Retirement Planning

What Is Your Number?

Chris Harris

02 Dec 2025 — 5 min read

Inflation, discretionary expenditure and cost of living make the calculation of retirement pot difficult as the variables extend into areas of forecasting uncertainty.

Most of us have a secret figure tucked away somewhere at the back of our minds. A sum of money — precise or vaguely sketched — that we believe would finally allow us to step off the treadmill, close the shop, the laptop, or leave the work place. To live the life we’ve promised ourselves since our first day at work. In financial planning circles, they call it “the Number”, almost all of us have one, whether we whisper it quietly to ourselves or dare not say it aloud.

Criag Coben recently wrote in The Financial Times, exploring this very idea from a bankers perspective and quoting a number from one of his contacts of £15m, noting that even the wealthiest professionals carry profound financial insecurities. His perspective was that those in the financial industry chase a “Number” not always because they "need" it, but because it offers a psychological anchor — a sense of control over life’s randomness. And that resonated deeply with me.

A Personal Perspective: From Working-Class Survival to Professional Momentum

Since the age of 14, I’ve always worked. Not out of curiosity or ambition in those early years, but out of economic necessity. That upbringing — in a deprived, working-class home where money was a source of both tension and possibility — hard-wires you in ways that never leave.

Over time, as my career progressed and my circumstances changed, something else took root: the expectation of continuity. Continuous income growth. Continuous career progression . Continuous growth of the financial base I’d spent decades building.

And now, as I navigate post 50s — a chapter I’m exploring with reflection but also reinvention — I’m confronted with a question I’ve successfully avoided for years:

What does life look like when there is no monthly salary arriving like clockwork?

For those of us who grew up with little, the very idea of stepping away from earning feels like an existential risk. Retirement is not merely a financial planning exercise — it challenges my deep psychological wiring.

The Psychology Behind “the Number”

Academic research has long shown that retirement planning is as much emotional as it is mathematical. Several authoritative sources echo this:

Behavioural economists note that humans are hardwired to overweight loss — stepping away from income can feel like losing security, identity, and control (Kahneman & Tversky’s Prospect Theory).

The UK Government’s MoneyHelper service emphasises that people often underestimate how emotionally tied they are to earning, achievement, and routine — money is only part of the retirement equation.

Large pension providers such as Legal & General, Aviva and Fidelity all highlight that the biggest psychological barrier to retirement is not financial readiness, but “identity transition.”

Financial planners that I have spoken to reference the “Retirement Consumption Puzzle”: As retirees rarely spend consistently; instead, spending typically declines with age due to health, mobility, and shifts in priorities. So time will make choices for a worker and retiree in their Autumn years -Food for thought indeed!

All these sources converge on a simple truth:

the Number is not just a financial target — it is a belief system.

It represents safety for some, permission for others, and for many a way of giving themselves the psychological clearance to slow down, change pace, or start anew.

Why Our Number Isn’t The Same as Anyone Else’s

Your Number is shaped by:

· the class you were born into,

· your early relationship with money,

· the shocks you’ve lived through (recessions, job losses, market crashes),

· the lifestyle you’ve built to cope with long working hours,

· and your unspoken fears about health, purpose, and ageing.

For those in high-pressure careers, lifestyle inflation can creep in undetected until it becomes a “fixed cost.” For others, like myself the fear of running out is rooted not in reality but in their childhood memories of scarcity. And for some, the Number stands in for courage — courage to step away from what is familiar even when it is no longer fulfilling.

The Liberation — and Illusion — of the Number

Even those who reach their Number often continue working a few more years “just in case.” Why? Because the Number is not really about money. It is about control in a world that offers none.

No Number can fully protect us from:

· market crashes,

· ill health,

· family upheaval,

· or the natural unpredictability of life.

As I write this on 18^th November 2025, US tech stocks slide as traders fret over ‘frothy’ AI valuations with the Nasdaq set for its worst month since Trump's liberation day and tariff tirade.

"The Number" is ultimately a personal story — a narrative we construct to make uncertainty feel manageable.

Rethinking Retirement: A Stage, Not a Destination

Most official retirement guidance acknowledges what we already instinctively know: retirement is not a single, monolithic phase.

People in their late 50s and early 60s often still feel active, curious, and capable. They travel, experiment with new careers, volunteer, create, and often spend more freely. But by their late 70s and 80s, priorities shift. Health becomes more central. Travel may lessen. Spending declines across most categories except healthcare.

Government and pension advisory bodies consistently note that:

· retirement is dynamic,

· different stages have different financial and emotional needs,

and planning should reflect that ebb and flow.

We are unlikely to spend at the same rate — or want the same experiences — throughout the entirety of our retirement. So why would one static Number fit the entirety of such a varied journey?

The Final Word: It May Not Be About the Number After All

Whatever your Number is, here is the paradox: