A new analysis by Fidelity International, commissioned in response to growing appetite for early retirement, sets out how much people need saved in their pension to stop working at 45, 50, 55 or 60. The findings come as research from Skipton Building Society shows Gen Z workers are three times more likely than the wider population to want to retire before 55, yet experts warn that doing so requires far higher savings rates than most people currently manage, with a real risk of running out of money or being forced back to work if plans are not carefully calculated.

The benchmark used is Pensions UK's "moderate" retirement lifestyle, requiring an income of £32,700 a year for a single person to cover essentials plus some extras such as an annual overseas holiday and regular meals out; this figure would need to rise to over £127,000 a year by 2081 to keep pace with 2.5% average annual inflation. Retiring at 45 is described as "hugely ambitious," even for someone earning £50,000, since a pension pot would need to fund 34 years of retirement for a man or 38 for a woman on average, while savers must also bridge the gap until pensions become accessible at 55 (rising to 57 from 2028) and wait at least 22 years for the state pension, which currently starts at 67.