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- 1 in 5 (20%) people - around 10.4 million UK adults aged 18-80 - are ‘too busy’ to plan for their financial future
- Work is the biggest time pressure (60%), followed by family or household responsibilities (49%), managing day-to-day finances (44%) and focusing on health and wellbeing (38%)
- Around 1 in 3 (31%) parents of children under 18 say they are too busy; looking after children (66%) is the biggest competing demand with mums (76%) more likely than dads (54%) to cite childcare responsibilities
- Among Gen Z, 1 in 3 (34%) say they are too busy to plan for their future finances, with their social life (33%) alongside TV, social media and other leisure activities (22%) cited as key factors
One in five (20%)1 - the equivalent of around 10.4 million people aged 18-802 - are not planning for their financial futures because they are ‘too busy’, according to The Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement’s 2026 Standard Life Retirement Voice report.
While financial pressures are an obvious barrier to saving for retirement, with over half (52%) of those who worry they are not saving enough citing the cost of living as the main reason, new findings reveal that the demands of work, family life and wellbeing are having a substantial impact too.
Retirement Voice explores the retirement attitudes of 6,000 people across the UK and finds that overall, 20% of respondents - equivalent to 10,378,765 people aged 18-80 - said they are simply too busy to plan for their future finances, citing their job or work (60%), family or household responsibilities (49%) and managing day-to-day finances (44%) as key reasons why.
For women, the demands of everyday life are having an even greater impact; 55% of women who say they are too busy mention household and family responsibilities compared with 44% of men, and almost half (48%) of women say managing day-to-day finances leaves them too busy to plan for retirement, compared with 40% of men.
Family life leaves little time for retirement planning
Amongst parents with children under 18 who say they are too busy to plan for their future finances, ‘looking after children’ is the biggest competing demand, cited by 66%. This rises to 76% of mums compared with 54% of dads. The wider impact is reflected in retirement planning too - 43% of women with children under 18 say they have done no planning around how much they will need in retirement, compared with 22% of men with children under 18.
These pressures sit within a wider picture in which immediate financial demands are taking priority over longer-term planning. Managing day-to-day finances tops the list of people's financial priorities (42%), while just 12% say pension saving is their main financial priority, down from 15% in 2025. People's positivity about their financial situation has also been falling since 2024 (48%), to 45% in 2025, and 43% in 2026.
Gen Z distracted from pensions by competing priorities
Financial pressures aren't the only demands competing for people's attention. Among those who say they are too busy to plan, 38% cite focusing on their health and wellbeing, 22% mention their social life and 15% point to TV, social media and other leisure activities.
For Gen Z, these competing demands are particularly pronounced. Around a third (34%) say they are too busy to plan for their future finances, compared with 20% overall, with health and wellbeing (34%), their social life (33%) and TV, social media and other leisure activities (22%) among the factors getting in the way. Four in ten (40%) also say they have done no planning around how much money they will need in retirement.
Why do you feel too busy to plan for your financial future?
| Reason | Overall | Men | Women | Parents of children under 18 | Gen Z |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| My job/work | 60% | 57% | 62% | 61% | 52% |
| Family or household responsibilities | 49% | 44% | 55% | 65% | 35% |
| Managing day-to-day finances | 44% | 40% | 48% | 45% | 40% |
| My own health and wellbeing | 38% | 38% | 39% | 33% | 34% |
| Looking after children | 32% | 28% | 36% | 66% | 15% |
| Social life | 22% | 24% | 20% | 16% | 33% |
| Caring for other family members | 18% | 17% | 19% | 23% | 12% |
| TV, social media and other leisure activities | 15% | 19% | 11% | 14% | 22% |
Base: Respondents who agree that they feel too busy to plan for their finances in the future. Subgroup columns reflect respondents within each demographic who agree.
People know they need to save - but millions still aren't planning
Despite these competing priorities, the research also shows that people have not lost sight of the importance of retirement saving. Almost two thirds (63%) of those who are not yet retired worry they are not saving enough for when they are older, rising to 71% among millennials.
And, while over a third (35%) of those who are not yet retired admit they have not yet thought about how much money they will need in retirement, almost half (48%) have given it some consideration and almost one in five (17%) have already undertaken a significant amount of planning.
Financial pressures are clearly a major part of the challenge people face when preparing for later life, but these findings show that money is not the only constraint. Work, caring responsibilities, family life and the demands of managing finances today are all competing for the time and headspace people need to think about tomorrow.
That is particularly visible among parents, many of whom are balancing work and household finances with the day-to-day demands of looking after children. For younger adults, the mix of competing priorities looks different, but the underlying challenge is similar: finding the space to engage with financial decisions whose benefits may be many years away.
This matters because concern about retirement saving remains high. The important thing is not to let being busy become a permanent barrier to planning - retirement can feel a long way off, particularly when there are more immediate demands on your time and money, but even small steps to understand what you already have and think about what you might need can make planning feel more manageable.
As people live longer and responsibility for retirement outcomes increasingly sits with individuals, we need to think not only about whether people have enough money to save, but how easy we make it for them to plan and engage with their long-term finances. Policymakers, employers and the financial services industry all have a role to play in reducing that burden – helping people build financial resilience today while making long-term saving and retirement planning as simple and accessible as possible.
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Notes to editors:
1 – Standard Life Retirement Voice 2026
Research conducted by Ipsos on behalf of Standard Life in June 2026. In total 6000 participants took part in the online survey. Participants were aged 18-80 and were a mix of working, unemployed and retired people. Quotas and weights were used to ensure the respondents were representative of the UK general population on age, gender and region.
2 – UK adults aged 18-80: 51,893,826, source ONS. 20% of 51,893,826 is 10,378,765.
The survey finding is 20%, an estimated 10.4 million UK adults aged 18-80; we can be 95% confident that the correct figure is +/-1% which is 19% - 21% (between an estimated 9.9 million and 10.9 million).
The findings on the greater time pressures experienced by women reflect wider research into how the unequal distribution of household and caring responsibilities can contribute to the gender pensions gap. Emily Shipp’s work explores the social contexts of time scarcity and mental load, and how these can affect women’s ability to engage with their long-term finances: Edinburgh Innovations | Women's wealth.
About Standard Life
Standard Life is a retirement specialist focused entirely on retirement saving and income. We are proud to manage around c£317bn in assets on behalf of our 12 million customers, and we champion the belief that everyone's journey to and through retirement can be better.
With our focus entirely on retirement savings and income we want to be the business that people trust to guide their retirement journey, helping our customers achieve better outcomes and greater financial security in later life.
As a FTSE 100-listed group we are using our size, expertise and influence to shape the world our customers will retire into, and are committed to helping three million more customers by 2035, take action towards a better retirement.
Standard Life is a responsible investor with a clear commitment to supporting a more sustainable future. The Group has achieved its net zero goal across its emissions for 2025 and is working towards net zero investment portfolios by 2050 or sooner.
Standard Life is recognised as a leading employer, with long-standing accreditation as a Living Wage Employer, Living Pension Employer and Carer Positive Exemplary Employer and in 2025 became one of Britain’s Most Admired Companies in 2025.
About the Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement
Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement is a pioneering UK think tank with a bold ambition to help everyone achieve long-term financial security.
How we work, save, and retire is changing, and it will look different for everyone. That traditional idea of spending decades in full-time employment and then retiring with a comfortable, guaranteed income is no longer going to be a reality for most people.
Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement uses research to provoke fresh debate, drive action and influence change so that people can secure their financial future and enjoy a decent standard of living in their later lives.
It is led by Catherine Foot, a leading research and policy specialist who was appointed as the Director of the think tank under its previous brand, Phoenix Insights, in June 2021.
Catherine has over 20 years of experience in the field. From 2015 to 2021, she was Director of Evidence at the Centre for Ageing Better. She has also held senior roles with The King’s Fund and Cancer Research UK.