A number of studies suggest it might not stretch as far as you think.

Let's imagine a healthy 65 year old man wants to swap his £1 million pension pot for an annuity that's a regular income paid every year for the rest of his life, he would get around £43,000 a year, But that means he'd need to live for another 23 years to get all of the money back on DDE.

It's not linked to inflation, so the purchasing power of that money would decrease over time.

If he lived for longer than 23 years, it's still received the annual income.

But if he died, that's it.

There's no money to pass on to his heirs.

So what about if you keep your pension savings invested in the stock market?

Well, it's riskier.

Stocks could go down as well as up, but investors could draw down a regular income, hoping that investment growth ensures their pots doesn't run out now.

That £1 million pot over 30 to 40 years congenital rate around £33,000 a year, according to projections made by the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association and Interactive Investor.

But that's assuming that your investments grow at 3% a year above inflation.

Of course, there's no guarantee that would happen.

So how much do we need to save?

Some financial advisers say you should take your age, Harv it and then save that percentage of your annual salary into a pension.

I'm 42 so that would mean saving 21% of my salary.

For the record, I'm actually saving a bit more than this, but I am the money editor.

But the institute and faculty of actuaries looked at three scenarios for a 68 year old who also gets the full state pension, which is around £8600 per year.

If they save £86 per month throughout their working life, that would fund what they call a minimum standard of living in retirement, an annual holiday in the UK on a budget of about £38 for the weekly shop pay in a bit Maur £799 a month, and that could fund a moderate standard of living.

So a two week holiday in Europe plus £46 on the weekly food shop.

But for someone on average earnings, that is about 1/4 of their salary paying even more.

£1755 per month would net you a comfortable retirement, they say.

With regular beauty treatments, play two trips on a three week annual holiday abroad.

Now those figures might sound high.

But don't forget you get tax relief from pension contributions and often the contribution from your employer, too.

It's estimated that millions of people in the UK are not saving into a pension, particularly those who are self employed, that the earlier you start saving the better, even if it's quite small amounts at first.

A compound in effect over time will boost your retirement savings on the final, leaving you can pull working for longer.