How much do you need to retire in the UK? I ran one £250,000 pot through a full age-57 test - drawdown, tax, the State Pension bridge and a 30% crash. It pays £1,275 to £1,540 a month, net.

A balance can't answer the question on its own. £250,000 is neither enough nor insufficient until you know four other things: what you spend, where the money sits, when your State Pension starts, and what markets do in the first decade.

So I built one complete case and ran it properly. David is a fictional composite - 52 today, born 1974, single, mortgage-free, £250,000 across a pension, an ISA and cash by his 57th birthday. Not a client, not a subscriber, not me. Every rule he's governed by is real and sourced below.

The result: at £32,700 a year, the moderate standard for one person, the money runs out at 65. Two years before his State Pension starts. The sustainable figure is £15,296 to £18,482 a year, and once the State Pension arrives at 67 it pays 68% of that, leaving the quarter of a million funding about £495 a month.

If you're 52 to 57 with a pot around this size and no idea what date it buys, this is the exercise to copy.

The assumptions, so you can argue with them:
3% a year after inflation and costs in drawdown, 5% while still investing. World equities returned 5.2% real between 1900 and 2024.
0.35% a year all-in for platform and fund costs.
Every figure in today's money. Tax thresholds held constant in real terms.
Money has to last to 95. Planning to 90 and 100 both tested.
Withdrawals modelled as UFPLS, so 25% of each one is tax-free and 75% is taxable.
Full State Pension assumed, then tested at 25 qualifying years and at zero.

Chapters:
0:00 — Can You Stop Working at 57?
0:27 — The Ten-Year Bridge to State Pension
0:42 — Who Is David?
2:49 — Why £250,000 Isn’t Enough
3:52 — Pension Tax and the Personal Allowance
5:06 — What £250,000 Actually Buys
6:25 — Does Account Split Matter?
8:15 — The Withdrawal Order That Adds Six Years
9:15 — The 30% Crash Stress Test
10:24 — What Actually Moves the Number?
11:55 — Four Answers for David
13:14 — Your Annual Spending Decides
13:31 — Housing, Couples and Defined Benefit Pensions
14:36 — The Final Answer
15:08 — My Real Numbers and Three Stopping Ages

Sources:
Pension access age rising to 57 in April 2028 (Royal London): https://adviser.royallondon.com/techn...
State Pension age timetable (GOV.UK): https://www.gov.uk/government/publica...
Full new State Pension, £241.30 a week (GOV.UK): https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/...
Taking your pension as a number of lump sums (MoneyHelper): https://www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pen...
Money purchase annual allowance, £10,000 (Royal London): https://adviser.royallondon.com/techn...
Income tax rates and allowances 2026/27 (House of Commons Library): https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/...
Retirement Living Standards, updated 3 June 2026: https://www.retirementlivingstandards...
UK safe withdrawal rates, 1870-2024 (Monevator): https://monevator.com/safe-withdrawal...
Cohort life tables, 2024-based (ONS): https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulati...
Check your own State Pension forecast: https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension

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I Analysed 5,000 ISA Millionaires - I Analysed 5,000 ISA Millionaires. The Sam...

I'm not a financial adviser and this isn't advice. David is a fictional composite built to sit in the middle of the audience band - not a real person and not a client. The point is the method, not his numbers. Your own inputs will give you a different answer, and protected pension ages have to be checked scheme by scheme rather than assumed.

#UKPensions #RetirementPlanning #PensionDrawdown