I'm thinking about retirement

Man having a BBQ

When's the right time to retire?

The normal pension age for Pace is 65, but you can retire at any time from age 55, under normal circumstances. You may also be able to carry on working for the Co-op while taking your retirement benefits in Pace DC (and/or your Pace DB pension if you have one).

If you want to retire earlier or later than 65, you should tell Legal & General. This is particularly important if you are invested in one of the Target investment options as Legal & General automatically switches your funds by reference to your retirement age.

The first step is to consider whether you’ll have enough income to cover your living costs.

You can use our budget ready-reckoner to work out how much money you might need coming in.

Then, you can use the Pace DC pension modeller (if you only have benefits in Pace DC) to see how much you might get from your Co-op pension. You can also see the effect on your retirement benefits if you change your contribution rate or retirement age.

If there’s a shortfall between your income and your living costs, then you should consider paying more into your pension if you can afford it, or delaying your retirement.