37 years old - My current situation and savings/retirement plan

n15h

@Mistermeanerthanks for that feedback. I've now done both 'today's money' and 'future values' so I can get an idea of any growth pre and post inflation. I was contributing 15% into pension and have increased to 23% excluding employer's contribution which is a further 12% - the 2 contributions combined means 35% now being contributed to pension. You are right that money isn't everything - but unfortunately I haven't had success finding a partner and having a family of my own, so I am focusing just on myself for now until things change in future. Yes, I completely agree and am spending time on activities that bring me joy and help my health / wellbeing.

@penners324thanks, my target withdrawal rate is to be 4-5% and £25K a year is within my retirement income range. Of course, that's in today's money and could be much higher in future depending on inflation / cost of living. My expenses of £2300 monthly isn't just my basic outgoings but rather its all of my total outgoings such as holidays, insurances, socialising, mortgage, utility bills, house maintenance, food shop, birthday/christmas presents, fuel, takeaways, car tax, etc. Some months are less, and some are more depending on when bills/expenses come up, but across the year, it averages to be £2300 per month.

kinger101

On whether to include separate out inflation or not, when I started my spreadsheet about 8 years ago, I put in a monthly amount I wanted to hit.  When I update my spreadsheet, I just adjust by CPI.

I then have a column showing how well I'm doing based on taking 3.5 PC per annum at 65.

That way, I'm factoring in returns post inflation, while walkways working in today's numbers.

n15h

@kinger101
Thank you, that sounds useful.
My spreadsheet is pretty sparse at the moment and its always useful to see/hear how other people are using theirs. I do want a create a spreadsheet that tracks how I'm doing towards my goals/targets but just got to find the time to start working on it and follow youtube tutorials.

n15h

Happy new year! Here's hoping that 2026 brings more success and prosperity to all.
An update on my pension, savings and investments and what the overall balances look like since start/end of 2025 and start of 2026.

Pension
- start of Jan 2025: £146K
- end of Dec 2025: £183,887
Contributions for 2025 (both employer & employee): £16,895
Total contributions value from Jan - Dec 2025: £105,854
Performance: 25.9% growth (including contributions).
Changes: Started the year with 100% in equities, before rebalancing to align with my risk appetite for the pension. Since then it is 90% equities and 10% bonds.

Cash Savings:
- start: £28,046
- end of 2025: £58,846
(£18K would have been transferred into ISA. This has not been done due to holding back this amount of ISA allowance - see below).
- Savings held in a mix of easy access and regular savings, all earning ~4%+.

Investments:
- start: £62,112
- end of 2025: £76,158
- Total contributions: £2000
- Overall investments performance: 22.6% (including contributions)

Investments are made up of below individual accounts:

S&S ISA and GIA:
- start: £41,860
- end of 2025: £52,085
- Contributions: £2,000 to S&S ISA (held back from contributing more as I am utilising my remaining ISA allowance for a maturing employee share save scheme in Feb 2026 to protect as much of the capital gain).
Performance: 24.4% growth (including contributions).
Changes: None - remains in line with my current risk appetite for the S&S ISA and GIA.

LISA:
- start: £20,252
- end of 2025: £24,073
- Contributions: £0 - ISA allowance being used for maturing employee share save scheme (see above). Intention is to contribute once the share save has matured so I do not miss out on the 25% bonus this year.
Performance: 18.8% growth (no contributions, however dividends re-invested).
Dividend yield: 7% (dividends are re-invested back into LISA).
Changes: None - remains 100% equities in line with my current risk appetite for the LISA.

Overall Thoughts for 2025 and Outlook for 2026
2025 has been a good year with overall positive performance/growth. I know there is no guarantee that such performance/growth will continue. Performance/growth also does not include inflation which was ~4% for 2025.
For 2026, I continue with my current path and direction as 2025 as I am happy with the performance/growth and it remains within my risk appetite currently. Currently, my projections look on target for my goals for savings/retirement. I do review annually so when I do that later in the year, I will revisit my risk appetite and my circumstances, and then rebalance if there are any changes needed.
£26K emergency fund is in cash savings and will consider whether to increase this to account for inflation.