How you need to save in your 20s, 30s, and 40s to retire comfortably in the UK
Key Points
- AJ Bell customer data reveals the most common ages for opening, funding, and maxing out ISAs and pensions
- Parents most commonly open Junior ISAs in a child's first year, while adults most often start Stocks and shares ISAs at 25 or 26
- Savers most frequently use Lifetime ISAs to buy property at 27, seven years before the UK's average first-time buyer age of 34
- The average AJ Bell SIPP millionaire is 63, while the average ISA millionaire is 70
Data from investment platform AJ Bell shows Brits open Junior ISAs in their child’s first year, buy homes with Lifetime ISAs at 27, and become ISA millionaires at an average age of 70.
The figures, based on AJ Bell’s customer base as of the end of June, map the most common ages at which UK savers hit key financial milestones across ISAs and pensions.
They give savers a benchmark for how their own progress compares with other investors on the platform.
Childhood to mid-twenties
The most popular time to open an AJ Bell Junior ISA falls within the first year of a child’s life.
Parents also most commonly set up regular direct debits into the account during that first year, with grandparents and wider family often contributing monthly payments that build a pot the child can access at 18.
The most common age to open a Stocks and shares ISA overall is 18, driven largely by Junior ISAs maturing into adult accounts. Excluding those maturing accounts, the most popular age to open a Stocks and shares ISA is 25 or 26, by which point most savers have several years of work behind them and a workplace pension already running.
Late twenties and thirties
Age 27 is the most common age for AJ Bell customers to make penalty free withdrawals from a Lifetime ISA to buy a property.
That is seven years earlier than the UK’s average first-time buyer age of 34, suggesting the government’s 25% bonus on contributions of up to £4,000 a year helps buyers build deposits faster.
The government plans to replace the Lifetime ISA with a new first-time buyer scheme, though it has not confirmed a date or the size of the new bonus.
It has confirmed that anyone who opens a Lifetime ISA before the replacement arrives can keep paying in and receiving the bonus for as long as they want.
Age 33 marks the point at which the highest percentage of AJ Bell ISA customers make a contribution in a given year, more than any other age group on the platform.
At 39, savers are most likely to open a Lifetime ISA, which is also the oldest age at which the account can be opened. The same age sees the highest rate of new regular payments into Lifetime ISAs, with contributions permitted until age 50.
Fifties and beyond
Age 56 is the most common age for customers to max out their £20,000 annual Stocks and shares ISA allowance, based on tax years since 2017/18.
AJ Bell links the spike to people taking tax-free cash from pensions at 55 and reinvesting it, along with empty nesters freeing up disposable income once children move out or start contributing to the household.
The average AJ Bell SIPP millionaire is 63, typically the point at which savers have built their maximum pension pot and begin drawing it down.
The average ISA millionaire on the platform is 70, which AJ Bell attributes to decades of consistent investing and compounding rather than high-risk trading.
