Realistically, what age do you expect to retire, if you're in your 40s now?

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State pension age will be 68 if not older.

I already know I'm slowing down. I'm very experienced and good at my job so I can get away with it for now but I know I'm not as productive as I was when I was younger.

My parents retired young (in today's terms) at 59. They've had a healthy, active retirement but now, in their early 70s they and their friends all have health issues that would make a full-time job difficult if not impossible, even though they are generally "well" for their age.

I don't know how it's possible for most people to work to 68, certainly not anyone in any sort of physical job.

So, doesn't extending retirement age just mean we'll have lots of people "on the sick" who would previously have been claiming their pension?

I know people can/should be making provision to allow them to retire earlier but I think for most that's a privilege for the relatively well off and many manual labourers/care home workers etc don't fall into that category, Could we really have 68yo care assistants etc?

I don’t get what’s so good about working until 91 and dying two years later. There’s so much more to life than work!

I intend to keep working on a part time basis as long as possible. I think it is good to keep mentally and socially active mixing with different age groups in the workplace particularly if you are not a big hobbies person. I just cannot imagine spending 20 odd years at home with DH & I pottering in the garden. I have also seen quite a few couples retire and then get divorced, 'Silver Splitters' I believe they are called.

I'm 38 and only just started paying into pension about four years ago (got a degree late 20s then lived abroad), and just got onto the property ladder with a 35 year mortgage (single person, no kids).

It doesn't actually bother me (atm!), the thought of working till i drop, and I have a hunch that not working could be my downfall. Even with a week staycation and visions of going to the gym every morning, with cultural pursuits in the afternoon, in reality it's nap nap nap + wine o'clock.

It does help seeing that the strongest and most influential people in my company are 55+. Am intending to reach work prime at 60, with another 10-15 years of slowing down. Although am sure i'll look back at this post and think 'awwwww, how naive' 😆

@Cailleach. Ive sent you a message - hope you don't mind (hope I did it right, Ive never sent a message before)

For me I think the aim is to give myself choices in my 60s (and ideally 50s too) rather than to plan to retire early as such. We've got to the stage where our defined benefits schemes should give us an OK standard of living (and we are still paying in) but they are tied to the state pension age so we want to have enough invested elsewhere that we can have choices earlier. We have interesting jobs and a good work/life balance so I can see us both wanting to work a long time but equally I can see that life often throws out the unexpected and I wouldn't want to feel forced to work whilst struggling with ill health etc.

One thing I find very difficult is working out how much income we'll need to retire with a decent standard of living. It's difficult to work out how your costs will change when you're not working and people are not very open about discussing money so I find it tricky to set a good target figure, especially as you have to factor in the possibility that your plans to retire as a couple might not work out if death or divorce leaves you single.

What do people think is a good income to aim for assuming house paid off and no dependents? The figures in this article www.which.co.uk/money/pensions-and-retirement/starting-to-plan-your-retirement/how-much-will-you-need-to-retire-atu0z9k0lw3p suggest £27K for comfortable and £42K for 'luxury' (as a couple) but I am not sure of those are realistic.

NHS clinical. Am going at 50, after 30 years employment. Mortgage and school fees will be paid off by then. Will take a big hit to my pension by leaving ‘early’ but I don’t care. It’s that or wind up in early grave from stress and unhappiness. From there I will get a part time job - will choose something with relatively low stress - and will work as long as I feel physically able. Most people I know who took early retirement haven’t fared well mentally.

I'm planning to retire when I'm 60 in 10 years.

I'm a teacher and will have paid my mortgage off by then and will downsize. I may do some part time work, depends on circumstances after retirement.

My DP works in the construction industry and has savings but no pension, just state pension. He will probably work as and when.

I'd retire tomorrow if I could.

I'm approaching 40, work approx 0.3 FTE and exhausted already. Ds has care needs and the reality is that once he finishes school in 7 years he'll be at home and I'll have to be a FT carer. I'm trying to live my best life now, cannot imagine at the age of 65+ wanting to join clubs, volunteer etc. I don't even want to do that now. I don't have high lifestyle needs so not overly concerned from a financial perspective.

70? I plan to keep working part-time as long as possible.

@Ali86 I struggle working this out too. I think 30/35k a year would be enough for us with no mortgage.

We want enough for holidays, theatre, meals out etc. Not just enough to ‘survive.’

I'm 48 & DH is 50. Our youngest is 12 so at least another 10 yrs to get her through university before we can think of cutting hours. If we have the choice... redundancy in your 50's is all too common especially if we're heading into a global recession. Looking at the figures below, I'm not certain whether we'll be able to hit those figures and we are a high income household with mortgage paid off (technically) and significant savings.

Private sector money purchase pensions. Neither of us has ever had the benefit of a final salary/defined benefit pension scheme.

To achieve a £2k pcm net income, you'll need £30K pa gross income which means £750K assuming a 4% drawdown.

To achieve a £2.5K pcm net income, you'll need £40K pa gross income which means £1million assuming a 4% drawdown.

I know NOONE in the private sector with a money purchase/defined contributions scheme with anything approaching these amounts by the time that they are 55. I'd imagine there are minimal numbers of these people.

I'm 42, have been paying into an NHS pension since I was 20 which I can draw at 60. I don't know if I'll just do 1-2 shifts a week at 60 until state pension age. Depends how I feel.

sansou are you aiming for those kind of amounts each?

It does make a huge difference if you have access to a final salary scheme (which I don’t). I can live frugally though.

@Ali86
If only!
My total pension pot (2 pensions) stands at £170K.

DP's total pension pot is triple mine so he has more of a chance of reaching the lower £750K/£30K gross/£2k net pcm figure.

Between the 2 of us, I doubt whether our combined private pension pot would total £1million/£40K gross/£2.5K net pcm.

I'm fairly certain that we have decent amounts compared to others because we have made a conscious effort to make the contributions since our mid/late 20's.

ali86
Assuming I am still working in my current job until I am 68, I will have a private pension of £8300 and state pension of £8736, so £17036 combined (this is based on today's values of course). I currently earn £12500 so will be very happy with that.
I guess that is the advantage of being on low pay, we wont be in for a massive shock when we retire. However, we dont currently own a property so that is a concern. Hopefully within the next 10years we will, otherwise will have to hope for enough inheritance to buy a small property. At the moment both sets of parents own outright, and we stand to inherite 50% of each property. However I see my dnans savings being haemorrhaged in care home fees. This will then mean we would have to consider fully whether we can put our parents into a home when they become senile, or whether we will have to take on the carer role for as long as possible ourselves (and potentially have our parents live with us). It seems wrong to base their future care on our need of their money though.

Don't count on inheritance.
The state pension will only go in one direction and that's not upwards!

@sansou thanks for replying, that's a bit of relief as I was thinking I had seriously underestimated what we needed!!

It's so difficult to work out what a sensible number is when you're potentially including everything from periods of good health where you want to be as active as possible to long term residential care. I'm also mainly planning as a couple. Not to be too morbid but each of us would have reasonable survivorship rights if the other died before or after taking the pension. If we divorced (which I have no reason to think we will but you can't be complacent) then it would be much bleaker esp as I am the one who took time out etc.

70ish for full retirement. I’d plan to go p/t earlier than that but work longer IYSWIM. About to retrain into a field that will be suitable.

I want to retire before state pension age. I don't mind my job and obviously need to keep working.

I know people on track for that Sansou. Equity partners in accountancy/law firms.

I have absolutely zero interest in retiring. I’m 45 and love working, I can’t imagine looking retirement now. I feel I’ve at least 3 bit jobs ahead of me and I’ll then move into more of a consultancy role. If my health allows I imagine I’ll do at least another 20 years will full time and wind down to 3 days a week. My parents are just thinking of slowing down at 70 and FIL still works FT at 80.

I'm hoping to retire at 60, but I'll reduce my hours and take a back seat on my job at 55.

68

I'm mid 40s and my private pensions are on track to deliver £15k annually at 60 then state pension is around £8k at 67. However I've just finished paying nursery fees, mid divorce and my ex and I are selling our jointly owned house in a couple of years. At that point I'll downsize and hope to be low mortgage/mortgage free and up my pension savings - hopefully retire earlier