{"id":945378,"date":"2026-05-08T05:23:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T05:23:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/945378\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T05:23:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T05:23:41","slug":"martin-lewis-reveals-rule-of-thumb-for-how-much-you-should-really-pay-into-your-pension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/945378\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin Lewis reveals ‘rule of thumb’ for how much you should REALLY pay into your pension"},"content":{"rendered":"

The MoneySavingExpert.com founder hosted a pensions special of his Martin Lewis Money Show Live on ITV this evening\"Martin<\/p>\n

Martin Lewis broke down everything you wanted to know about pensions(Image: ITV)<\/p>\n

Martin Lewis has revealed the \u201crule of thumb\u201d for how much you should really be saving for your retirement.<\/p>\n

The MoneySavingExpert.com founder hosted a pensions<\/a> special of his Martin Lewis<\/a> Money Show Live on ITV<\/a> where he answered questions about retirement.<\/p>\n

One viewer, called Daryl, emailed in to ask if he was putting enough money away in his pension. He said: \u201cIs there a good rule of thumb to pay into pensions?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhilst I want to put more into my pension, I don\u2019t want it to impact my quality of life in the here and now. Is doing 15% contributions as someone in my mid-30s enough?\u201d<\/p>\n

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Martin explained that the \u201crule of thumb\u201d is to halve the age when you started paying in – but explained that few people do this in reality. This relates to private and workplace pensions, not the state pension.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cI think you\u2019re doing really well\u2026 way more than most people. Let me give you the rule of thumb that scares the pants off everybody.<\/p>\n

\u201cTake the age when you start putting into your pension – so in your case, we\u2019ll say 30 – and halve it, that\u2019s 15. That\u2019s how much of your income you want going in for the rest of your life for a decent retirement.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery few people ever get that. The reason for using that rule of thumb, is to indicate the earlier you start, the better a retirement you\u2019re going to have.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, you\u2019ll also get the state pension depending on your National Insurance contributions.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the Pensions<\/a> and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA) the cost of a minimum retirement living standard for a one-person household is \u00a313,400 a year.<\/p>\n

For a two-person household, it is \u00a321,600 a year. For a moderate lifestyle, a single person would need \u00a331,700 a year, while two people would need \u00a343,900 a year.<\/p>\n

For a comfortable retirement, a single person would need \u00a343,900 a year and a two-person household would need \u00a360,600 a year.<\/p>\n

The earliest age you can access your private or workplace pension<\/a> is currently 55 – but this will rise to 57 from April 2028.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the state pension age for men and women is currently 66 – but this is rising to 67 and eventually 68.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The MoneySavingExpert.com founder hosted a pensions special of his Martin Lewis Money Show Live on ITV this evening…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":945379,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3093],"tags":[51,474,1059,228563,617,2499,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-945378","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-finance","10":"tag-martin-lewis","11":"tag-martin-lewis-money-show","12":"tag-pensions","13":"tag-personal-finance","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116537288803887013","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945378","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=945378"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945378\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/945379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=945378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=945378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=945378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}