Half of UK adults do not feel confident that they are saving enough for retirement, research from Which? has found.
The findings, published on Monday, showed that 48% of adults said they do not know how much money would be required to have a comfortable retirement.
That’s based on a survey of 2,039 UK adults, which also found that 44% of respondents had put off thinking about retirement as it was too stressful.
In fact, two-thirds of respondents said that they’d prefer to do other tasks – even those considered unpleasant or uncomfortable – over sitting down to sort out their pension. For instance, one in eight said they would rather go to the dentist than spend an hour planning their retirement.
Read more: 5 questions to ask yourself when considering retirement
Which? cited data from Pensions UK, which showed a single-person household would need at least £13,400 a year for a minimum standard of living. That would cover costs including just over £100 a week on groceries and a week-long UK break each year.
Jenny Ross, money editor at Which?, said: “Our research has shown that millions of people across the country feel unprepared for retirement, and are often too stressed or overwhelmed to sit down and take stock of their pension savings.”
Separate research from wealth and asset manager Rathbones, published on Friday, found that spouses who planned their finances together could be £2m better off over 20 years. This calculation was based on if additional‑rate taxpayer, contributed their full £60,000 standard annual pension allowance and also paid £20,000 into their partner’s pension each year.
Rathbones worked out that this translates to net annual contributions of £33,000 for the additional‑rate taxpayer and £12,000 for their higher‑rate‑taxpayer partner once tax relief is included. It explained that nearly half of the uplift comes from pension tax relief, when reinvested and compounded over time.
Earlier this week, we asked Yahoo Finance UK readers if they thought that they were saving enough for retirement. We received 360 votes, with 50% of respondents believing that they were, while 42% did not and 8% were undecided on the matter.
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