Collaborative post
Most savings advice tells you to put away 20% of your income and leaves it there. That’s easy advice to give when you’re not the one paying London rent, a student loan and a nursery bill in the same month. For a lot of people in the UK, the standard rule of thumb just doesn’t match the bank balance at the end of the month.
The good news is that the right amount changes as your life changes, and small amounts done consistently add up to far more than people expect.
What the Numbers Actually Look Like by Age
Your pay in the UK won’t stay flat across your working life. According to the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, the median full-time salary sat at £39,039 in April 2025, up from around £37,440 the year before. But that figure hides a big swing by age. Earnings rise quickly through your twenties and thirties, peak between 40 and 49, then gradually decrease towards retirement.
That matters because how much you can put aside follows the same curve. Expecting a 25-year-old to save the same proportion as someone in their late forties ignores how UK pay works. Your twenties are usually the leanest years, so it helps to set targets against what you actually earn now, not what you’ll earn later.
This is also why wealth building works best as a long process instead of a single big decision. The way you handle money at 25 sets up the choices you get to make at 55, which is why managing wealth is better thought of as a long-running habit than a one-off decision you make once you’ve “made it”.
Sensible Targets at 25, 35, 45 and 55
These are starting points, not rules. Adjust them down without guilt if your situation is tight, because something saved beats nothing saved.
- At 25: ONS data puts median full-time pay for the 22-29 bracket at around £27,000, and you’re likely juggling rent plus a student loan repayment that kicks in above the Plan 2 or Plan 5 threshold. Aim for 5% of take-home pay, even if that’s £80 a month. The point here is the habit, not the amount.
- At 35: Earnings have usually climbed, but so have childcare and mortgage costs. If you can reach 10%, you’re doing well. Auto-enrolment already covers 8% of qualifying earnings between you and your employer, so you’re closer than you think.
- At 45: This is your peak earning decade, with median pay highest in this bracket. If your outgoings have eased, push towards 15% or more and make the most of pension tax relief.
- At 55: Retirement is in view. If you’re behind, this is the time to top up pensions hard, since you can usually access them within a decade.
Just note the minimum pension access age rises from 55 to 57 in April 2028, so check where you sit. If you were a member of a pension scheme before November 2021, you may have a protected right to access at 55 even after the change, but that depends on your scheme’s rules.
The jump between these stages isn’t meant to feel like a punishment. If you can only manage the 25-year-old target at 45 because life has been expensive, that’s fine. You’re still saving.
Why Small Amounts Beat Waiting for the Perfect Sum
A lot of people save nothing because the “proper” figure feels impossible. If 20% of your salary is out of reach, the instinct is to give up entirely and start “next year”. That next year rarely comes, and the months of nothing add up.
Compounding rewards time more than size. £50 a month started at 25 will usually outgrow a much larger sum started at 40, simply because it has longer to grow. You don’t need a windfall to begin. You need a standing order and a bit of patience.
The cost of living squeeze has made all of this genuinely harder, and that isn’t a personal failing. Rent, energy and food have eaten into budgets across the board. The honest answer is to save what you can, when you can, and raise it whenever your income does.
The Habit Matters More Than the Headline Figure
If you take one thing away, let it be this: a small, steady contribution you can actually keep up will serve you far better than an ambitious target you abandon in March. The percentages are guides, and your real life always comes first.
Start where you are. Nudge it up when a pay rise lands or a cost falls away. Over thirty or forty years, that quiet consistency does the heavy lifting, and your future self gets to enjoy the result.
The value of your investments and the income from them may go down as well as up, and you could get back less than you invested. Past performance should not be seen as an indication of future performance.