There are times when a gripping mystery that keeps you guessing is exactly what you need, but retirement planning isn’t one of them. Instead, channelling your inner detective to solve pension riddles could put you on the right path for a comfortable retirement without needing to guess what’s around the corner.

Agatha Christie’s famous detectives, Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, continue to capture the attention of readers 135 years after the novelist was born and have led to her earning the title “Queen of Mystery”. In fact, Christie penned the world’s longest-running play, the mystery The Mousetrap – it’s been performed in London’s West End since 1952 and still attracts audiences today.

So, if you want to demystify your pension, who better to draw inspiration from than Christie? Here’s how you could follow the lead of her murder-solving detectives.

Gather your evidence

Any good detective knows the importance of gathering evidence. Christie’s novels almost always feature a character trying to hide something or a clue that needs to be uncovered to fully understand what’s happened.

Your pension is similar. To understand the lifestyle it might afford when you retire, you need to take a step back and understand the finer, and sometimes hidden, details.

So, to start unravelling the mystery of your pension, gather your pension statements to assess exactly what you’ve already saved and how much you’re regularly contributing.

Be sure to keep an eye out for gaps in your pension statements – have you “lost” any savings?

In October 2024, the Pension Policy Institute estimated there were 3.3 million lost pensions collectively worth £31.1 billion.

Busy lives mean it can be easier than you might think to lose a pension. The good news is that once you’ve identified a gap, you can use the government’s Pension Tracing Service to track down your missing savings. It’s a step that could boost your retirement income, and an excellent piece of detective work.

When creating a retirement plan, your “evidence” might also include other assets you plan to use to fund your lifestyle, such as your savings, investments, or property.

Interrogate your motives

Understanding the minds and motives of suspects is a key component of Christie’s novels, especially those that feature Poirot. Indeed, the Belgian detective often focuses on the psychology of crime.

Solving a murder isn’t the only time interrogating motives can be useful. It can help you understand what you want to get out of retirement.

A key motivation for contributing to your pension is wanting to retire in the future. Looking more closely at exactly when you’d like to retire could help you make informed decisions.

According to a global survey from Pew Research Centre in March 2025, the ideal age to retire is just before your 60th birthday. Once you have an idea of when you want to retire, you can start to calculate how long your pension savings and other assets will need to last, and whether the income they could provide will suit your needs.

As well as the age you want to retire, you might also want to consider:

• If phasing into retirement is something you’d like
• If there are any one-off costs you want to factor into your retirement budget
• The retirement lifestyle you’re looking forward to and the income you’ll need to achieve it
• Other lifestyle goals, such as providing grandchildren with financial support when they’re buying a home.

Your motives will affect how much is “enough” for you to retire and will play an important role in your retirement plan.

Form your solution

One of the reasons Christie’s novels are so satisfying is that everything comes together in the end – the detective dismisses red herrings, explains the clues, and unmasks the killer.

When you’re creating a retirement plan, you want to bring everything together to form a solution, too. You want to understand what steps you’ll take and how it’ll affect your financial future. Working with a financial planner can help you create a tailored retirement plan that gives you confidence in the outcome.

However, unlike Marple and Poirot, who leave the scene of the crime once it’s solved, you could benefit from regularly coming back to your solution.

Over time, your retirement plan might change due to a variety of factors, including those that are outside of your control. So, regular reviews of your pension and goals could help ensure that your plan continues to reflect your needs.

Get in touch to remove the mystery from retirement planning

If you’d like help demystifying your retirement plan, please get in touch. We can help you understand your motives and cut out the guesswork to assess how you may turn your retirement dream into a reality.

Please note:

This blog is for general information only and does not constitute financial advice, which should be based on your individual circumstances. The information is aimed at retail clients only.

A pension is a long-term investment not normally accessible until 55 (57 from April 2028). The fund value may fluctuate and can go down, which would have an impact on the level of pension benefits available. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

The tax implications of pension withdrawals will be based on your individual circumstances. Thresholds, percentage rates, and tax legislation may change in subsequent Finance Acts.