Gordon Ramsay turns 60 on Saturday. Could you afford to retire?

If you’re turning 60 this year, you share a milestone with one of the most famous chefs on the planet. What you probably don’t share is his bank balance.

Gordon Ramsay reaches 60 this Saturday (8 November). And while his retirement is unlikely to keep him up at night, a lot of people born in the same year are starting to ask some hard questions about theirs.

Gordon Ramsay hits 60 this Saturday

The Michelin-starred chef was born in Scotland, raised in Stratford-upon-Avon and trained in Oxfordshire. He also has strong links to Cornwall, with three houses in the county estimated to be worth around £11 million between them.

More 60-year-olds asking for help

Plymouth-based financial advice firm Continuum says it has seen a surge in interest from people reaching 60 in 2026 who are worried about what comes next. Many of them have never taken financial advice before.

The questions tend to be the same. How much am I worth overall? What are my pensions worth? How much will I need to live on? And what happens to my money, particularly for my children, when I die?

Continuum says people of any age should tackle the simple “blind eye” money issues as soon as they can, before they cause problems further down the line.

How much do you need to retire?

Research from Loughborough University suggests a moderate standard of living in retirement costs around £33,000 a year for a single person and £45,000 for a couple. A comfortable standard rises to £63,000. All of those figures are after income tax.

So what does that mean for your pension pot?

Continuum says that if you want a retirement income of £40,000 a year, you’ll likely need a pension fund of around £800,000 at 60.

According to Standard Life, the median pension fund at 60 is around £137,000.

What to do now

Richard Watkins, a Certified Financial Planner at Continuum, said: “It is the same important conversations we are having just now with the 1960s generation, focused on retirement adequacies and legacies, particularly for their children.

“Work out your requirements, what retirement could potentially look like, what it will cost, how much to save and how long you have got to do it.

“It is also key to accept risk to maintain the purchasing power of retirement assets. Understanding appetite for risk is vital because of the corrosive effect of inflation over time.”

His advice is to keep things simple. Set out a vision, decide on your priorities, make decisions and then act on them, keeping track of where all your money sits.

“The earlier age this is done the more appetising your later years will be.”