Free UK Pension Planning Tool
Every post is one question, worked through on real numbers. You can run each of them on your own figures.
Latest
0 of 100 futures after a 1973 start
On my own plan. A bigger annuity, a guardrail, a conventional gilt ladder: none moved it. One pairing took it to 87.
1973 Was a Good Year. Unless You Retired.
£15,500, not £16,800
One State Pension 20 years on, in today's money: the 2030 rule against the triple lock.
The Triple Lock Is Not Being Scrapped. One Part of It Is.
£175,000 apart before anything happened
Two plans, two different random futures. What to check before you trust a comparison.
I Compared Versions of My Own Retirement Plan and Fooled Myself Three Times
A third ran out of money
And the withdrawal rate predicted almost none of it.
I Retired 20,000 People. The Withdrawal Rate Barely Mattered.
75 of 100 futures at a 1% yield. 86 at 5.5%.
Same ladder. Only the price of the insurance changed.
What Is a Gilt Ladder, and Why Haven't I Got One?
April 2027 flips which pot you spend first
What care costs, who pays, and what is left behind.
Care Homes, Your Pension, and What You Leave Behind
Nine ways the rules take a cut
Emergency tax, the MPAA, the £100,000 taper, the £268,275 cap.
Nine Tax Traps When You Take Money Out of a Pension
Nine routes out of one £200,000 pot
Each worked through in plain English, so you can tell me what I missed.
Every Way You Can Take Money Out of a Pension (I Think)
Usually the pension still wins
Even though it taxes your growth on the way out and an ISA never does.
Should I Invest in a Pension or an ISA? What the Numbers Say
£720 a year that almost nobody claims
Ten things worth knowing, including the order you draw your money in.
Ten Pension Tips I'd Give a Friend
A chat by the coffee machine, and a list of my own bugs
How deferring the State Pension really works, and what the tool got wrong.
Whilst Making Coffee, a Colleague Mentioned the State Pension Defer Trick
Six missing years, three gone for good
A National Insurance deadline she had never heard of.
The £30,000 Retirement Mistake: Your National Insurance Gap
Annuitise half, and see what the other half has to do
Where £125,000 of tax-free cash can actually sit.
My Half-Annuity Plan: What I'd Actually Do With £1m and Why
Built with AI, and here is why you should still check it
What that unlocked, and where it was confidently wrong.
Vibe Coded With Claude: How This Tool Was Built — and Why You Should Still Check the Maths
From April 2027 your pension joins your estate
Who it hits, and what it changes about the order you spend in.
Your SIPP Is Now Part of Your Estate: What the 2027 IHT Change Means for Drawdown
Annuity rates roughly doubled since 2021
Around 7.6% at 65. Does that settle the argument? Not quite.
Drawdown vs Annuity in 2025: The Maths Has Changed Significantly
In retirement the ISA question flips over
The order you draw in decides the lifetime tax bill.
ISA vs SIPP in Retirement: How to Draw Down Your Wealth Tax-Efficiently
State Pension up 4.1% to £230.25 a week
And the access age rises to 57 in 2028.
2025/26 Tax Year: What's Changed for UK Pension Savers
£268,275 is the cap most calculators ignore
A large pot needs a different withdrawal plan because of it.
The £268,275 Trap: How the Lifetime Lump Sum Allowance Changes Everything
The 4% rule assumes a market that does not exist
Real returns arrive in a sequence, and UK tax is not a flat rate.
Why Your Financial Advisor's 4% Rule Could Ruin Your Retirement
Deferring can be worth tens of thousands
But only once you see how it collides with your own tax band.
State Pension Timing: The £50,000 Decision Most People Get Wrong
Two personal allowances beat one
What splitting income between a couple actually saves.
Married vs Single: The Shocking Tax Differences in Pension Drawdown
An average return is the one thing you will never get
What a thousand futures show that a single average hides.
The Monte Carlo Reality Check: Why Simple Calculators Give False Hope
Four things decide it, and most people guess three
Pot size, what you draw, what markets do, and when the State Pension lands.
How Long Will My Pension Last? A Realistic UK Guide
A crash will not wait for your plan
Taking money out in a hurry without wrecking the long run.
Emergency Pension Withdrawals: What You Need to Know
It started as a question about my own retirement
Why I built this, and what I could not find anywhere else.
Why I Built Drawdown Simulator - A Personal Journey Into Pension Planning