
Many savers aren’t confident that they’ll be able to afford the standard of living they want in retirement. But help is on hand to get you there.
At a glance
- People can lack the confidence to save and invest for retirement, according to J.P. Morgan Asset Management research.
- Contributing regularly into a personal pension is a tax-efficient way to help fund a comfortable lifestyle when you've finished working.
- Free guidance is available to help you get started on saving for retirement, while Nutmeg's financial advisers can help you map out your retirement plan.
People across all age groups are at risk of leaving it too late to plan properly for retirement, according to a new J.P. Morgan Asset Management survey of 2,000 adults aged 18 to 65.
Pensions UK – the trade body formerly known as the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association – estimates that a one-person household would spend £43,900 a year to enjoy a comfortable retirement of financial freedom and some luxuries. This rises to £60,600 every year for a two-person household.
The State Pension will go some way towards funding your retirement, although it’s important not to plan solely on this basis. For many people at £11,973 per year for 2025/26, it currently falls well short of funding Pensions UK's idea of a comfortable retirement and is unlikely to ever increase sufficiently to meet this threshold. Not everyone will receive the full State Pension either – if you're a man born after April 5 1951 or a woman born after April 5 1953, you'll normally need 35 qualifying years of National Insurance contributions to receive the full amount.
Indeed, only 41% of respondents to J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s survey are confident about the standard of living that they’ll have in retirement. "The findings chime with what our clients are telling us," says Claire Exley, Head of Advice and Guidance at Nutmeg.

Source: 'Understanding UK Savers' J.P. Morgan Asset Management, June 2025
It's therefore never too early to start thinking about your retirement and planning accordingly, particularly if you want to be able to pay for some luxuries once you’ve stopped working. Workplace pensions and personal pensions are two effective ways to help fund a comfortable retirement. Yet 40% of survey respondents aged 18-34 have not started saving or investing for retirement beyond their workplace pension.

Source: 'Understanding UK Savers' J.P. Morgan Asset Management, June 2025
Pensions are tax-efficient
It’s likely that you’ll already be saving for retirement if you’re employed by a company, which will usually have automatically enrolled you into a workplace pension when you joined. In a defined contribution scheme – which is the most common arrangement nowadays – employers will make a base contribution for qualifying employees, who are asked to contribute a percentage of their salary towards their pension. The minimum overall contribution is 8% of qualifying earnings, of which at least 3% is paid by the employer.
Things are trickier for the self-employed, who are solely responsible for saving for their retirement if they want to live off more than the State Pension. Self-employed workers are significantly less likely to be saving for retirement at all, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Around a fifth of self-employed workers earning over £10,000 contribute to a private pension, compared to more than 80% of employees.
A personal pension is certainly worth considering for self-employed workers, while it can also be also a great option for employees who want to put their savings to work. The Nutmeg personal pension offers savers a choice of four investment styles designed to help support your long-term financial goals, as well as what level of risk you’d like the pension to invest at.
Pensions also confer unique tax efficiencies to savers. When you contribute towards your pension, the government does too in the form of pension tax relief, which is linked to the highest band of income tax you pay. For more detail on pension tax relief, please refer to our guide.
Past house price gains are setting future expectations
The J.P. Morgan Asset Management survey suggests the average person is putting too much weight on property as a source of income in retirement.
House prices have increased at an extraordinary rate over the past two decades. Almost two-thirds of respondents to J.P. Morgan Asset Management's survey believe that prices will increase by more in the next 25 years than the 200% growth rate registered over the previous quarter century. A combination of low interest rates, weak housebuilding and relatively high migration has driven the surge in house prices.
"The past two decades have been a period of extraordinary house price growth, contributing to a mindset that housing is the best way to accumulate wealth," says Karen Ward, Chief Market Strategist for EMEA at J.P. Morgan Asset Management. "Past gains are being extrapolated into future expectations". Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance and with investing, you may not get back the amount you invest.
But over the long term, Ward believes that it is highly unlikely that UK house prices will rise by as much in the coming decades as they have in the past. Interest rates appear set to remain higher, which will limit borrowing, while the government's housebuilding targets should start to correct the imbalance between supply and demand. UK savers currently have a heavy preference for property market over investments like equities and mutual funds compared to their US counterparts.

Source: 'Understanding UK Savers' J.P. Morgan Asset Management, June 2025. Data does not sum to 100% due to rounding.
Financial advice should be accessible
Less than half of J.P. Morgan Asset Management survey respondents are confident about their future ability to save and invest for their retirement.
It’s entirely understandable that people don’t know where to start when it comes to planning for retirement. The rising cost of living, volatile markets and a lack of knowledge are all valid reasons to exercise caution over how to deploy your savings, regardless of your income. A general aversion to risk is deterring people from investing in assets like equities, in favour of keeping their savings in cash. While there is risk with investing, as the value of your investments can go down as well as up, inflation will also eat into the value of cash over the long term.
"People always underestimate the risks associated with cash and overestimate the perceived risks of investing over the long term," says Exley.

Source: 'Understanding UK Savers' J.P. Morgan Asset Management, June 2025
An unwillingness to invest may also be due to a sense of being unsupported over making financial decisions for retirement.
Nearly a third of those surveyed by J.P. Morgan Asset Management rely on friends and family for information and support, while a fifth don’t have any support at all. Just 17% of respondents use a financial adviser, which suggests that people think they need significant assets to be eligible for advice.
But while many advisers will only work with clients with at least £100,000 in investable assets, according to Money Marketing, you don’t have to have colossal savings to get support for your retirement planning.
Nutmeg helps its customers achieve their financial goals, offering a paid restricted advice service and free guidance as well as investing on their behalf. Nutmeg provides 'restricted advice', which means it will only make investment recommendations on the products and services that Nutmeg offers. Clients can also access educational materials including guides and webinars to give them the knowledge and confidence to take control of their finances.
"People can feel like they don’t have enough money to be able to seek full financial advice," says Exley. “But there’s lots of information and guidance you can get before moving on to financial advice.”
It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to rely on a boom in property prices, or your state pension, to fund the lifestyle that you may want for your latter years. Speak to a Nutmeg expert for free today and start your journey towards a better retirement.
Risk warning
As with all investing, your capital is at risk. The value of your portfolio with Nutmeg can go down as well as up and you may get back less than you invest.
Tax rules vary by individual status and may change. Nutmeg does not provide tax advice. For personalised advice tailored to your specific situation please consult with a qualified tax adviser or financial planner. We provide 'restricted advice', which means we will only make investment recommendations on the products and services that we offer.
If you are unsure if a pension is right for you, please seek financial advice.
Past performance and forecasts are not a reliable indicator of future performance. We do not provide investment advice in this article. Always do your own research.