What could a £250,000 pension pot grow to — compounding does the heavy lifting now.

£250,000 is the pot size at which compound growth starts genuinely outpacing personal contributions for most savers. At 5% net annual growth, this pot adds £12,500 a year purely from investment returns — usually more than a typical pension contribution. With another 15 years of compounding and £500/month of contributions, this becomes around £635,000. At this scale the most valuable financial decision you can make is locking in low fees — every 0.5% of fee charge eats around £1,250/year of potential growth, which compounds over your remaining horizon to tens of thousands of pounds. Try the fee impact calculator alongside this one to see exactly what your charges are costing you.