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?

Hester54 the sad story of the man with dementia has nothing to do with retirement age.

Working too many hours when you have a young family in order to save up desperately to retire at 55 as soon as they're gone, and then spend 15 years of self indulgent pottering is what's selfish and tragic.

Work sensible hours in a rewarding, interesting job and enjoy the whole of your life, don't wish away the years until you can potter about, slightly strapped for cash but managing alright with low outgoings because you do not a lot aside from eat the odd carvery.

Feeling the wind in your hair and enjoying the sunshine should be done life long, not saved for retirement.

@sansou it’s really difficult to build up that sort of pension pot these days (especially now the tax relief is so limited for high earners). However, I expect to have £1 million in savings in addition to my pension pot by the time I hit my mid 60s (I’m currently at £170k). I’m quite fortunate in that a chunk of my pension is in a defined benefit scheme (career average rather than final salary).

48 and still feel energy for work but I get f*cked with it sometimes and just want to spend my time travelling, listening to radio 4 and pursuing further learning and hobbies.

But there is no way my pension can support that so thinking I'll work to 60 and between now and then pay off the mortgage and continue to buy company shares in the hope they continue to rise.

I think you get to a point when you think the corporate environment is a bit BS and you dont want to deal with the politics anymore like you were happy to when you were younger.

@HainaultViaNewburyPark kudos on the £1M savings ! If you dont mind me asking, how did you get to that point? Such a nice secure position to be in.

Great username btw.

Never. I'm mid 40s and have no pension to speak of. Living month to month, no spare money for any kind of pension or savings.

I know I'm royally screwed but too busy trying to keep my head above water to think about it most of the time.

Every time I get a pay rise I re-direct the extra money to my savings. It helps that I earn a really good salary these days (I retrained in my 30s and have valuable professional qualifications). I’m currently saving about £850 per month (on top of pension contributions). Unlike everyone else on this thread, I’m not overpaying my mortgage. It’ll be paid off once I hit 64 in any case.

(I also put my annual bonus into savings)

I won't be able to afford to retire before the state pension age which is likely to be 68. In an ideal world I'd prefer to retire at 60.

I disagree with the poster about being less productive as she has reached her 40s I'm far more productive in my late 40s than I was in my 20s.

I'm 48 and have two mortgages both ending when I'm 62. So, FT working for the next 14 years then PT to top up my savings. I have a dear friend in her early 70s who works in the same field as me. She works for 6 months of the year then goes off travelling with her husband for months on end. She tells her clients when she will be available again and they book her at £500 a day. That is what I aspire to.

Wow duchess, do you mind broadly saying what she does? That sounds the perfect balance!

What income do people think they need to retire on ? People talking about £ million pension pots are very rare, the average pension pot is £70,000, articles suggest that with no mortgage a couple would need a income of £26000 to have a good retirement, with holidays and eating out, with state pension nearly £9000 each then income from savings interest and capital and any other pension or income should be achievable,
In that’s few years of my parents life’s, they weren’t even well enough to spend all their state pension

Hester that’s the thing I don’t quite get, what’s realistic, say needing £18m each partner in retirement pa. (£1500/month) £9k to come from state pension hopefully, how many lots of £9k do you need....

Surely it depends how long your family tend to live (did your mother and her mother and her grandmother all live into their 90s or die in their late 60s?) and what you're used to and consider a good quality of life.

It's one reason I don't understand the rush to retire on an income which won't allow you to do very much, while still healthy and able to work part-time and really enjoy the rest of your time.

DuchessMinnie I agree with Ali that your dear friend's set up sounds perfect!

Mother and grandmother both had a life limiting illness, which fingers crossed I haven’t developed (they developed in their 30s and I’m in my 50s)... so not quite sure

Having a quick google and saw the figures £1000 in pension for every £1/week you need when retired. Therefore £9000 pa / 52 weeks = 173 x 1000 = £173k

I'm 41. Dunno when I'll retire, I have a problem that means I will develop arthritis early, so it may depend how bad my mobility gets and how hip replacements go. My work is at least sedentary. Providing health ok could see myself going on into early 70s. My inlaws are that age and self employed, and showing no signs of stopping.

Not able to save for a very good pension so probably be relying on downsizing property to release equity.

What about other female family members of your mother's generation and older SomethingSpecialzz ?

If you had £173k in a simple savings account you could withdraw £9k per year for 19 years...

It all depends how carefully/ frugally you are happy to live, as well as how long, doesn't it?

I'm 45, DH 46. And we took out a 22 year mortgage 18 months ago. So. Y'know. Retirement isn't realistically until we've paid that off. However I have a desk job and so does he so its not like we can't continue for the next 2 decades, although the thought does not fill me with joy...

Both me and dh won't retire at all, i's not the nature of our work.
I'm just starting working for myself at 53 after 30 years out.
It's a ball and loving every minute.
Kids left home, at a bit of a loose end, why not.

Drabarni You should rephrase that, you hope to work, you never know what the future holds, why not, I can think of lots of reasons, but each to their own.

I think it al depends on your job, what wages your earning, if your on average wages and lucky to have one holiday a year, paid off your mortgage, rent free, than a drop in money is not going to worry you, I know some ladies that work part time and when they get their state pension +, they will be better off, if you’re in a high powered job on a very good salary a massive drop might be hard to take, you have had plenty of time to save, As you get older and you see how family and friends suffer in older age, you might change your mind about working till you drop, or the boss might have other plans for you, A lady at work didn’t want retire, but the bosses want to replace her with someone younger, told her job was now moved to a place over 1 hour and 15mins away, not a journey a 69 year woman was looking forward to doing, so left, when we caught up recently, she wished she had retired early but was scared, she was loving retirement,

@Ali86 yes of course, she works in facilities management as do I. We are troubleshooters- we go into FM contracts which are failing or losing money and we turn them around to profit making/ compliant. I am in a payroll so do this FT and will get moved around the business. My friend does it freelance and chooses when she' s available but essentially does the same thing as me.

Sounds great Duchess and not something I would have thought of in the context of such a flexible retirement. Might retrain!

I think it depends on the work and the level of income you want.
I certainly agree with the wind in your hair scenario, if you can do this as part of your work all the better. If your work is what you would do as a hobby, better still.
We aren't confined to one area so we are travelling and earning enough to get by, not being materialistic in the slightest, this works well for us.
Did it much less when dc were little as they mostly went to school and had mortgage to pay.
There's no way I'd be working for someone else in my 50's just for a roof and food, sod that.

In my early 50s. After a bout of serious ill health that lasted a couple of years and meant I couldn't work at all I'm definitely much less ambitious in the work I look for now. I'm expecting to drop dead in harness though, as are most of my friends who are still working. (Quite a few of us have developed serious health problems in our late 40s/early 50s.)