The survey showed that one in thirteen people are prepared to make significant sacrifices now so that they can have a more luxurious ‘wine and pate’ lifestyle in their later years, with one in 18 tightening the purse strings in the hope of a “Champagne & Caviar” retirement.

David Kuo, Head of Personal Finance at Fool.co.uk, says: “It is heartening to see that people are thinking about life after work. However, retirement is not just about the age when you take the longest coffee break imaginable – it is also about the type of coffee you can afford to drink. Consequently, it pays to consider how you will pay for your cuppa.

“For one in two people, a life of “Wine and Pâté” is the most appealing. But our survey suggests that a retirement pot of almost £750,000 will be needed to afford it.

“That said, a pot of this size is not unattainable. A thirty-year-old can reach this by putting aside £470 a month, and a twenty-year-old only has to salt away half as much.

“For many of us, retirement is about getting out of the rat race, but it doesn’t mean you have to get by with less cheese. With careful planning there’s no reason why you can’t have cheese to accompany your wine and pâté.”

But research from Fidelity shows that there also many people living for today at the expense of tomorrow, with payments on designer goods, cosmetic surgery and alcohol dwarfing the amount of money they are setting aside for retirement.

Of the people surveyed, Forty five per cent said they cannot afford to put away any money for old age, yet the study found that each year, the average household pays out £769 on alcohol, £1,908 on restaurants and hotels, £1,180 on clothes and footwear, and £3,542 on debt interest payments.

Simon Fraser, President of Institutional Business at Fidelity International Limited says, “It all comes down to choices: live for the now and cope with old age poverty when it hits or make a few lifestyle tweaks based on the possibility of living until we are 100.

“Purchases of designer brand watches recently exceeded Maxi ISAs9 and it seems many are choosing to emulate the lifestyle of rich celebrities like David and Victoria Beckham even though we won’t be able to retire like them.”

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