Are you on your way to a dream retirement?

We probably all have that moment on a dark January morning when we drag ourselves out of bed to go to work and our thoughts turn to retirement.

Even if you love your job, you will inevitably occasionally dream of the day when your time is more yours and you can afford to give up paid work – or cut back.

And now's the perfect time of year to consider whether your retirement dreams are affordable, or whether you'll need to gear up in the coming months to make them a reality. After all, we tend to make new beginnings, establish better habits and new intentions.

Wealth & Personal Finance asked the experts to crunch the numbers to determine how much you need, regardless of the age at which you plan to retire.

So grab yourself a pen and paper (and a nice cup of tea) and read our guide to securing your dream pension – and how to boost your savings if you find yourself falling behind.

The big question… When can I retire?

When you can afford to stop working is largely determined by two factors: how much you have saved and what kind of lifestyle you want.

The sooner you retire, the more you need to save to maintain a good standard of living. Analysis for Wealth & Personal Finance by wealth manager Quilter shows that you need an extra £163,000 saved to retire at 55 rather than at 65 and live the same lifestyle.

According to pensions industry guidelines, a single pensioner needs around £23,300 (excluding tax) to live a moderate lifestyle. This would give you a two-week holiday in Europe every year and a car replacement every ten years.

The Pension and Lifetime Savings Association's Retirement Living Standards figures are widely used by the pensions industry as a benchmark for how much money people need in retirement to maintain their spending habits.

To retire with such a lifestyle at age 55, Quilter calculates you'll need £403,000.

This assumes that from your state pension age you will receive half of your income from the full state pension. The full new state pension will rise to £11,502 in April, so you'll need an income of just £11,498 from your private pension each year to do this. The calculations assume that your investments grow by 5 percent each year and that you live to your current life expectancy of 86 years.

Be careful if you retire early. You cannot rely on your AOW income for the first 11 or 12 years, up to your state pension age.

Currently the age at which you start receiving your state pension is 66, but this will rise to 67 between 2026 and 2028. This means that you will need to withdraw the full €23,000 from your own savings and retirement accounts during that time.

If you retire at the age of 60, you should be able to finance your lifestyle for the first six years without being dependent on the AOW pension. As a result, in addition to the state pension, you would need a private or workplace pension worth a total of £325,000, Quilter estimates.

Raise your retirement age to 65 and you could reduce your target retirement savings to £240,000, Quilter estimates. Those extra five years of work can really give your lifestyle a boost – or make up for times when you may not have saved enough earlier in your career. At this age you only have to wait one year until your state pension age starts. However, the age at which you can claim will increase to 66 between 2024 and 2026 and to 68 between 2044 and 2046.

If you were to work until the age of 70 – and postpone taking your state pension for four years until then – you would need €179,000 to achieve the same lifestyle.

How can I find out if I'm on the right track?

First you need to know how much you have collected so far. Even if you've never really thought about it, if you earn more than £10,000 a year and have an employer, there's a very good chance you'll be paying into a workplace pension.

Find out who your pension provider is and request an overview of the amount you have built up. Or look up the most recent statement he sent you.

If you have changed jobs during your career, you probably have several pension pots. Follow all of these and determine a value for each. If there is something you cannot find out or if you no longer remember which pension provider your money has been saved with, you have two options. If the pension is relatively recent – ​​roughly within the last twenty years – you can contact your former employer for more information.

If you left the company a long time ago, you can use the government's Pension Tracing Service. This should tell you who manages the old pension schemes and what their contact details are. You can then write to them to request the latest status of your pension. Visit gov.uk/find-pension-contact-details.

Don't forget the state pension. If you have worked for most of the years since leaving your education, you are likely to be eligible for the full state pension. However, it is important to check that you have sufficient years of national insurance contributions to qualify. To receive the full new state pension, you must have paid NI for at least 35 years. You can get a state pension forecast at gov.uk/check-state-pension.

Once you know how much you have, you can use an online pension calculator to find out what it is likely to be worth by the time you reach the target retirement age. For example, the government's Money Helper service has a calculator at moneyhelper.org.uk/en/pensions-and-retirement/pensions-basics/pension-calculator.

It also helps to think about what kind of life you want to have when you retire, says Kate Smith of pension company Aegon.

She says: 'Imagine your daily life and your ambitions: do you see yourself eating out a lot, going on a big holiday or taking up new hobbies? Try to work out how much it costs each year and make sure you include your usual expenses such as groceries and bills.'

The figures on the living standards of retirees provide a good starting point. For our calculations, Quilter adopted a moderate lifestyle. But if you're happy with a minimum amount, a single pensioner will need around £12,800, while for a comfortable lifestyle you'll need closer to £37,300.

What if I haven't saved enough?

There are several ways to increase the size of your pension pot – many of which are relatively painless.

Increasing the amount you contribute to your pension is an extremely efficient way of saving because it is tax-free and you also receive premiums from your employer. You may also be able to save on national insurance if your employer offers a deal called 'salary sacrifice', where it matches any extra contributions you make. Check if yours does too.

If you have savings that you can afford to keep until retirement, you can use them to increase the value of your pension and receive tax relief.

For example, a basic rate taxpayer with £8,000 to spare would receive £2,000 in tax relief, immediately boosting their savings. Similarly, a higher rate taxpayer would receive £5,333 in tax relief, according to Ian Cook, financial planner at Quilter.

You may be able to improve your retirement savings by putting it into a better fund or funds. They will have been put into standard funds by your employer, which may not be the most suitable for you. For example, many employers will put your pot into low-risk funds as you approach retirement age – ideal for avoiding volatility, but less likely to deliver strong returns.

Cook says: 'One of the most important things to do if you don't have enough saved in your pot is to check your current risk level, as many employers default to low-risk strategies later in life.'

He adds that if you don't plan to withdraw your retirement savings anytime soon, you may be able to afford to take on more risk in the hope of higher returns.

You can ask your employer, managers or provider for information about where you invest and what other options you have. This information should also be available in your online retirement account.

Pay attention to the fees charged by other funds – and make sure you don't pay too much. Standard funds cannot charge more than 0.75 percent, but others can charge more.

You may also consider postponing the date on which you start receiving your state pension so that you receive more when you do claim it. Your weekly allowance increases by 1 percent for every nine weeks you defer, which equates to 5.8 percent for every year you defer. Your AOW pension increases with each week that you defer, as long as this is at least nine weeks after you have reached the AOW age.

What if I have already stopped working?

You may be able to further increase your pension savings by paying into a pension.

You can make contributions until you are 75 and benefit from tax relief on your pension contributions. However, the amount you can contribute while receiving tax relief drops dramatically once you've taken taxable income out of your pension.

A tax rule called the 'annual money purchase allowance' reduces the amount a saver can pay and earn tax relief from £60,000 to £10,000 a year.