Four New Year’s resolutions
for your pension

Step 2: Think about your future

If you haven't begun to plan for later life, you might be one of the 16% of Nest members who don’t know what sort of retirement lifestyle to look for.
A good first step is to work out what lifestyle you want and how much that's likely to cost. This gives you a specific goal to work towards.

The Retirement Living Standards recommends that single people should aim for a retirement income of around £13,000 a year to afford a ‘minimum’ lifestyle, £23,000 for a ‘moderate’ one and £37,000 to be ‘comfortable’.

A couple will need around £20,000 a year as a minimum, £34,000 to achieve a moderate standard and £55,000 for a comfortable lifestyle.

These figures don’t include housing costs like rent or mortgage payments, so don’t forget to include this in your calculations.

Once you have a goal in mind, you’ll need to add up your expected income after retirement and see if you’re on track. 33% of our Nest members don’t know what income they’ll get from their Nest pension pot, but it couldn’t be easier to work it out with our pension calculator.

Don’t forget, you might also get money from the State Pension and any other pension savings. These will all add up to give you a total retirement income.

And if there’s a gap between your goal and your estimated income, there are small changes you could make now or in the future to close it.

Step 3: Get smart about your pension

Retirement planning means saving money over the years or decades you’re working, so you have enough to retire on. Several of our members told us they weren't sure how to manage this.

Around 42% aren't sure how their Nest pension works and only 20% are very confident they can manage their finances. The more you know about your pension savings, the easier it'll be to plan ahead.

Get started with bite-sized, accessible information on our website. You can learn the basics or see how we invest your money. This will set you up to make well-informed decisions in your future.

Step 4: Keep doing what you’re already doing – if you can

Our last and most important step is to keep contributing, if you can afford to.

With the cost of everyday essentials like food, petrol and energy bills soaring over the last year, many people in the UK are having to make tough choices on how they spend and save their money.

If you can keep contributing into your pension, that’ll help build up a safety net for the years to come. Every payment into your pot could get topped up with extra money from the government and your employer if you’re eligible, which boosts your savings.

The important thing to remember is that everyone’s circumstances are different. If you need to pause or reduce your contributions to focus on your day-to-day costs, that’s okay. Just set a personal reminder to start contributions when you’re ready. You may need to ask your employer to get these set up again.

Whether you’re contributing or not, we’ll work hard to grow your money by investing it, aiming to beat the rising costs of living.

Survey data from Nest Voice of the customer Annual Member Survey 2022/23

Published 27 December 2023