{"id":120704,"date":"2026-05-20T10:45:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T09:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/?p=120704"},"modified":"2026-05-20T10:38:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T09:38:41","slug":"the-saving-rule-martin-lewis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/the-saving-rule-martin-lewis\/","title":{"rendered":"The Saving Rule Martin Lewis Says Is \u201cScaring the Pants off Everybody\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The comments come amid renewed concern over retirement savings in the UK. According to a recent Department for Work and Pensions report, millions of working-age adults are either under-saving or not contributing to a <strong>pension <\/strong>at all, despite many being employed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Martin Lewis discussed the issue during a pensions-focused edition of The Martin Lewis Money Show Live and later in the<strong> MoneySavingExpert <\/strong>newsletter. His advice centred on a simple rule intended to help people estimate how much of their salary should go into pension savings each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Martin Lewis Explains the \u2018Half Your Age\u2019 Pension Formula<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>According to Martin Lewis, people should take the age at which they first start paying into a pension and halve it. The resulting figure represents the percentage of salary they should aim to contribute throughout the rest of their working life for what he described as a \u201cdecent\u201d or \u201cstrong\u201d retirement income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Using the example given on the programme, someone beginning pension contributions at the age of 30 would aim to save 15% of their salary. A person starting at 40 would need to contribute 20%. Speaking on ITV1, Lewis described it as \u201c<em>the rule of thumb that scares the pants off everybody<\/em>\u201d, while also stressing that very few people actually manage to reach those contribution levels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the MoneySavingExpert newsletter, the formula includes both employee and employer pension contributions combined. Lewis also noted that the principle behind the rule is to demonstrate the <strong>advantage of starting earlier,<\/strong> as pension <a href=\"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/building-society-brings-back-savings-account\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"116692\">savings <\/a>have more time to benefit from compound growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Metro reported that Lewis described the guideline as a \u201c<em>very rough rule of thumb<\/em>\u201d, adding that \u201c<em>most people unfortunately won\u2019t get there<\/em>\u201d. He encouraged savers to begin with whatever they can afford if the suggested percentages are unrealistic at first. Lewis also advised workers to consider increasing pension payments when they receive a pay rise, before becoming accustomed to higher monthly income.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\u2b50\ufe0fTUESDAY TRIVIA\u2b50\ufe0f<br>Martin has a formula for how much of your salary you should put in your pension for a comfortable retirement, depending on your age when you start.<br>If you start your contributions at 30, how much should you be putting in each month?<\/p>&mdash; The Martin Lewis Money Show Live (@itvMLshow) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/itvMLshow\/status\/1326204765932548102?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">November 10, 2020<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Concerns Grow Over Pension Savings Across the UK<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The discussion around pension contributions follows warnings from the Department for Work and Pensions about the number of people failing to save adequately for retirement. According to the DWP report cited across several publications, around <strong>18 million <\/strong>working-age adults are not currently saving into a pension. The report also stated that nearly half of those people are in employment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pensions commissioner Baroness <a href=\"https:\/\/www.abi.org.uk\/events\/2024\/2\/annual-conference-2024\/baroness-jeannie-drake\/#:~:text=Baroness%20Jeannie%20Drake%20CBE%20has,Employment%20Savings%20Trust%20(NEST).\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jeannie Drake <\/a>said recent reforms had improved pension participation over the past two decades, though concerns remain about future retirement incomes. She said many people are still \u201c<em>not saving enough and millions not saving at all<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lewis also addressed the State Pension during the television segment, explaining that entitlement depends on National Insurance contributions. According to figures referenced during the programme, individuals generally need <strong>35 qualifying years<\/strong> to receive the full new State Pension. He added that at least 10 years of National Insurance contributions are required before any State Pension can be claimed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lewis also discussed the value of voluntary National Insurance contributions for some people approaching retirement age. He stated that an additional qualifying year could increase annual State Pension payments by roughly <strong>\u00a3360<\/strong>, based on the figures discussed during the programme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Martin Lewis has reiterated his long-standing pension saving formula, warning that many people are falling short of what they may need for retirement. The financial expert said the earlier someone begins contributing to a pension, the lower the percentage of income they are likely to need to set aside over their working life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":120707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33","no-featured-image-padding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120704"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120708,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120704\/revisions\/120708"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.econostrum.info\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}