A whole-of-retirement-savings projection
Where our pension growth calculator focuses specifically on a pension pot with separate employee and employer contributions, this calculator takes a broader view: your current age, planned retirement age, total current retirement savings (across whichever accounts you use), a combined monthly contribution, and an expected return, to produce a single estimated retirement fund. It's a useful starting point if you'd rather think about your retirement savings as one combined goal rather than tracking each account separately.
Why starting age changes the outcome so dramatically
Because this is a compounding calculation, the number of years between now and your planned retirement age has an outsized effect on the result — someone starting at 25 with a modest monthly contribution can end up with a substantially larger fund than someone starting the same contribution at 45, purely because of the additional two decades of compounding, even though the older saver may well be contributing more per month by then to compensate. This is the central argument for starting retirement saving as early as realistically possible, even at a modest level, rather than waiting until income feels more comfortable.
What "current retirement savings" should include
This field is meant to capture everything you're treating as earmarked for retirement, not necessarily just money in a pension — some people include ISA balances specifically set aside for retirement here too, since the underlying compounding maths works identically regardless of the account type, even though the tax treatment on withdrawal differs. If you want to see a pension specifically, including any employer contribution, our pension growth calculator separates that out more precisely.
Adjusting your plan as retirement age approaches
A single flat expected return across the whole period, as this calculator uses, is a simplification — many people's investment strategy shifts to become more cautious as retirement age approaches, in order to reduce the risk of a market downturn hitting the pot's value right before it's needed. It's worth re-running this calculator periodically as your actual age, savings and contributions change, rather than relying on a single projection made years in advance.
Checking whether your projected fund is actually enough
A projected fund total on its own doesn't tell you whether it's genuinely sufficient for the retirement you want — that depends on what income you're hoping to draw from it, for how long, and what other income (such as the State Pension) you'll also have. Our pension income calculator can translate a fund total like this into an illustrative income, and our "how much do I need to retire?" calculator compares your projection directly against a target retirement income to show any shortfall or surplus.
A worked example
Using the calculator's defaults — a 30-year-old with £15,000 saved today, contributing £300 a month, assuming a 5.5% annual return until age 67 — the projected retirement fund comes to roughly £457,000. Total contributions over the 37-year period add up to about £148,200, meaning growth accounts for around £308,800 of the final total, more than double the amount actually paid in.
Delay starting by just five years, so the same saver begins at 35 instead of 30 with everything else identical, and the projected fund at 67 falls to approximately £334,000 — a drop of roughly £123,000 from losing just five years of compounding at the start, even though the monthly contribution and assumed return never changed. Few single decisions in retirement planning matter as much as simply starting sooner.
Treat this as one part of a wider plan
A single projected fund total is a helpful headline figure, but a genuinely robust retirement plan usually looks at several scenarios side by side — a cautious return assumption, a more optimistic one, an earlier retirement age, and a later one — rather than anchoring on a single number produced from one set of assumptions. Running this calculator two or three times with slightly different inputs, and looking at the spread of outcomes rather than a single figure, gives a far more honest picture of the range you're actually planning within.
Frequently asked questions
What retirement age should I plan around?
Your own target retirement age, which may be earlier or later than your State Pension age — it's worth checking your State Pension age separately, since it isn't necessarily the same as when you plan to stop working or start drawing a private pension.
Should I include my partner's savings in this calculator?
This calculator projects a single pot, so if you and a partner are planning jointly, you can either run it once with combined figures for a household total, or separately for each of you if your ages, contributions or return assumptions differ.
How often should I redo this projection?
Revisiting it once a year, or whenever your income, contributions or circumstances change meaningfully, keeps the projection realistic rather than relying on assumptions made years earlier that may no longer reflect your actual situation.
Should I count my home as part of my retirement fund?
Some people do factor in eventual downsizing, but it's generally more prudent to plan your core retirement income around pension and investment savings alone, treating any property-related option as a welcome buffer rather than a relied-upon part of the plan.
What if my income and contributions are irregular, such as with self-employment?
Use a realistic average monthly figure based on a recent full year, and revisit the projection more frequently than someone with a stable salary, since irregular income makes any single projection more sensitive to short-term swings in what you're actually able to contribute.
Can I use this alongside a pension-specific calculator too?
Yes — this whole-of-savings view and our dedicated pension growth calculator are complementary rather than competing, and running both can help you see the total picture as well as the pension-specific detail, particularly if you also hold other retirement savings outside a pension. Comparing the two results can also highlight if one account is meaningfully outpacing or lagging the rest of your overall plan.