This is the long stretch when you’re actively earning and building your pension pot. The focus is on regular contributions, choosing cost-effective funds, and letting compound growth work so today’s savings translate into tomorrow’s retirement income.
The free features of the calculator will help people in this stage understand the importance of starting early and making additional pension contributions when they can afford to. The power of compound growth is clearly illustrated if you could see that saving an extra 50 a month might mean you could afford to retire one year earlier.
To help you understand what your target retirement income might be, the calculator uses the Retirement Living Standards to provide a benchmark for your retirement income needs. There is also a useful Budget Calculator based on the Retirement Living Standards research to help you tailor your retirement income needs to your own personal circumstances and preferences.
Here are some of the questions the calculator can provide answers to for people in the accumulation stage:
The FAQs page will also be a useful source of information to build up knowledge of pensions and retirement planning for people in this stage. The FAQs cover a wide range of topics, including the different types of pension, how tax relief is so valuable, and important points to note about investing your pension savings.
Roughly 5-10 years before you retire, this phase is about fine-tuning: checking whether your savings match your target lifestyle, deciding on a retirement age, topping up if there’s a shortfall, and stress-testing your plan against market shocks.
At this critical stage, the value of the premium features of the calculator really become evident, providing vital insight as you approach to retirement. You are also much more likely to be planning as a couple, so the Plan As A Couple feature will be valuable help in coordinating your plans.
Any advice taken before making decisions at this stage will be far more informed and relevant, particularly if you use the Ask The AI feature to get answers to questions about your specific situation.
The premium features of the calculator can also provide answers to questions such as:
Once you’ve retired and begun drawing an income, the priority shifts to making your capital last. You’re balancing sustainable withdrawal rates, tax-efficient drawdown (pensions vs. ISAs), and contingency planning for longevity and market volatility.
The premium features of the calculator are invaluable in this stage, when the focus is on minimising tax over your whole retirement, not just the current year.
For those already retired, the calculator will answer questions such as:
Get started with Calculate My Pension right away by clicking the button below, or scroll down to learn more about the free and premium features available.
The other half of the retirement planning equation is understanding how much income you’ll need to support your desired lifestyle. Calculate My Pension uses the widely recognised Retirement Living Standards to help you estimate your personal income needs. These standards – Minimum, Moderate, and Comfortable – reflect real-world costs based on independent research and provide an accessible benchmark for planning your future.
Whilst the retirement living standards provide a useful guide to the level of income you might need in retirement, they may not reflect your own personal circumstances or preferences. They use a "one size fits all" approach by necessity.
However, each individual may prioritise each category of spending differently.
The Budget Calculator allows you to tailor your retirement income needs in line with your own circumstances or preferences, using the same expense categories that were used in the research for the Retirement Living Standards.
You can select a Minimum, Moderate or Comfortable standard for each category of spending — or specify an exact figure using the sliders.
This provides a quick and easy way to allow for your own personal circumstances and preferences without already having a budget, while still using the Retirement Living Standards as a foundation.
This tailored income target feeds directly into a comparison with your calculated affordable income, allowing you to see if you are on target and to adjust your plans accordingly.
Thinking as a household rather than two separate savers often unlocks better decisions. Your pensions may be different sizes, taxed differently, and—crucially—may start paying out at different ages (for instance, State Pensions commencing in different years). Modelling everything together allows an affordable combined retirement income to be calculated.
Premium members have access to the Plan As A Couple feature which projects your partner’s pensions, savings and other retirement benefits alongside your own and calculates an affordable combined retirement income for the two of you.
To put that figure in context it is compared with the couple‑level Minimum, Moderate and Comfortable benchmarks published by the Retirement Living Standards. Their couple budgets build in the economies of sharing while recognising two people still need more than one, giving you a robust yardstick for joint planning.
Premium subscribers have access to the pioneering feature available on the Ask The AI page.
Whilst artificial intelligence has been increasingly used as a convenient tool for gathering information about financial planning over the past few years, concerns around accuracy and reliability have, until recently, outweighed its benefits. The risk of “hallucinations” (AI confidently providing incorrect or outdated answers) meant it was largely unsuitable for handling complex financial scenarios or strategic financial decision-making.
However, the release of OpenAI’s GPT-4.1 in April 2025 marked a major turning point. This model boasts superior strategic reasoning capabilities, enabling it to navigate intricate financial scenarios with greater accuracy and depth. Combined with Google’s Gemini 2.0 Flash, capable of accessing real-time, verified financial information via live Google Search, the pair provide a genuinely dependable resource for financial guidance.
This innovative combination is precisely what Calculate My Pension now provides. Premium members can ask a single question and receive two distinct, side-by-side answers: one strategically reasoned by GPT-4.1 , and the other grounded in real-time accuracy by Gemini 2.0 Flash. Confidence in the responses is greatly enhanced by having a second opinion in agreement. Two minds are better than one!
Whether your query is straightforward, such as checking the latest tax allowances or you have a more complex financial scenario involving pension drawdown strategies, tax efficiency, or retirement timing, the combined strengths of GPT-4.1 and Gemini 2.0 Flash deliver reliable, tailored responses.
The responses from the AI are not financial advice and are not a replacement for financial advice. Responses can inform the user, provide clarity on complex financial concepts, and highlight relevant issues or considerations that may warrant further investigation or professional advice. The insights offered can help users feel better prepared and more confident when discussing their personal circumstances with a qualified financial advisor. Final decisions, particularly those involving significant financial consequences, should always be made with input from a regulated financial professional.
Here is a list of the free features, providing a valuable tool to all users.
See the actual figures behind the charts set out in tables.
For your pension fund and ISA, see the opening and closing balances for each year and a breakdown of all the items that make up the movement.
For your retirement income, see the gross and net values of each source of income.
Below is a full list of premium features currently available. The premium subscription is currently priced at £49.99 annually. As we continuously develop and introduce new premium features in the coming months, the subscription price will increase, but existing annual subscribers will continue to enjoy all updates at their originally-locked rate.
These are some of the features planned for rolling out over the coming months. If you have a feature in mind that you would like to suggest, please get in touch at calculatemypension@gmail.com.
Currently, planning as a couple is done by separately modelling each person and then combining the affordable incomes to compare with a couple's income needs. There is no interaction between the simulations. An interactive simulation would allow:
Holding a cash buffer can reduce the impact of a market crash. Here's how this strategy would work:
This allows you to see the reduction in income resulting from a higher level of cash, but also the reduced impact on income in the event of a market crash.
