In “Retirement is an income, not an age“, Shrewdcookie makes the good point that you can’t really guarantee a retirement age any more, and that you really need to be planning the the amount of income you’ll require to live for the length of time you expect to live after giving up work.
They are thinking of “retirement†as an age, yet in reality it should be an income – when you have sufficient assets to provide you with enough income to replace that which you earn working the 9 to 5, then you are in a position to “retireâ€.
Now, given that I’d like to retire at the age of 40, and hope to live for at least another 40 years after that, and given I’d like an annual income of say, £50,000 then I guess I’m going to need to win the lottery between now and my 40th birthday.
If you’re slightly more realistic, you might want to find out what monthly contributions you need to acheive your retirement goal. This pension calculator might give you a very basic idea of what you should be putting away each month.