UK pay · Pensions · Inheritance tax · Drawdown

UK tax and retirement planning, in plain English.

See your take-home pay, pension choices, inheritance tax position, when you can retire — and how long your money lasts.

Runs on your own computer. No accounts, no upload, no internet calls.
Me Both Partner
Overview
Dashboard
What-if
Planning
Scenarios
Projections
Tax Efficiency
Estate
Drawdown
Estate
Dashboard for Both
Income this year
Take-home
Tax
Pension
Take-home / mo
£4,080
combined
Pension / year
£5,460
both combined
When can I retire?
Age 63
on current plan
Pot lasts to
88
today's £
Monthly take-home — what-if explorer
Me · today
Partner · today
£3k £2.5k £2k Apr Jul Oct Jan Mar
Drawdown
Age 63–80
Projections
Retire
Estate
Property Pension To heirs To HMRC ~£312k ~£82k

Numbers are for illustration only — you will be able to personalise everything when you open the planner.

What this is

A way to empower you.

When can you actually afford to retire? Find out in plain English.

Decide for yourself

See your real numbers in plain English. Try a change. See the impact. The simple decisions — pension percentage, when to retire, how to draw down — become obvious.

Hold a deeper conversation

When you do talk to a professional, walk in prepared. Specific questions, your own scenarios, an understanding of the trade-offs. They'll spend their hour on advice, not on getting up to speed.

Core features

Built for the decisions that matter.

Set your goals, build scenarios, see projections decades out, and plan your inheritance — each backed by its own screen. Here's a glimpse of each.

Dashboard

All your key numbers on one page — take-home, tax, pension going in, savings pot, retirement countdown.

What-if explorer

Change your pension contribution and instantly see how your monthly take-home changes — nothing saves until you choose.

Your retirement, year by year

Review different drawdown strategies and see your future pension income during retirement. Importantly, see how long your money comfortably lasts.

People & partner

Add each income source with its own flags — taxable, subject to national insurance, pensionable, scales with days worked.

Other things it does

The depth, on demand.

Everything below is built into the planner. None of it is mandatory — defaults are sensible. Open whichever bits matter to you.

Real payslip accuracy

The UK tax office's exact cumulative-monthly calculation. Handles your tax code, salary sacrifice, payrolled company benefits, and irregular bonuses.

National insurance to the penny · Income tax within ±£0.50/mo

Drawdown strategy

Choose the order you draw from cash, ISA, and pension. Each strategy is a slider — see which one keeps the pot alive longest.

Default: Cash → ISA → Pension (most tax-efficient)

Spending phases

Most retirees spend more in their 60s and less in their 80s. The planner builds in early/mid/late spending so your plan reflects reality.

e.g. £40k → £30k → £24k across decades

Compare scenarios

Pick two or three plans. See lifetime tax, pot longevity, and inheritance side by side on the same chart.

Best for "what changes if I…" decisions

Annuities

See what buying a guaranteed income for life would pay, compared with staying invested and drawing down — same pot, same age, side by side.

Answers "guaranteed income, or keep it invested?"
Privacy

Your money stays your business.

No accounts. No upload. Nothing sent over the internet. Your salary, your pension, your house value — all of it stays in a private folder on your own computer, and only you can open it.

  • Strict no-network policy — the page can't phone home even if asked to.
  • Your folder, your files. Back it up by copying the folder. Move machines by zipping it.
  • Always up to date. When the Chancellor changes a tax threshold, the figures can be updated directly — no waiting for a new version.
  • Works offline. No internet needed to use it — it even works on a plane.
Guides

Get ready for the conversations that matter.

Short, practical guides — each built around one feature in the planner, and how to use it well before you talk to a professional.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

Everything you might want to know before you open the planner.

Privacy & your data
The tool saves your data automatically as you use it — no save button, no prompts. It keeps everything privately on your own computer. Think of it like an app that remembers your settings. Nothing is sent to any server, anywhere, ever.
No. Your data never leaves your computer. There is no account, no cloud sync, and no sign-in. The only person who can see your numbers is you.
Yes. Because nothing is transmitted, there is nothing to intercept. Your data exists only on your own computer and only you can access it.
It works in Chrome and Edge. It does not work in Firefox or Safari.
It stays on your computer until you choose to remove it. There is no account to close and nothing stored anywhere else.
Projections
A chart of your total savings pot — pension, ISA, and cash — from today to the end of your plan. It shows whether your money outlasts you, and the maximum you can safely spend each year without running out.
Yes. All figures are shown in today's pounds by default, so £1 means the same thing in 2035 as it does today. You can switch to future cash amounts if you prefer.
Yes. The "When can I retire?" tab gives you a headline answer based on your current plan, then lets you explore what changes — working fewer days, paying more into your pension — would move that date. A full grid shows every combination so you can find the trade-off that suits you.
Yes. Your State Pension start date is worked out from your date of birth and added to your projected income automatically.
Yes. The Annuities page takes your pension pot and shows what a guaranteed income for life would pay at today's rates, side by side with staying invested and drawing down instead — so you can see which one lasts longer and which one you'd trust more.
Scenarios
A What-if is a quick comparison — "what does my take-home look like if I pay 10% into my pension instead of 5%?" A Scenario is a full life plan: working full-time until 52, then three days a week, then fully retired at 58, with different spending targets for each stage of retirement.
Yes. Each scenario is built from stages — you set how many days a week you work in each stage and when it starts. The tool shows your estimated monthly take-home and pension contributions for every working stage.
Yes. Each retirement stage has separate targets for early retirement (active years), mid retirement, and late retirement, because most people spend less as they age. You specify the amount and how many years each stage lasts.
Yes. You can build and save named scenarios and see them overlaid on the same Projections chart to compare how each plan affects your savings pot over time and when each one reaches your retirement target.
Tax efficiency
When your income is between £100,000 and £125,140, your tax-free allowance gradually disappears. The tax office effectively takes 60p from every £1 you earn in that range — more than the 45% top rate. Paying extra pension contributions in this range gives you an unusually high return.
It shows exactly how much the tax office gives back at every pension contribution level, with a dot marking where you sit right now. Goal cards calculate the contribution needed to escape the 60% trap, drop below the higher-rate threshold, or hit the most efficient next £1 — so you have a precise number to give your payroll team.
The Lifetime comparison shows the average tax relief you get paying in versus the average rate you'll pay drawing it out in retirement. The gap between those two numbers is how much per pound you keep by using your pension rather than taking the money as pay.
Yes. The What-if explorer lets you try any contribution level and see the month-by-month effect on your take-home — no changes are saved until you explicitly apply a scenario.
Inheritance tax & estate planning
The Estate screen calculates this based on your projected assets at second death — property, pension, ISA, and cash — applying the standard £325,000 allowance per person, the £175,000 home-passing bonus for children and grandchildren, and current pension rules. It shows both how much goes to the tax office and how much reaches your heirs.
Currently: property, ISA, and cash. From April 2027, pension pots will also count. The tool models both, and a toggle on the Estate screen lets you switch between pre- and post-2027 rules to see the difference immediately.
The Estate screen explains six levers: spending more in retirement (a smaller pot means less tax), regular annual gifts (up to £3,000 per year per donor — £6,000 between you as a couple — with no seven-year clock), one-off gifts (which reduce the bill if made more than seven years before death), passing your home to children or grandchildren, leaving 10% or more to charity (which drops the rate from 40% to 36%), and life insurance written in trust.
It asks five questions: whether you own a home to leave to family, whether you've made large gifts in the last 7 years, how much you want to spend on yourself in retirement, how familiar you are with inheritance tax, and whether you plan to give regular cash gifts to family or charity. The answers personalise the page, highlighting the levers most relevant to your situation.
Yes. Set up regular gifts on the Estate screen or in the Projections gifting panel and an overlay line appears on your savings chart immediately, showing the gap in your pot compared to not gifting.
Using it alongside a financial adviser
This tool helps you understand your own numbers before and between adviser meetings — so you arrive knowing what questions to ask, what trade-offs matter most to you, and what changes would actually make a difference to your retirement. Advisers often have limited time; showing up informed means you use that time on strategy, not on explaining your situation from scratch. Read the full guide →
The tool runs entirely on your machine, so you control what you share. You can talk through any screen during a meeting or screenshot specific numbers — it's your data and your choice.
No. It models your situation based on the numbers you enter and current UK tax rules. It doesn't know your full picture, can't give regulated advice, and doesn't account for every edge case. What it does is help you understand your finances clearly enough to have better conversations with the people who can advise you.
Income tax is calculated using the proper cumulative method across the tax year — the same approach your payslip uses — not a simplified annual estimate. National Insurance, salary sacrifice, pension contributions, and bonus sacrifice are all handled correctly. Tax rules are updated each April. The tool is designed to reproduce your actual payslip figures.

Ready to see your numbers?

Open the planner. Drop in your salary and pension. Watch the next 50 years light up.

Important — this is a planning tool, not financial advice

This tool models your financial situation based on the numbers you enter and current UK tax rules. It is not regulated financial advice and must not be treated as a substitute for advice from a qualified financial adviser authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority.

It does not know your full circumstances, cannot account for every individual situation, and does not consider all the factors a regulated adviser would. All projections are model outputs based on your inputs and stated assumptions — they are not forecasts, and actual outcomes will differ. Tax rules change; figures shown here reflect 2026–27 rules unless stated.

Always take independent financial advice before making significant financial decisions, including changes to pension contributions, retirement timing, or estate planning arrangements.