to support you.
For many people, this third milestone is the one that really answers “When can I retire?” And unlike the first two, it’s something your planning can influence.
When can you access your private pensions?
For most people, there’s a minimum age for accessing money held in personal and workplace pensions. That age is currently 55 and is due to rise to 57 from 6 April 2028.
There are exceptions, including some pensions with protected pension ages, and different rules can apply in certain circumstances. If you’re planning to retire around the point the minimum age changes, it’s particularly important to check the rules for your own pensions.
But being able to access your pension doesn’t necessarily mean you can afford to retire. Taking money earlier means your savings may need to support you for longer, while withdrawals and tax can affect how much you have available later.
If you have a final salary pension
Final salary and other defined benefit pensions work differently. Rather than giving you a pot to draw from, they usually promise an income based on the rules of your scheme.
Your scheme will have its own retirement age and may allow you to take benefits earlier, often in return for a lower income. If this pension forms an important part of your plans, ask your scheme for figures showing what you could receive at different ages.
Reeves Independent doesn’t provide advice on final salary or defined benefit schemes. Where specialist advice is needed, we can point you towards firms that do.
When does your State Pension begin?
Your State Pension age is set by the government and is currently moving from 66 to 67, so the exact date depends on when you were born.
It’s worth checking your own date rather than assuming, especially if you’re planning as a couple. Reaching State Pension age at different times can affect how much you need from other pensions and savings in the years between.
And remember, State Pension age isn’t retirement age. You could retire before it and bridge the gap with other income and assets, or continue working beyond it.
While you’re checking, look at your National Insurance record and State Pension forecast too. Gaps can affect what you eventually receive, and in some circumstances you may be able to fill them.
When can you afford to stop working?
This is where the question becomes much more personal.
Rather than starting with a target pension pot, start with the life you want to fund. Think about what you spend now and how that might change in retirement. Some costs may disappear, while travel, hobbies, helping family or simply having more free time could increase others.
Then look at the income you already expect, including your State Pension, other pensions, savings, investments, rental income or part-time work. The gap between that income and your spending is what the rest of your retirement assets need to cover.
Retiring earlier makes that gap harder to fund because you’re asking your money to support you for longer while giving it fewer years to grow. Inflation and tax need to be part of the picture too.
That’s why working out when you can retire isn’t really about reaching a particular age. It’s about finding the point where what you have can realistically support the life you want.
How does your retirement age compare?
It’s natural to wonder when everyone else retires, but the UK average isn’t a particularly useful target.
Some people stop completely, while others reduce their hours. Some have guaranteed pension income, while others rely more heavily on investments and savings. Spending, housing, health and family commitments all play a part.
See how close you are to the retirement you want
Once you know what you’d like to spend and what income you can already count on, you can start working out whether what you’ve built is enough to bridge the gap.
Start by bringing everything into view. Pensions from old jobs are easy to lose track of, particularly after several moves between employers. If you’re missing one, the government’s Pension Tracing Service can help you find the scheme’s contact details.
Then look beyond what everything is worth today. How your pensions and investments are invested matters too. An investment choice made years ago may no longer suit where you are now or what you need your money to do. And while investments can fall as well as rise, holding too much in cash over the long term brings its own risk as inflation reduces its spending power, so the appropriate balance between the two depends on your circumstances and objectives.
If the numbers don’t quite add up yet, that doesn’t necessarily mean your retirement plans are out of reach. Saving more, making the most of employer pension contributions, adjusting your spending or retiring a little later can all shift the picture.
You can also rethink what retirement looks like. For some people, gradually reducing work rather than stopping altogether can bring retirement closer.
How to bridge the gap before your pensions begin
Wanting to retire before you can access a pension, or before your State Pension starts, doesn’t necessarily put early retirement out of reach. It simply means you need a plan for funding the years in between.
ISAs, savings and other investments can play an important role here because they may be available before your pensions. Keeping some nearer-term spending in cash or lower-risk assets can also help you avoid having to sell investments after a market fall.
Your home or business may form part of the picture too. Downsizing could release money later in life, while business owners may need to think well ahead about how and when they’ll eventually take value from their business.
And don’t overlook a gradual move into retirement. Working fewer days, consulting or taking on occasional work can reduce how much you need to draw from your savings while shortening the period they need to support you on their own.
For many people, retiring earlier isn’t about choosing one final day of work. It’s about reaching the point where work becomes a choice.
What can delay your retirement plans?
Even a well-funded retirement plan can be knocked off course by a few common mistakes. Knowing what to look out for can help you avoid them.
Not knowing where you stand
It’s difficult to plan a retirement date if you don’t know what you have or what you’ll need. Bringing your pensions, savings, investments and expected income together gives you a much better starting point.
Planning around the wrong pension age
If you’ve always assumed you can access your pension from 55, check what applies to you. The normal minimum pension age is due to rise to 57 from 6 April 2028, although exceptions can apply.
Making investment decisions when markets fall
Market falls can be uncomfortable, particularly as retirement gets closer. Moving investments into cash after a fall can turn temporary losses into permanent ones and mean missing a subsequent recovery. Having a plan for periods of volatility can help you avoid making decisions in the moment.
Taking money without thinking about tax
How and when you take money from your pensions can affect the tax you pay. Large withdrawals in a single tax year can sometimes result in a bigger tax bill than expected, so it pays to plan ahead.
Bringing pensions together without checking what you’re giving up
Pension consolidation can make things simpler, but simpler doesn’t always mean better. Older pensions may have guarantees, benefits or features you could lose by transferring, so each one should be understood before anything moves.
Being caught out by a pension scam
Be cautious about unexpected pension calls, messages or offers, particularly promises of unusually high returns or ways to access your pension early. Check who you’re dealing with before sharing information or making changes.
None of these necessarily means retiring later. But dealing with them early can give you more options and fewer surprises as your planned retirement date gets closer.
Work out when retirement could be realistic
Once you know what you want retirement to look like, you can start putting a date against it.
Begin by bringing the key numbers together. Check your State Pension age and forecast, find out when you can access each of your private pensions, and make sure you’ve accounted for every pension, ISA, saving and investment you hold. If you have a defined benefit pension, check when it can start paying and what income it could provide.
Then compare what you have with what you expect to spend. Factor in the income that will start at different stages of retirement, along with tax, inflation and the possibility that your money may need to support you for 30 years or more.
This is where your retirement date starts to become more meaningful. You can see whether the age you have in mind looks realistic and, if there’s a gap, what could make a difference, from saving more or adjusting your spending to working a little longer or easing into retirement gradually.
A retirement calculator can give you a useful starting point, but there are limits to what a simple calculation can show. Retirement has lots of moving parts. When should you start drawing from different pensions and savings? What happens when your State Pension begins? What could a market fall early in retirement mean for your plans? And how much difference could another year or two of work actually make?
As part of your free financial review with Reeves, we can use cashflow modelling to explore questions like these in more detail. By modelling different retirement dates, spending levels and income choices, you can see how your plans could play out over time and what changing one part could mean for the rest.
Where professional advice can make a difference
There’s plenty you can do yourself to get your retirement plans into shape. Tracking down old pensions, checking your State Pension forecast and working out what you’d like to spend are all valuable places to start.
The more difficult decisions tend to come when you need to turn everything you’ve built into an income. When should you start taking money? Which pensions, savings or investments should you use first? How could you manage withdrawals tax-efficiently? And how might those decisions affect what you have left later in retirement?
That’s where retirement planning can add real value. At Reeves Independent, we’ve been helping people plan for retirement since 1996. We can bring the different parts of your finances together, explore the choices available to you and help you understand what they could mean for the retirement you want.
Your free financial review gives us the opportunity to look at your plans in more detail. As part of the review, we can use cashflow modelling to explore different retirement dates and scenarios, helping you see what could be realistic and where changes could make a difference.
There’s no obligation to proceed beyond the free review, and you won’t pay an advice fee unless you choose to go ahead with our recommendations.