I've talked in general terms about bridge strategies throughout this series. Here's the honest, specific version - my actual position, my actual plan, and what I'm still uncertain about.
July 2026 : 13 min read - Part of the FreeBefore65 Anti-Panic Retirement Toolkit.
Throughout this series I've used worked examples - composite illustrations at different pot sizes - to bring the bridge years concept to life. They were useful as illustrations. But they weren't mine.
This post is different. This one uses my actual numbers.
I’ve been thinking about whether to do this for a while. Specific numbers are more useful than general principles, and a site built on real-time honesty rather than comfortable vagueness should be willing to show its working. So here it is. My position as it stands today, my thinking about the years between now and when I plan to access my pension at 65, and a basic picture of what things might look like when the State Pension arrives at 67.
Before I get into the numbers I want to acknowledge something. The position I’m about to describe is a fortunate one, and I’m clear-eyed about why. A long career helped. Careful choices helped. The savings and capital in this picture also include an inheritance from my parents, both of whom died in recent years. That money came at a cost I’d rather not have paid. I carry that with me when I look at these numbers. The principles in this post apply at any scale. The comfort behind my specific numbers was partly built by people who aren’t here to see what it made possible.
A few important caveats.
These are my specific numbers in my specific circumstances. They don’t constitute a template for anyone else. My situation, with the house paid off, a working wife, a family legacy and some property assets, is more comfortable than many people’s and less comfortable than some. I’m not presenting this as a model. I’m presenting it as one real position.
I also haven’t yet seen an independent financial adviser about the drawdown strategy, something I’ve written about elsewhere. The numbers and thinking here are my own. They’re not professionally validated. I intend to get that validation before I start making significant pension access decisions.
And there’s one specific issue, around pension inheritance tax, that I want to flag clearly. It’s directly relevant to my position and I don’t yet have a professional view on how to handle it.
With all of that said, here are the numbers.
One thing I have to admit before listing them
Until recently I had one of my pensions misclassified in my own planning. I’d been treating it as a DC pot worth around £124,000. When I read the scheme paperwork properly during my final preparations to retire, I realised it’s a DB scheme that pays around £27,156 per year from normal retirement age. The transfer value happens to be around £550,000 but that’s a misleading shorthand. With a DB scheme the income stream is the asset. The CETV is what someone would pay you to walk away from that income, which is rarely the right move.
This is the kind of thing a regulated adviser would have spotted years ago. I didn’t have one, and I’d been making mental assumptions about how this pension worked that turned out to be wrong. The discovery shifts the shape of my plan rather than the scale of it. The accessible numbers go down a bit, but a substantial chunk of guaranteed income from 65 onwards goes up.
Here’s where everything actually sits.
Where I am now - the asset picture at 58
I stopped work at the end of June. This is the position as it stands.
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- DC pension pot: £426,000. Built up over a long career. Not yet accessed and I’m not planning to access it until I’m 65. I’m past the current minimum pension access age of 55 (rising to 57 in April 2028) so I could access it earlier if circumstances required. But the plan is to leave it entirely untouched for the next seven years. That’s partly about letting it grow and partly about getting the strategy stress-tested by a regulated adviser before I start making pension decisions. Given the size of the pot and the IHT implications I’ll come to later, getting that right matters more than accessing it early for convenience.
- DB pension entitlement: approximately £27,156 per year from normal retirement age. This is the pension I had misclassified. It’s deferred and index-linked under the scheme rules, beginning at the scheme’s normal retirement age. I’ll get a current valuation before I write about this in detail.
- Stocks and Shares ISA: £53,410. Built more recently. I’ve written elsewhere about starting serious ISA investment late, having prioritised the mortgage for most of my working life.
- Cash ISA: £54,654. Currently used for the more liquid portion of the bridge-years buffer.
- Combined ISA total: £108,064. Tax-free withdrawals with no income tax and no interaction with the personal allowance. This is the primary bridge-years income source.
- Savings and legacy: £190,000. Primarily the inheritance from my parents. Accessible. Outside any tax wrapper currently. I’m migrating it into ISAs gradually using the annual allowance each year.
- Other investments: £17,176. Outside the ISA wrapper but accessible. Generates modest taxable returns depending on how it performs.
Total accessible capital (ISA + savings + investments): £315,240.
Total investable assets excluding the main home: approximately £741,000, plus the DB entitlement.
The DB pension sits separately because it isn’t a pot in the same sense as the others. You can’t draw down on it flexibly. It’s a guaranteed income stream that begins at a fixed point. So I show it alongside the rest rather than blended into a single number.
My partner's income:
My wife works from home and earns a decent amount per year. That income covers a reasonable share of our shared household costs and significantly reduces what I need to draw from my own pot during the years she continues working.
What our life actually costs*
I've done the bank statement exercise I recommend throughout this series. Three months of statements, every line, the question of whether I'd still spend it if I wasn't working.
A lot went: commuting costs, hotel stays and the meals that came with working away one or two nights a week, convenience spending driven by exhaustion rather than enjoyment, dry cleaning and work wardrobe maintenance.
What remains is the genuine cost of a comfortable retired life. For us, with the mortgage paid off and one of us still working, household annual costs run to broadly £40,000 to £45,000 per year. That's a comfortable life. Regular meals out, UK and some European travel, home projects, leisure. Not extravagant, not austere.
With my wife covering roughly half of that, my contribution from the retirement pot needs to be somewhere in the range of £20,000 to £24,000 per year. That's the number the bridge strategy needs to deliver.
1. The bridge years strategy: 58 to 65
Seven years with no pension access and no State Pension, living from ISA, savings and modest other investment returns.
The accessible capital position:
- ISA: £108,064
- Savings: £190,000
- Other investments: £17,176
- Total accessible: £315,240
At £22,000 per year from my own resources, the accessible pot of £315,240 represents over fourteen years of income, more than double the seven-year bridge I need to fund. The bridge is entirely coverable from accessible capital without touching either pension at all.
That's a reassuring starting point. But it's not quite as simple as drawing £22,000 per year and watching the pot reduce, because the strategy involves actively managing where the money sits.
- The ISA migration strategy
The £190,000 in savings is currently outside any tax wrapper. Each year I migrate £20,000 of it into the ISA, using the full annual ISA allowance. Over approximately nine to ten years the entire savings pot moves into a tax-free environment.
My wife also has her own £20,000 annual ISA allowance. Between us we can migrate £40,000 per year into ISAs. At that rate the full £190,000 savings plus the £17,176 investments can be in ISAs within approximately five years.
This matters because every pound inside an ISA generates tax-free returns and can be withdrawn with no income tax and no interaction with the personal allowance. Moving capital into the ISA wrapper during the bridge years, rather than leaving it in taxable savings accounts, is one of the most tax-efficient actions available to me right now.
- The April 2027 Cash ISA deadline
Worth flagging specifically. From April 2027 the annual Cash ISA limit for under-65s drops from £20,000 to £12,000. The overall ISA allowance stays at £20,000 but only £12,000 can go into cash. This tax year, 2026/27, is the last opportunity to move the full £20,000 into a Cash ISA before the limit changes. For anyone currently building their cash bridge layer this is a meaningful deadline worth acting on before April 2027.
- Drawing down during the bridge years
The plan is to draw approximately £22,000 per year from my own resources, primarily through ISA withdrawals supplemented by savings interest. No pension. No taxable income other than modest savings interest on the portion not yet in an ISA wrapper.
My personal allowance of £12,570 sits entirely unused by any taxable income. Savings interest on the non-ISA portion, approximately £190,000 at current easy access rates of around 4.5%, generates around £8,550 of interest per year. With a personal savings allowance of £1,000 for basic rate taxpayers (which I now am, having dropped from higher rate on stopping work) the first £1,000 is tax free. The remaining £7,550 is taxable at 20%, an annual tax bill of around £1,510.
That's the only income tax I expect to pay during the bridge years. On a combined household income of approximately £43,000, paying £1,510 in income tax is a genuinely striking illustration of how differently the tax system treats retired versus working income. As more of the savings migrates into the ISA wrapper, even this modest tax bill reduces further.
- What happens to the DC pension pot, untouched for seven years
If I leave the £426,000 DC pension pot entirely untouched from 58 to 65, drawing nothing and making no further contributions, and assume a conservative net investment return of 4% per year, the pot grows substantially.
At 65, without a single additional contribution and without drawing a penny, the DC pot reaches approximately £560,587. That's around £135,000 more than I started with. That's not from working or saving. It's from leaving an invested pot alone and letting it do what invested pots do over time.
At a more optimistic 6% net return the figure reaches approximately £640,000. At a more cautious 3% it reaches approximately £525,000. In all scenarios the pot is meaningfully larger at 65 than at 58, despite seven years of retirement.
This is why waiting to access the pension, if accessible capital can fund the bridge, is such a powerful strategy. Every year you don't draw from it is a year it compounds. Compound growth on a large pot generates significant absolute amounts even at modest percentage returns.
2. At 65: pension access and the DB pension begin
At 65 the plan shifts. The DB pension reaches its normal retirement age, which means £27,156 of guaranteed annual income begins automatically. Two years before the State Pension arrives, I have a meaningful baseline of secured income for the first time.
At £27,156, the DB pension consumes the personal allowance of £12,570 entirely and pushes me into basic rate tax territory. Any DC drawdown is therefore taxed at 20% from the first pound, even in the years before the State Pension arrives.
But the DB income also reduces what I need to draw from the DC. With £27,156 a year guaranteed, plus continuing ISA withdrawals, my income needs from my side of the household are comfortably covered without touching the DC pot at all.
The strategic question at 65 becomes how and when to use the DC pot, not whether it's needed for income. The 25% tax-free lump sum entitlement is the most tax-efficient slice. Whether to take it as a single lump or phased over time, and whether to start any taxable drawdown immediately or defer, are questions I want regulated advice on before deciding. The IHT picture from April 2027 makes this more pressing rather than less, which I come back to below.
3. At 67: the State Pension arrives
At 67 the State Pension begins. At current 2026/27 rates that's £12,548 per year. Combined with the DB pension of £27,156, my guaranteed taxable annual income reaches £39,704 before any DC drawdown.
This is a substantial change from the position the original version of this plan assumed. Previously I had only the State Pension as guaranteed income, leaving the DC pot as the primary income engine from 67. Now the picture is reversed. The guaranteed income alone covers our spending needs from my side of the household. The DC pot becomes an asset for choices rather than necessity, which has both tax and inheritance implications I'll come to.
From 67 onwards the income picture is:
- State Pension: £12,548 per year, taxable
- DB pension: £27,156 per year, taxable and index-linked
- ISA withdrawals: tax free, no interaction with anything, available at any volume needed
- DC drawdown: taxable at 20%+ from the first pound, since the personal allowance is comfortably exhausted by the guaranteed income above
Behind that income picture the DC pot at 67 still sits somewhere around £550,000 to £600,000, depending on how much of it I've started using during the 65-66 window. It's a substantial asset rather than the primary income engine the original version of this plan assumed it would be.
My wife will eventually reach her own State Pension age and add roughly another £12,548 to the household. At that point, two State Pensions plus my DB plus ISA withdrawals comfortably exceeds the PLSA "comfortable" retirement standard for a couple of around £60,600 per year, without aggressive DC drawdown.
The thing I haven't resolved: the April 2027 IHT issue
The most significant unresolved question in the whole plan is the inheritance tax position from April 2027. It's relevant to anyone with a substantial pension pot reading this, not just to me.
From April 2027, unspent pension funds will generally become subject to inheritance tax as part of the estate. Anyone with a DC pot above £500,000 and a likely IHT liability should revisit their plan with a qualified adviser well before that date.
My DC pension pot is £426,000, smaller than the threshold most commentary focuses on, but still material. Let me set out the rough estate picture.
Investable assets: DC pension £426,000, ISA £108,064, savings £190,000, investments £17,176, family flat £200,000. Total approximately £941,000 before the main home.
The nil rate band is £325,000. The residence nil rate band adds £175,000 if the main home passes to direct descendants. Combined threshold before IHT applies: £500,000 per person, £1 million for a couple.
My estate excluding the main home is already approaching the couple threshold. Adding the main home pushes the household estate above it. From April 2027 the DC pension, currently sitting outside the estate for IHT purposes, comes into scope. That changes the picture materially.
The DB pension is a separate question I haven't fully resolved. DB schemes typically pay a reduced pension to a spouse or partner after death, and may have a guarantee period for further payments. They don't usually sit in the estate in the way a DC pot does. But the precise treatment depends on the scheme rules, and I want a regulated adviser to walk me through what mine actually says.
The conventional wisdom of drawing from ISAs and savings first and leaving the pension untouched as long as possible, which is the strategy I've been planning, was partly built on the DC pension being IHT-efficient. Once the DC pension is in scope for IHT, drawing from it during my lifetime may be more tax-efficient than leaving it to be assessed at 40% on death.
The DB pension makes this question more pressing rather than less. With £27,156 a year of guaranteed income from 65, plus the State Pension from 67, plus my wife's eventual State Pension, the household has enough secured income that the DC pot doesn't need to be drawn down for living costs. Without active planning, it could sit largely untouched, growing year on year, eventually facing 40% IHT on whatever's left at the end.
This calculation is genuinely complex. It depends on the total estate value, property prices, my intentions for the children, the interaction with my wife's own estate, and a set of personal factors that only a professional looking at the full picture can properly model.
I cannot do this calculation reliably myself. The deadline is April 2027, approaching quickly.
This is the most urgent item on my financial planning to-do list. If you're in a similar position, with a pension pot above £325,000 and a total estate that may exceed the IHT thresholds, please don't leave this until after the rules change.
What I'm taking away from doing this exercise
Writing this down in one place, with real numbers rather than illustrations, has been clarifying in several ways.
The bridge years are genuinely manageable. The accessible capital of £315,240 is more than sufficient to fund a comfortable seven-year bridge without touching either pension. The combination of ISA withdrawals, migrating savings into ISAs and modest savings interest gives me a tax-efficient income picture that I'm satisfied with.
The DC pension growth during the bridge years is striking. Leaving £426,000 alone for seven years at 4% net produces approximately £560,000 by age 65. That's compound growth doing real work, not impressive returns, just time and patience.
The discovery of the DB pension has changed the at-65 and at-67 picture more than anything else in this plan. £27,156 a year of guaranteed taxable income from 65, plus the State Pension from 67, means the household has secured income that comfortably covers our needs without aggressive drawdown of the DC pot. By any measure that's a stronger position than I thought I had a few months ago.
But the IHT question is unresolved and urgent. The overall drawdown strategy, specifically the sequencing given the April 2027 change, needs professional eyes before I commit to it.
The structure is solid. The IFA conversation before April 2027 is what closes it.
A note on why I'm sharing this
Someone asked me why I'm prepared to share these numbers publicly.
The site is built on the premise that real information is more useful than abstract principles. A real position with its specific numbers, its uncertainties and its unresolved questions is more instructive than a hypothetical that pretends everything is neat.
The position I've described is more comfortable than most people reading this will have. I acknowledged that earlier in the post. But the principles, sequencing, tax efficiency, the bridge mechanics, the IHT question, apply at any scale. Seeing how they work on a real position is more useful than seeing how they work on a fictional one.
Nothing here is financial advice. It's one person's account of their own planning. Your situation will be different. Please take professional advice before making decisions, particularly on the IHT question if your estate is approaching the thresholds.
Part of the FreeBefore65 Anti-Panic Retirement Toolkit. For the doubt, the fear and the what ifs.
Tony writes about his personal journey to early retirement at freebefore65.co.uk. He is not a financial adviser. All content reflects his own experience and research and should be taken as a starting point for your own thinking, not as professional advice. Always take regulated independent advice before making significant financial decisions.
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