Your data stays on this device

Everything you enter is saved only in this browser — there's no account, no server, and nothing is ever uploaded. Closing this tab won't lose your plan, but clearing this browser's site data will. Use "Export plan" any time you want a backup file you can keep or move to another device.

Independent — just a tool doing the math

This isn't tied to any pension provider, platform or adviser — just a tool doing the math, built to give you an honest, unbiased read on your own numbers, not to sell you anything. It's not financial advice, just something for your own education before you make decisions, or take them to a professional. It's free to use and always will be, but it does cost real money to keep running — hosting, and the AI behind the in-app help. If it saved you some worry, or an afternoon in a spreadsheet, a £1 tip towards those running costs is entirely optional, and much appreciated.

☕ Leave a £1 tip

Clean starter edition

Explore possible retirement scenarios.

Plan changing spending, pensions, tax-free cash and one-off events in one simple journey—then test it against 1,000 possible futures.

Model retirement cash flow using your assumptions

Simple on the surface. Serious underneath.

✓Flexible spending phases that can change or overlap at any age

✓Partial tax-free cash on the dates you choose

✓English tax, DB income, State Pension and drawdown working together

✓Median outcome plus a realistic range of investment results

Your Pension Brain is a purely educational retirement cash-flow calculator, simply doing the math instead of a spreadsheet. It uses the figures and assumptions you enter to illustrate possible scenarios.

It does not provide financial advice in any way, a personal recommendation, or a recommendation to take any pension or investment action. It does not tell you whether you should retire, contribute, transfer, consolidate, invest, take tax-free cash or make withdrawals.

Forecasts are estimates based on the math and your inputs, not guarantees. Actual outcomes can differ because investment returns, inflation, tax, benefits, charges, pension-scheme rules and your personal circumstances can all change.

Your retirement plan

Your outlook

This illustration shows what may happen under the assumptions you selected. It is not a prediction and is not a recommendation to make any change to your pension, investments, retirement date, spending or withdrawals — it is, again, purely educational.

Check the assumptions carefully. Your pension provider's rules, tax position, entitlement to benefits and wider financial circumstances may affect the outcome. Never use online calculators, including this one, as financial advice.

Retirement savings range

In today’s money, after withdrawals and charges

10th–90th rangeMedian

Cash flow journey

Median scenario. Bars show each source's estimated share of your net spending target (the dashed line) — hover or tap a column for the exact gross figures.

DB pensionState PensionDC pensionOther incomeWindfalls & savingsShortfallSpending target

Savings journey

Median projected pension balance in today’s money

Your linked target

Turn your retirement plan into a savings number

Select “Calculate savings target” to estimate the DC pension fund and monthly contribution needed at your chosen success level.

What it answers
“Given the lifestyle and retirement plan I entered, approximately how large must my DC pension be at retirement—and what monthly saving could get me there?”

Year-by-year median plan

Tax-free allowance is a lifetime balance, not an annual allowance. DC withdrawal rate isn't something you set — it's worked out each year and moves as your spending phases and other income change.

Age	Target spending	Guaranteed income	DC withdrawal	DC withdrawal rate	Automatic tax-free element	Scheduled tax-free cash	Tax-free allowance left	Income tax	Closing pension

Ending balance by historical start year

Real returns from the uploaded planner; red means a shortfall or ending below your reserve target

Important: this is an illustrative historical stress test, not a forecast. The uploaded planner uses real US S&P 500 and US bond returns from 1928–2022. We do not wrap the series back to 1928, because doing so can repeat extreme periods and distort results. UK tax calculations and your current plan inputs are retained; the DB cap still uses your central inflation assumption.

Planning tool, not advice. Tax rules, State Pension policy and investment returns can change. The model uses 2026/27 English tax bands in today’s-money terms.

Investment and forecast settings

Scheduled events and crystallisations

Add as many dated pension crystallisations, expenses or income events as you need. For a crystallisation, enter the tax-free cash you want; the app moves three times that amount into crystallised drawdown. "Tax-free income" can also model a windfall that isn't from your pension — downsizing proceeds, an inheritance, or a gift, for example.

Event type

Exact date

Amount£