# Is £750,000 enough to retire on?

> £750,000 is close to the exact pot a comfortable retirement at 65 costs, which makes it the pot where the stopping age matters most: the answer is yes, and the age you stop decides how comfortable.

**Question:** Is £750,000 enough to retire on?

**Answer:** Yes, at any age from 55, for anyone who owns their home. £750,000 supports about **£3,266 a month** in today's money from 60 to 95, alongside a full State Pension from 67, or **£3,970 a month** if you stop at 67. That is past the PLSA's moderate standard of £2,725 at every age, and past their comfortable £3,775 from 66 - missing it at 65 by just £41 a month.

- Author: Adam Akhlaq, founder of MyRetireAge
- Published: 2026-09-21
- Updated: 2026-09-21
- Canonical URL: https://myretireage.com/blog/is-750000-enough-to-retire-uk

## Key figures

- **£3,266 a month** - what £750,000 supports from 60 to 95
- **£3,970 a month** - what the same pot supports if you stop at 67
- **£41 a month** - short of the PLSA's comfortable standard, stopping at 65
- **£490 a month** - income tax on £3,266 a month once the State Pension starts

**Interactive: [See how long £750,000 would last for you](https://myretireage.com/pension-drawdown-calculator-uk?pot=750000&spend=3250)** - Prefilled with £750,000 from age 60 at £3,250 a month. Push the spending to £4,000 and the pot empties at 83; pull it back under £2,634 and it never empties at all. The gap between those two is the difference between spending this pot and living off it.

## What £750,000 actually pays you

£750,000 is not an income, and the honest answer to "is it enough" starts by turning it into one. Spread from 60 to 95, with a full State Pension arriving at 67, it supports about **£3,266 a month** in today's money.

That is not £750,000 divided by 35 years. It assumes the pot keeps growing while you draw on it, that the State Pension takes over £12,548 a year of the load from 67 (£241 a week in 2026/27), and that the last pound is spent around your ninety-fifth birthday rather than left behind. Stop later and all three work harder for you: from 67 the same pot supports £3,970 a month.

- **£3,266 a month** - if you stop at 60. £39,192 a year, with 7 years funded by the pot alone before the State Pension starts.
- **£3,970 a month** - if you stop at 67. Seven more years of growth, seven fewer years of spending, and no gap to bridge.
- **£4,039 a month** - for a couple, from 60. Same £750,000, but two full State Pensions worth £25,095 a year join at 67.

From 67 the State Pension is £1,046 of the £3,970 a month, about 26% of the income. The pot does the rest, and it can do it two ways: spend £2,634 a month or less from 60 and it is never exhausted, or spend £3,266 and it finishes around 95. That £632-a-month gap is the first real choice a pot this size gives you.

## £750,000 is the comfortable-retirement pot, from 65

The PLSA's Retirement Living Standards are the only widely used answer to "what does a UK retirement cost", and £750,000 sits almost exactly on their top line: a comfortable retirement at 65 needs about £760,985.

*Where £3,266 a month - £750,000 from 60 - sits against the standards for one person*

| Standard | Monthly cost | Does £750,000 reach it from 60? | What it covers |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Minimum | £1,150 a month | Yes, with £2,116 to spare | all your needs, with a little left over for fun, but no car |
| Moderate | £2,725 a month | Yes, with £541 to spare | more financial security and flexibility, a car, and a two-week holiday in Europe |
| Comfortable | £3,775 a month | No, £509 short | more financial freedom, some luxuries, and regular beauty treatments or theatre trips |

*Living standards are for a single person outside London and assume no rent and no mortgage. Our column is the Balanced scenario, spending the pot down by 95.*

From 60, £750,000 is a moderate-plus retirement: £541 a month over the moderate standard, £509 short of the comfortable one. The comfortable standard - some luxuries, a newer car, long-haul holidays - needs £903,195 at 60, £760,985 at 65 and £699,960 at 67. So £750,000 misses it at 65 by £41 a month, which is a rounding error, and first clears it at 66, with £195 to spare at 67.

> £750,000 is a comfortable retirement from 65, give or take £41 a month, and a moderate-plus one from 55.

For a couple the standards are higher and the pot goes further, and the two roughly cancel. A shared £750,000 supports £4,039 a month from 60, clearing the moderate couple standard of £3,775, and £5,016 from 67 - £209 short of the comfortable couple figure of £5,225. A comfortable couple retirement from 60 needs about £1,106,723 between you.

## Can you retire at 55, 60, 65 or 67 with £750,000?

Yes at every one of those ages. What changes is which standard you land on: between 55 and 67 the gap is £1,051 a month, and it is the difference between moderate-plus and comfortable.

*What £750,000 supports each month to age 95, by the age you stop*

| You stop at | One person | A couple | Bridge years |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Age 55 | £2,919 a month | £3,558 a month | 12 |
| Age 57 | £3,046 a month | £3,734 a month | 10 |
| Age 60 | £3,266 a month | £4,039 a month | 7 |
| Age 62 | £3,435 a month | £4,274 a month | 5 |
| Age 65 | £3,734 a month | £4,688 a month | 2 |
| Age 67 | £3,970 a month | £5,016 a month | 0 |

*Balanced assumptions: 5% growth, 2.5% inflation, 0.4% fees, spending to 95. The couple column assumes two full State Pensions from 67 and one shared pot. Bridge years are the years you fund with no State Pension at all.*

- **At 55:** yes, on £2,919 a month for forty years - £194 over the moderate standard, with 12 bridge years to fund first. A moderate retirement from 55 needs about £686,233, so this pot has a margin. From 6 April 2028 the earliest you can touch a pension is 57, so retiring at 55 after that means two years funded from ISAs or other savings.
- **At 60:** yes, on £3,266 a month: moderate-plus, £509 short of comfortable. For a couple it is £4,039, past the moderate couple standard.
- **At 65:** yes, and this is the age the pot was made for: £3,734 a month, £41 short of the comfortable standard with only 2 bridge years. For a couple it is £4,688.
- **At 67:** yes, comfortably: £3,970 a month with no bridge at all, £195 over the comfortable standard, or £5,016 for a couple. Drawn with a quarter of each withdrawal tax free, it stays inside the basic-rate band even with the State Pension on top.

Each year you wait between 60 and 67 is worth roughly £101 a month for the rest of your life, and the effect compounds twice: the pot grows for another year, and it has one fewer year to cover. On £750,000 the practical question is where between 60 and 65 you draw the line, because 60 is already a good retirement and 65 is a comfortable one.

## How £750,000 compares with real pension pots

It is a large pot by any measure. The FCA's data on pots being accessed stops counting at £250,000, and only 7% of the 961,575 plans accessed for the first time in 2024/25 were that large.

The ONS puts it in context from the top down. In its last survey with a full breakdown (April 2018 to March 2020), the tenth of the population with the most private pension wealth had a median of £637,500, so £750,000 is more than the typical person in the top 10% holds, and about 7 times the £107,300 median among 55 to 64 year olds with a pension not yet in payment. Both are per person: couples reach £750,000 between them far more often than one person does alone.

People with pots this size also draw them cautiously. Of the £250,000-plus plans accessed in 2024/25, 86% went into drawdown and 6% bought an annuity, and 52% of those taking a regular income were withdrawing under 4% a year - which on £750,000 is under £2,500 a month, and close to the £2,634 our engine says the pot can sustain indefinitely. Most large pots are run as endowments rather than spent.

## What £750,000 buys as an annuity instead

Everything above spends the pot down. The alternative is to hand it to an insurer, and on 17 September 2026 the best inflation-linked single-life rate for a 65-year-old paid £5,566 a year per £100,000. Pro rata, £750,000 buys about £3,479 a month, rising with RPI, for life - £255 a month less than the £3,734 drawdown supports from 65.

- **£3,479 a month** - inflation-linked annuity at 65. The like-for-like comparison with our today's-money figures. Guaranteed however long you live and whatever markets do; nothing left for your estate.
- **£5,078 a month** - level annuity at 65. Far more to begin with, but fixed: after 20 years of 2.5% inflation it buys 39% less than on day one.
- **£4,734 a month** - joint-life level annuity at 65. Pays half to a spouse three years younger for the rest of their life, for £344 a month less than the single-life version.

The £255 a month between the inflation-linked annuity and drawdown is the price of certainty, and on this pot it is a modest one. Live to 100 and the annuity is still paying when a drawdown pot spent to 95 is empty; die at 75 and drawdown leaves several hundred thousand pounds to your estate where the annuity leaves nothing. Only 6% of large pots buy one, but the common middle path is to annuitise enough to cover the essentials for life and draw the rest down.

> **Annuity rates move**
>
> The quotes above are Hargreaves Lansdown's best-buy rates on 17 September 2026, for an average postcode and a £100,000 pot. Rates track gilt yields and change weekly, larger pots sometimes get slightly better terms, and health conditions or smoking raise them. Get a live quote before you decide anything.

## The tax on £750,000

Usually a quarter of a pension can be taken tax free - £187,500 here, comfortably under the £268,275 lump sum allowance - and the other £562,500 is taxed as income when you draw it. How you take the tax-free part decides whether this pot ever pays higher-rate tax.

*2026/27 income tax on drawing £3,266 a month from £750,000*

| How you draw it | Tax a month before 67 | Tax a month from 67 |
| --- | --- | --- |
| A quarter of each withdrawal tax free, the rest as income | £280 | £490 |
| All £187,500 taken up front, then fully taxable income | £444 | £677 |

*Personal allowance £12,570, basic rate to £50,270, then 40%. The State Pension is taxable, which is why the bill rises at 67. Scottish rates differ.*

Taking the tax-free quarter as a slice of every withdrawal keeps £3,266 a month inside the basic-rate band even after the State Pension starts, at £490 a month. Taking all £187,500 on day one leaves every later pound taxable, and from 67 the same income tips into the 40% band and costs £677 a month - £187 more, for life. Even stopping at 67 on £3,970 a month, the slice-by-slice route stays basic rate, at about £595 a month. Unless there is a mortgage to clear, the lump sum is the expensive option.

> **Inheritance tax from 6 April 2027**
>
> Until now an unused pension has passed to heirs outside the estate. From 6 April 2027 unused pension funds and death benefits count towards inheritance tax, which on a pot this size can mean a 40% charge on the part above the nil-rate bands. The old advice - spend ISAs first and leave the pension untouched as an inheritance - is much weaker from that date, and a plan that spends the pension down by 95 is no longer the tax-inefficient choice.

## £750,000 against the 4% rule

The 4% rule says £750,000 gives you £30,000 a year, or £2,500 a month. Our engine says £3,266 a month from 60. Both are right, because they are answering different questions.

The 4% rule comes from US research into portfolios that had to survive any 30-year window with money still in them. It ignores the State Pension and never spends the pot down. Our "never runs out" figure for £750,000 from 60 is £2,634 a month - within £134 of the rule, because on a pot this size the State Pension it ignores is only 26% of the answer.

The £632 a month between £2,634 and £3,266 is the price of leaving nothing behind. Spend the lower figure and £750,000 is an endowment that outlives you; spend the higher one and you get 24% more lifestyle in exchange for the pot finishing around 95. The FCA data suggests most people with large pots choose the first, and the inheritance tax change from 6 April 2027 is the strongest argument yet for the second.

## Where £750,000 is comfortable, and where it is not

Three people with exactly the same pot, and three different answers. On a pot this size the spending target and the stopping age do the work, not housing alone.

**Owns their home outright, stops at 65: Almost comfortable** within £41 a month of the PLSA's comfortable standard

£750,000 supports £3,734 a month from 65 to 95, £41 short of the comfortable standard of £3,775 and £1,009 over the moderate one. Even the cautious growth scenario, at £3,086 a month, stays past moderate. This is the retirement £750,000 was built for.

**Wants a comfortable lifestyle from 55 with a £900-a-month mortgage still running: Not enough** runs out at 71

A comfortable £3,775 plus £900 of mortgage is £4,675 a month, and from 55 that exhausts £750,000 at 71, 24 years before the plan ends. Sustaining it from 55 would take about £1,327,912. Clearing the mortgage with the tax-free cash leaves £562,500, which supports £2,642 a month from 60 - below even the moderate standard, not the comfortable one they want. On this budget the lever is the retirement date.

**A couple with two full State Pensions, stopping at 60: Moderate-plus** £1,186 a month short of a comfortable couple retirement

Their shared £750,000 supports £4,039 a month from 60, £264 past the PLSA's moderate couple figure of £3,775 and short of the comfortable £5,225. Two State Pensions add £25,095 a year from 67, and splitting withdrawals between two people means two personal allowances and two basic-rate bands, which is the cheapest way to draw a large pot.

## The bridge years decide how comfortable

On most pots, the years between stopping work and the State Pension starting decide whether a retirement works at all. On £750,000 they decide which standard it reaches.

Retire at 60 with a State Pension age of 67 and you have 7 of those years. Spending £3,250 a month across them costs £273,000 with nothing arriving to replace it, and growth covers about 34% of that: the pot is still about £570,842 when the State Pension arrives. That is what separates a large pot from a small one - a large pot pays for the bridge partly out of growth, a small one entirely out of capital.

The £704-a-month gap between stopping at 60 and at 67 is 22% of the income, and it is exactly the distance from moderate-plus to comfortable. Seven more years of work buys the top living standard rather than the middle one; it does not buy a different life.

> **If your State Pension age is 68**
>
> Anyone born from April 1978 onwards waits an extra year. On these assumptions £750,000 then supports £3,230 a month from 60 rather than £3,266 - a £36 difference that is barely visible on a pot this size. Your own State Pension age is [free to check on gov.uk](https://www.gov.uk/state-pension-age).

## What makes £750,000 go further

Six changes that move the answer, and what each is worth in monthly spending against the £3,266 a month the pot supports from 60. On a pot this size, fees and tax matter as much as the stopping age.

1. **Work to 65 instead of 60: £468 a month more** - Five more years takes what £750,000 supports from £3,266 to £3,734 a month, and it is the lever that turns moderate-plus into comfortable. A partial version works too: stopping at 62 is worth £169 a month.
2. **Take the tax-free cash as slices, not a lump** - A quarter of each withdrawal tax free keeps £3,266 a month in the basic-rate band for life, at £490 a month of tax from 67; the lump sum up front costs £677. That £187 a month is the cheapest lever on this list, because it costs nothing but a decision.
3. **Cut your fees: £4,500 a year in year one** - We assume 0.4% a year. Paying 1% instead costs £4,500 in the first year alone on £750,000, and something like it every year after. On a pot this size a percentage point of fees is a holiday every year, and it is one of the few things on this list you can change this afternoon.
4. **Plan as a household, not as two people** - A couple sharing £750,000 can spend £4,039 a month from 60 rather than £3,266 - two full State Pensions bring in £25,095 a year between them from 67, and two personal allowances shrink the income tax bill.
5. **Clear the mortgage before you stop, or price it in** - A £900 a month mortgage is 28% of what £750,000 produces at 60. The tax-free cash can clear it in one go; the alternative is to treat the mortgage as a bridge-years cost and stop a little later. Either works on this pot, which is not true of a smaller one.
6. **Fill the gaps in your National Insurance record: £111 a month** - On 30 qualifying years instead of 35, £750,000 supports £3,155 a month from 60 rather than £3,266. Still worth fixing - voluntary contributions are cheap for what they buy - but the last lever on this list rather than the first. Checking is [free on gov.uk](https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension).

## The assumptions behind £3,266 a month

Every figure here rests on a guess about growth and a guess about how long you live. On a large pot the growth guess is worth a great deal of money either way.

*What £750,000 supports from 60, by growth scenario*

| Scenario | Growth before inflation | Monthly spending supported |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Cautious | 3% | £2,647 a month |
| Balanced | 5% | £3,266 a month |
| Adventurous | 7% | £3,994 a month |

*All three assume 2.5% inflation and 0.4% fees, and all are in today's money.*

That is a range of £1,347 a month on the same £750,000, decided by something nobody controls. The cautious row drops £78 below the moderate standard, which is the useful test: if the plan works in the cautious row it is robust, and if it only works in the adventurous one it is a hope rather than a plan.

*What £750,000 supports from 60, by how long you plan for*

| Plan to age | Monthly spending supported |
| --- | --- |
| 85 | £3,884 a month |
| 90 | £3,522 a month |
| 95 | £3,266 a month |
| 100 | £3,076 a month |

*We use 95 as standard, because planning to average life expectancy leaves half of us with an unfunded decade.*

The ONS puts life expectancy at 65 at 21.2 more years for a woman and 18.7 for a man (2022 to 2024) - to about 86 and 84. Those are averages, so half of us outlive them. Planning to 95 costs £618 a month against planning to 85, which is the price of not being on the wrong side of the average.

> **Everything here is in today's money**
>
> We subtract inflation from growth, so £3,266 a month means the lifestyle £3,266 buys right now, in every year of the plan. The nominal figure you would actually withdraw in 2050 is far larger, and buys exactly the same shopping.

## What this calculation leaves out

Four things could move the answer materially, and none of them are in the numbers above.

- **The order returns arrive in.** A steady £3,266 a month assumes steady growth. A 20% fall in your first year is £150,000 gone while you are selling units to live on, which is far more damaging than the same fall at 80. Holding two years of spending in cash is the usual defence, and on this pot that is £78,384 sitting outside the market by design.
- **Defined benefit pensions.** Any final-salary or career-average pension is income the pot never has to produce, and it is guaranteed. With £750,000 behind it, even a modest DB pension turns a comfortable retirement at 65 into a comfortable one at 60.
- **Care costs.** Later-life care can consume several years' worth of this pot, and none of these figures include it. It is also the strongest reason not to annuitise all of it: an annuity pays a fixed income, while a pot can pay for a care home.
- **Access.** The normal minimum pension age is 55, rising to 57 on 6 April 2028. Retiring before then means the first years cannot come from a pension at all - they have to come from ISAs or other savings you can reach at any age.

None of that changes the headline. £750,000 buys roughly £3,266 a month from 60 or £3,970 from 67, and the decisions worth your attention are the stopping age, the tax-free cash and the fees - not whether it is enough.

## How to check your own numbers

1. **Add up every pot, and note which wrapper each is in** - Old workplace pensions, the current one, SIPPs and ISAs. On a large pot the split between pension and ISA money decides the tax bill, so record it rather than just the total. Defined benefit pensions are different - treat their income as a second State Pension and subtract it from your spending.
2. **Get your State Pension forecast** - Free on [gov.uk](https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension). It is 26% of the income from 67 on this pot, so a gap in your record is a small cut rather than a large one, but it is also the only part of the plan that is guaranteed for life.
3. **Set spending to your real budget, then look at the depletion age** - Run it in the [drawdown calculator](/pension-drawdown-calculator-uk). If the pot outlives you on the cautious scenario, you can spend more or stop sooner; if it runs dry before 90 on the balanced one, the spending is the thing to change.
4. **Decide where between 60 and 65 you stop** - Put your real numbers into the [retirement age calculator](/retirement-age-calculator-uk). On £750,000 the difference between those two ages is the difference between a moderate-plus retirement and a comfortable one, and seeing the date move is more persuasive than reading that it does.

## Frequently asked questions

### Is £750,000 enough to retire on?

Yes for anyone who owns their home. £750,000 supports about £3,266 a month in today's money from 60 to 95, or £3,970 a month from 67, alongside a full State Pension. That is past the PLSA's moderate standard of £2,725 at every age from 55, and past their comfortable £3,775 from 66 - short of it at 65 by just £41 a month.

### Can I retire at 55 with £750,000?

Yes, on about £2,919 a month to 95 - £194 over the PLSA's moderate standard, with 12 years to fund before any State Pension. A couple would have £3,558. From 6 April 2028 the earliest you can access a pension is 57, so retiring at 55 after that needs ISAs or other savings for the first two years.

### Can I retire at 60 with £750,000?

Yes: £3,266 a month to 95 for one person, or £4,039 for a couple with two full State Pensions, with 7 years funded by the pot alone first. That is a moderate-plus retirement, £509 a month short of the comfortable standard; working to 65 closes almost all of that gap.

### Can I retire at 65 with £750,000?

Yes, and it is the age this pot fits best: £3,734 a month to 95, within £41 of the PLSA's comfortable standard, with only 2 bridge years. A comfortable retirement at 65 needs about £760,985, which is almost exactly this pot. For a couple it is £4,688 a month.

### Can I retire at 67 with £750,000?

Yes, comfortably: £3,970 a month to 95 with the State Pension starting the same day, £195 over the comfortable standard, or £5,016 for a couple. Drawn with a quarter of each withdrawal tax free it stays inside the basic-rate band, at about £595 a month of tax.

### How much income will £750,000 give me?

About £3,266 a month - £39,192 a year - if you stop at 60 and spend the pot down by 95, including the State Pension from 67, rising to £3,970 a month from 67. If you want the pot never to run out, about £2,634 a month from 60. As an inflation-linked annuity at 65, the best rate on 17 September 2026 would pay about £3,479 a month for life.

### How long will £750,000 last in retirement?

Drawing from 60 with the State Pension from 67: it lasts to 90 at £3,500 a month, to 83 at £4,000 and to 76 at £5,000. Below about £2,634 a month it is never exhausted, because growth and the State Pension cover the withdrawals.

### Is £750,000 enough for a couple to retire on?

Yes. A shared £750,000 supports about £4,039 a month from 60 or £5,016 from 67, with two full State Pensions adding £25,095 a year. That clears the PLSA's moderate couple standard of £3,775 from 60 and falls £209 a month short of their comfortable £5,225 even at 67.

### How much tax will I pay on a £750,000 pension?

A quarter - £187,500, under the £268,275 lump sum allowance - can be taken tax free. Drawing £3,266 a month with a quarter of each withdrawal tax free costs about £280 a month in income tax before 67 and £490 after, at 2026/27 rates, all at basic rate. Take the lump sum up front instead and the later bill rises to £677 a month, part of it at 40%.

### Will my pension be subject to inheritance tax?

From 6 April 2027, yes: unused pension funds and death benefits count towards the estate for inheritance tax, which can mean a 40% charge on the part above the nil-rate bands. Until then they usually pass outside the estate. For a pot this size the change is large enough to revisit any plan built on leaving the pension untouched.

### Do these figures account for inflation?

Yes. Every figure is in today's money: we subtract inflation from growth, so £3,266 a month means the lifestyle £3,266 buys today, in every year of the plan. The amount you actually withdraw would rise each year to keep pace.

## Sources

- [The new State Pension: what you'll get](https://www.gov.uk/new-state-pension/what-youll-get) - GOV.UK
- [Tax when you get a pension](https://www.gov.uk/tax-on-pension) - GOV.UK
- [Check your State Pension forecast](https://www.gov.uk/check-state-pension) - GOV.UK
- [Tax on your private pension contributions: lump sum allowance](https://www.gov.uk/tax-on-your-private-pension/lump-sum-allowance) - GOV.UK
- [Inheritance Tax: unused pension funds and death benefits](https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/inheritance-tax-unused-pension-funds-and-death-benefits) - HM Revenue & Customs
- [Retirement Living Standards](https://www.retirementlivingstandards.org.uk/) - Pensions UK (formerly the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association)
- [Retirement income market data 2024/25](https://www.fca.org.uk/data/retirement-income-market-data-2024-25) - Financial Conduct Authority
- [Saving for retirement in Great Britain: April 2018 to March 2020](https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/personalandhouseholdfinances/incomeandwealth/bulletins/pensionwealthingreatbritain/april2018tomarch2020) - Office for National Statistics
- [National life tables - life expectancy in the UK: 2022 to 2024](https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/lifeexpectancies/bulletins/nationallifetablesunitedkingdom/2022to2024) - Office for National Statistics
- [Best annuity rates](https://www.hl.co.uk/retirement/annuities/best-buy-rates) - Hargreaves Lansdown

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This article is guidance, not financial advice. Every figure is produced by the same engine that powers our free calculators, stated in today's money on the assumptions named above, and checked against 2026/27 rates; the external statistics are quoted with their dates and sources. Tax is simplified to the UK-wide bands and ignores Scottish rates. Your own position will differ - on a pot this size, regulated advice pays for itself.