How long does your pension actually need to last — and is your pot big enough?

Most people plan for one flat retirement when they actually have three distinct spending phases. Costs are high in your 60s, dip in your 70s, then spike again if care is needed. Get the withdrawal rate wrong and a £250K pot is completely gone before you turn 81. The safe withdrawal rate is 3.7% according to Morningstar's latest research — yet the average drawdown rate is 6.1%. That gap means thousands of people are draining their pensions nearly twice as fast as they should be.

In this episode, I walk through how long you're actually likely to live based on ONS data, why your family history is a better forecasting tool than national averages, and what happens to a £250K pot at three different withdrawal rates over 30 years. I also cover the retirement spending smile and how to stress-test your own pot against your personal planning age.

With over 25 years advising individuals and major organisations on pensions and retirement, I've seen what happens when people plan for one flat retirement instead of three phases — and how a simple adjustment to the withdrawal rate changes everything.

Watch this episode in full on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@retirementandmoney