How do social policies shape life courses, and which consequences do different life course patterns hold for individuals? This article engages the example of retirement in Germany and Britain to analyze life course patterns and their consequences for income inequality. Sequence analysis is used to measure retirement trajectories. The liberal welfare state in Britain generates more unstable retirement trajectories (differentiated) that are more dissimilar across the population (de-standardized) than the conservative-corporatist welfare state in Germany. Contrary to common conjectures, this is not associated with higher income inequality among retirees in Britain. This study concludes that there is no simple straightforward link between life course patterns and income inequality.