A plain-English guide to the planner: what to have ready, what each page shows, and what the pension terms mean.
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🚀1. Getting started in 15 minutesWhat to have ready, and three steps to your first plan. 🔒2. Your dataWhere your numbers are kept, and how to keep a copy. 🧭3. What each page showsInputs, Summary, the charts, Scenarios, Gifting and more. 💬4. Pension terms explainedThe words you'll meet in the tool, A to Z. ❓5. Common questionsDifferent on my iPad? Is this advice? I'm stuck.Have these to hand. You don't need exact figures: round numbers are fine, and you can change anything later.
Then three steps. The Home page has the same checklist and ticks each step off for you.
Not bought it yet? The free demo lets you try every page with a sample household.
Your numbers are kept only on your device, in your browser. They are never sent to us or anyone else.
The Inputs page shows when you last made a backup copy. Make a new one after any big change.
Treat the code like a document. Anyone who has it can see your figures, so never post it online. It never contains your purchase code.
Check you're in the same browser on the same device, and not in a private window. If it's still missing, paste your last saved code in on Inputs and tap Apply. One-off buyers can also download a permanent copy of the app itself from the Home page. It doesn't include your figures, so keep a code for those too.
The buttons along the top take you to each page. On a phone they show as icons, and the page's name appears just below them. Every page has a Help button that explains that page, each Inputs section has a What's this? button, and most charts have a small i that explains what they show.
The quick tour, the getting-started checklist and, for one-off buyers, a permanent copy of the app to download.
Everything about you, in one place.
Every other page works from what you enter here. Each section has a What's this? button that explains it. Sections marked Optional only matter if they apply to you.
Tip: the four Save Slot boxes at the top keep up to four versions of your plan, such as "Retire at 60" and "Retire at 62". Type a name, tap 💾 to save, and Load to bring it back.
Names, dates of birth, when each of you plans to stop work, and the age to plan to. Plan to a generous age, such as 95: running out of money late in life is the risk to avoid. Pick the household type that fits (married, civil partnership, unmarried couple or single): they are taxed differently on death.
Your State Pension age and yearly amount, in today's money. The full new State Pension is £12,548 a year in 2026/27. Use your own forecast from GOV.UK, which depends on your National Insurance record.
The total value of any pension pots (workplace pensions, SIPPs, personal pensions), and what you and your employer will add each year until you stop work.
A pension that pays a set income for life. Enter the yearly amount after any tax-free lump sum, the lump sum itself, the age it starts, the share paid to a surviving partner, and how it rises each year. A second scheme can be added below.
Savings accounts and Premium Bonds, plus anything you'll add each year before retiring. Interest above your Personal Savings Allowance is taxed.
Cash ISAs and Stocks & Shares ISAs, kept separate because they grow at different rates. Money in an ISA is tax-free when you take it out.
Shares and funds held outside an ISA or pension (a "general investment account"). Dividends and gains on these can be taxed, and you can choose to move some into your ISA each year.
Your home's value and any mortgage. Used for inheritance tax, not for spending, unless you set up equity release.
The value of a business you own and when you might sell it. Optional.
What you'd like to spend each year after tax, in today's money. You can set up to four phases (spending often falls in later retirement) and drag the handles to change when each starts. Also the share of spending a survivor would need after the first death.
A single amount in or out at a chosen age: a new car, a wedding, an inheritance, downsizing.
Use part of a DC / SIPP pension pot (not a final salary pension) to buy an annuity: a guaranteed income for life. The rate shown is indicative, not a quote.
A yearly care cost for a number of years, from a chosen age. Optional, but worth testing: care costs can be large.
Settings for the order money is taken from your pots (see drawdown methods) and for the inheritance tax rules on pensions from April 2027.
Taking your tax-free cash from a pension at a chosen age and leaving the rest invested to draw later.
Releasing money from your home, as a lump sum or yearly amounts. To model downsizing, choose a lump sum, make sure your house value is filled in, and set the rolled-up interest rate to 0.
Your plan in plain words.
What you have, what you'd like to spend, whether your money lasts, and what you'd leave behind. Start here after filling in Inputs.
Your household's money and income, year by year.
Charts of your savings and pensions over time, where your income comes from, the tax you pay, and a market test of how long your money lasts. The table at the top compares the three drawdown methods.
Try: drag the sliders (on a phone, tap Show Sliders) to change your spending, retirement ages or growth. Every chart updates as you move them.
The same charts for each person alone.
Useful for seeing each person's own income tax, and whose pots are used when.
What happens if markets do better or worse than you assumed.
Your plan run through strong markets, weak markets and crashes at different times. The grid shows the money left at the end for each mix of growth and inflation. Tap any square to try those rates.
Two versions of your plan, side by side.
Load two saved scenarios into A and B, or move the sliders on each side, and compare money left, tax paid and what your children would inherit.
What your children could inherit, after inheritance tax and income tax.
Your estate at the end of the plan, the tax due, and each child's share. Try regular or one-off gifts with the sliders, and see which drawdown method leaves the most. From April 2027 most unused pensions count towards inheritance tax.
Where each year's income comes from, for the next ten years.
A year-by-year table of the money you'd take from each pot, the tax due, and key dates. Open Show full lifetime cashflow for every year, and to download it as a spreadsheet.
The assumptions and methods behind every figure.
Reference only, with nothing to fill in: the tax rates, allowances and rules used, and what the model does and doesn't do.
The words you'll meet in the tool, A to Z.
Each device and browser keeps its own copy. Move your plan with a code: see move your plan to a new phone or computer.
That your savings and pensions still hold more than a year's spending at that age. See market tests.
That's what the sliders are for: they change one assumption, such as growth or spending, so you can see how sensitive your plan is. The Reset button puts the growth rates back.
No. Time to Retire shows the results of the figures and assumptions you enter. It doesn't know your full circumstances and doesn't recommend what to do. For advice, speak to a regulated financial adviser.
Email hello@timetoretire.co.uk. Please send a screenshot rather than a settings code, so your figures stay private.
Time to Retire is a planning tool, not financial advice. It is not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Figures are estimates based on your own inputs and current rules, which can change. · Privacy policy · Terms · More guides · © 2026 TimeToRetire.co.uk
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