ISA 💖 + Pension 🔒 + State Pension 🇬🇧

The Pot Planner

Planning to retire before 57? In the UK your money sits in pots that unlock at different ages: your ISA any time, your pension from 57, the State Pension from 67 or 68. Pick the pots you have and see when you could stop working, and whether your ISA can bridge the gap.

Your pots

Which pots do you have?

Tap to switch a pot on or off and see what changes.

£

In today's prices. Everything on this page is in today's money.

💖 ISA pot you can take money out any time
£
£

Stocks & Shares ISA, cash ISA or any savings you can touch. The ISA allowance is £20,000 a year.

🔒 Pension pot locked until 57
£

Add up all your workplace and private pensions (your annual statements show the value).

£

You + your employer + tax relief. Your payslip or pension app shows the total.

🇬🇧 State Pension paid from 67 or 68

The full new State Pension is £241.30 a week (£12,548 a year) from April 2026. You need 35 years of National Insurance for the full amount. Check your forecast at gov.uk/check-state-pension.

We assume it rises 2.5% a year (the triple lock's minimum), the same as our inflation assumption, so it keeps its value: about £12,548 a year in today's money. In future pounds that's much bigger, e.g. about £33,700 a year in 40 years.

It starts at
Investment growth vibes

Same for both pots. We assume 2.5% inflation, so "Middle" is roughly 7% a year before inflation.

My pot plan
Stop at 55

@thebrokeunicorn 🦄
ISA when you stop
£0
Pension at 57
£0
State Pension a year
£0
Money lasts until
100+

🌉 The 57 gap

Your pots over time

Pink = ISA, purple = pension, both in today's money. The strip shows which pot pays your bills at each age.

🇬🇧 How we work it out

Before 57 you live off your ISA. From 57 we take from your pension first, then your ISA. From State Pension age, the State Pension covers part of your spending. Your pots keep growing while you spend them.

Tax: ISA withdrawals are tax-free. For the pension we assume about 15% of what you take out goes on tax (25% comes out tax-free and the rest is taxed at the 20% basic rate), so the pension pot shrinks a bit faster than your spending. Higher-rate taxpayers would pay more; your personal allowance could mean less before your State Pension starts. The State Pension is shown before tax.