How much must you save to retire at your chosen age — while still affording to live now? Pay, living costs, student loan, NHS 2015 pension, and optional part-time consultant working, modelled across your whole life in today's money.
Total gross income you want in retirement, today's money — met by NHS pension + state pension + ISA drawdown combined.
Your age today.
Determines starting salary from 2026/27 NHS pay scales.
Years until you finish training. Auto-set by grade; adjust for your specialty.
Value of your Stocks & Shares ISA already invested today — grows and is drawn entirely tax-free.
Any private/workplace defined-contribution pension (SIPP, etc.) — separate from your NHS pension. Grows tax-free; modelled alongside the ISA. Accessible from age 57 (25% tax-free, rest taxed as income).
General investment account holdings outside any wrapper — subject to the dividend/CGT "tax drag" set in the Tax card.
Essential monthly spending pre-retirement (mortgage/rent, bills, food, childcare, etc.) in today's money. Money you contribute to savings can only come from net pay after these costs.
Annual DDRB uplift on pay scales. 3.5% confirmed for 2026/27. Applied on top of inflation.
Nights, weekends, on-call and extra hours above basic. Your payslip implies ~18%. Only basic pay counts toward pension.
Extra PAs, on-call availability (~8% of basic), clinical impact awards.
Used to show everything in today's money (real terms). UK long-run ~2.5%.
Gross return before inflation. S&P 500 averaged ~10% historically; 7% is more conservative. Not guaranteed.
% of pot drawn yearly in retirement. The "4% rule" lasts ~30 yrs. Used as a backstop floor on the required pot.
Tick to invest every pound left after living costs each year (ignores the increment sliders and cap, keeps a small buffer). The simplest way to "capture all spare."
How much you raise your monthly contribution each year during training.
How much you raise your monthly contribution each year as a consultant. Higher values let you mop up the growing spare as consultant pay rises.
Step-up in monthly investing when you become a consultant (the basic salary jumps ~£74k→£110k).
Ceiling on monthly saving. ISA allowance is £20k/yr (~£1,667/mo); above that the excess goes to a taxable account (modelled below).
Once you save more than the ISA allowance, the excess sits in a taxable account (GIA) where dividends and capital gains are taxed — a yearly "drag" on returns. Tick off to treat everything as tax-free.
Annual tax-free ISA allowance (£20,000 for 2026/27). Contributions up to this grow tax-free.
Effective annual reduction in return on the taxable portion, from dividend tax (39.35% higher rate) and CGT (24%) net of the £500 dividend and £3,000 CGT allowances. ~1–1.5% is typical for a higher-rate investor in an accumulating equity fund.
The single most powerful move for a high-earning doctor. Salary above £100k is taxed at an effective 60% (your personal allowance tapers away £1 for every £2 over £100k) — and crossing £100k also costs you tax-free childcare and 30 free hours. Sacrificing the excess over £100k into a SIPP escapes both: the money goes in free of income tax and NI, grows tax-free, and is drawn later (from 57) at 25% tax-free with the rest taxed — ideally during the bridge when your other income is low, so it's taxed lightly.
Effective tax when you draw the SIPP: 25% is always tax-free; the rest is income-taxed. Drawn in the bridge years (little other income), the blended effective rate is ~10–15%. If you'll draw it on top of your NHS pension, set it higher (25–30%).
Capped by the £60k annual allowance (shared with your NHS pension growth). Accessible from age 57 — so it funds the later bridge years, not retirement before 57.
Plan 1: 9% above £26,900. Plan 2: 9% above £28,470. Your pre-2012 entry = Plan 1.
Current loan balance (£35,410 as of June 2026).
Plan 1 = lower of RPI or Bank Rate+1%. Currently 3.2%.
When the loan clears, the freed PAYE deduction flows into your investment pot.
Annual pension you've ALREADY accrued in the 2015 scheme from your service so far — read it off your NHSBSA Total Reward Statement or Annual Benefit Statement ("annual pension" figure). This is added to future accrual and keeps revaluing at CPI+1.5%. Set £0 if you've just joined.
Your Normal Pension Age (NPA) is 68 if born 1978 or later. Drawing at NPA means no actuarial reduction. Drawing earlier triggers ~5% cut per year before NPA (e.g. drawing at 63 = 25% reduction). The pension can be drawn from 57 (rising from 55) — but earlier means a permanent cut, so weigh the break-even carefully.
Deducted pre-tax (tax-efficient). On your payslip. Employer adds 23.7% invisibly.
Full new state pension ~£11,502/yr from age 67. Set £0 if uncertain.
NHS partial retirement (2015 scheme) lets you draw your pension while working reduced hours, provided you cut pensionable commitment by ≥10%. You keep accruing pension and earn a part-time salary, which shrinks the ISA bridge.
Full-time consultant ≈ 5 days (10 PAs). 2 days ≈ 0.4 FTE. Part-time basic = this fraction × full consultant basic.
Age you fully stop. Until then, part-time income reduces or removes the ISA drawdown needed.
Working years: where your monthly net pay goes (living/ISA/SIPP/spare). Retirement: where monthly income comes from. Dashed lines = target & living-cost benchmarks. All in today's money per month.
| Age | Yr | Grade / phase | Basic | Total | Net/mo | Living/mo | ISA/mo | SIPP sac/mo | Spare/mo | ISA pot | SIPP pot | SL bal | NHS pension |
|---|
Working years (14 cols): Living/mo = your living costs (red); ISA/mo = amount invested; SIPP sac/mo = salary sacrificed above £100k into SIPP (purple, saves ~60p tax per £1); Spare/mo = left after saving (green = headroom, red = unaffordable). Retirement rows (shaded) show income by source — PT salary, NHS pension, state pension, ISA drawdown, SIPP drawdown — plus both pot balances, pension accruing (▲), and total income/yr. Red ▼ and red banner mark the age income drops below target.
Builds as you work, then holds while deferred through the bridge years, then is paid for life from your draw age (small step down = early-draw reduction if you draw before NPA).