What do you think retirement / old age will look like for people under 40?

[halloweenismyfuntime]

I'm in my 30s and there seems to be a popular opinion around that the state pension may not exist in the future when people my age retire, and that's why workplace pensions are pushed more these days.

But unless if you are on a good salary and have a generous employer, not everyone's work place pension is going to be particularly great. For example, my employer puts in the minimum required and I have an average salary, and my annual forecast if I continue in this same way is about £2.5k a year. Many others on lower salaries or working part time will be in a simile boat.

Do people think things like the winter fuel payment, bus passes etc will still exist in 30,40+ years time? Or maybe things will be means tested, rather than universal benefits like now?

Plus surely there will be a lot of people reaching retirement age without owning a house, with house prices being what they are.

And yes, I know I could start paying more into pensions etc now, but I'm prioritising my mortgage and bills at the moment, as I'm sure most people are.

I have been thinking a lot recently about the COL for under 30s. I have DC who are just starting out. They have a pension, a saving account and an isa for a house deposit. Both still live at home. We were working on a saving plan and I honestly do not know what to advise them. The maths isn't adding up.
They are in well paid grad jobs with decent promotion prospects but it is not enough and the goal posts are being moved constantly.
Uni loan, 10% house deposit, car running expenses, pension and having a bit left over to live not just exist.
Realistically, I think the state pension will end up means tested like everything else and those that work will be expected to work more/harder as they will not qualify for anything.
I can see why there are a growng number of young people who are disenfranchised with politics and are unemployed/economically inactive.

This sounds a bit bleak to apply to oneself but I think euthanasia will be legal and normal/acceptable by the time I'm of retirement age. I expect it to be made legal in most Western countries somewhere in the next ten years, at first very cautiously, then there will be 10-15 years of back and forth arguments about the ethics of it and then I think it will hopefully level out and be sensible and seen generally as a compassionate thing, as we think of it for animals. I'm sure there will be awful cases where family members manipulate the situation, but I'm not convinced that this is really any worse than leaving the same family member to rot in an underfunded care home, never visiting them, until they die of natural causes.

And I think once that happens it will change the landscape of elderly care completely, with the focus being on enjoying and making the most of your healthy, active years.

Pensions I don't know. I'd like to think there will still be a state pension. Whether it will be enough to live on is a different question.

Retirement will be replaced by the ritual of Carousel .

There will be much steeper increases in the retirement age. I am about to turn 40 and I imagine my eventual retirement age will be about 72. It is currently 67.

The current level of generosity towards pensioners is unsustainable - I don’t know what it will look like in 25 years once I am eligible, but I wouldn’t count on living on state pension alone (or even mainly). You really need to invest in your pension from the start of your career to have any shot at funding a retirement at a sensible age and to a reasonable level of comfort. Many will just need to keep working, and state support will probably only be for a year or two before you die (which is how it was originally intended).

I think by that time, we'll have many more people in the country - including younger immigrants - to pay more taxes to fund the increase in pensioners. That, plus an increase in the pension age as a pp said. I also agree about the euthanasia roll out. I think the bigger question is though, who will care for all the older people?

@BertieBotts that's a very interesting point and not one I had thought of before but yes I think you may be absolutely right.

Bertie. I do hope so. Having extensive experience of care homes I would definitely try and avoid them

The best advice I would have given my 20 year old self would be to put as much into a pension pot as possible.
Don't rely on the state if you want a decent quality of life when you retire. You're also more flexible on when you retire.
Old age seemed like a gazillion lifetimes away when I was young. I'm almost 50 now and I really wish I'd saved more pension wise. Take heed young people!

I bloody well hope so

I’m not really planning to retire. My job is something that I can continue to do as I get older and as I’m self employed I can do as much or as little as I like.
We’ve purposely stayed in a smaller property and the mortgage will be paid off within four years (before I’m 50).
Which is a good job, because our pension prospects are dire.

You never know what is around the corner. You may not live long enough to see your pension (not you in particular, just in general)

What is the point in thinking way far ahead into the future when people my age (late 20s, early 30s) are starting out. We cannot afford to put anything away with the current situation.

I don't think about 30 years into the future when I need to figure out my next 2/3. That's my priority. It's impossible .

Short

There will be something. Retirement age will likely be higher and why shouldn't it be? Lifespans are so much longer, it's not reasonable to expect society to pay for you to retire with potentially decades left. Everyone will be okay. I don't expect much generosity in my old age but I expect I will manage in the existing system somehow.

I’m 30 am optimistic about retirement but both my husband and have always valued our pensions and pay as much as we can into them.

It is difficult now, I understand its a lot harder for young people, but if at any point over the next few years you find you have a little extra you can afford to add to your pension pot do it - I can assure you you will be glad you did.

I don't know if I'd see someone who's late 20s early 30s as just starting out tbh. It's always good to think for the future (whilst still living for today) because many people regret burying their head in the sand about pensions as they get older.

Even when I wasn't earning that much I still chose to invest in a pension, it wasn't much but something. Now (still with the same company but higher up) I can put more in. It's always worth doing and if I do die, it'll go to my kids anyway.

I agree about euthanasia. But I don't know how big a difference it will make to the population as a whole (not saying this is a bad thing and we should live in some sort of dystopia where everyone is dispatched at 75) - thinking of my grandparents, only 1 went to a care home. Many old people die after short illnesses/falls and are in reasonable health prior to their last few months.

I think the state pension age will go up. A couple of my grandparents claimed (generous) pensions for over 25 years! That's not sustainable (unfortunately).

I imagine it will reduce too and be more on a par with other benefits. Iirc state pension is double per week what jobseekers or people who are long term sick get. Not commenting on the rights or wrongs of this but again it doesn't seem sustainable.

I'm older and because of that luckier I know how much harder life is for young people now. One thing that really pisses me off about that though is that older people just don't seem to care. I read the other day that 50% of baby boomer think young people can't buy a house because they spend their money on take away coffee and holidays. I suppose one positive is that 50% don't think that.

Well, when I started working the retirement age for women was 60, it is now 67. I imagine it will rise and rise, until most people don't really have a retirement and they end up working until they are too ill not to do so. Very depressing.

Private pensions weren’t even compulsory until about ten years ago. So telling people they needed to start saving in their early 20s isn’t helpful, it’s too late now. Like many others I didn’t pay into an optional pension because I simply couldn’t afford it. I had to save a house deposit and I saw that as a higher priority than a pension. It didn’t help that many jobs were unpaid internships and zero hours contracts which allowed employers to shirk their pension contributions.

And now I’m at the point where I’ve realised that having kids massively impacts my earnings, and will go on impacting them because there’s no support to return to the workforce, employers don’t want mums who’ve been at home for a few years. If there’s going to be no state pension then we need to address sexual inequality and the motherhood penalty.

We have a mortgage and bills too but our pension is one of our priority savings. I’m early thirties and DH is almost 40. We put in 11% and 16% respectively. I’ve had a pension since I started working (before it was compulsory) but it still won’t be enough. Once I return to work from maternity leave I’ll be putting more into a pension. (And getting life insurance, the fact I don’t have any already isn’t ideal I know). If you’ve always paid into a pension you hardly notice it. It’s only when an unexpected bill comes in (looking at you car bill) that I think “I could really do with that extra money right now”. Things are tight. Really tight. Going on holiday since we had children hasn’t really happened but childcare is as much/more of a factor than our pensions.

I've never been convinced that the government will be able to just keep paying out housing benefit to retired people in private rentals. The bill for that will simply get too big. I think people in that situation will just have to accept being moved to basic accomodation in cheaper parts of the country.

Sorry, but this made me laugh! Will the ‘retirement’ date still be 30 though?

We have a mortgage and bills too but our pension is one of our priority savings
My point is that many people have to choose either/or. You talk about priority savings - do you not understand that having ANY money to save is a luxury that not everyone has?

I couldn’t save for a deposit and pay into a pension, I didn’t earn enough to do both. Now the cost of living increase eats up extra money and we’re at the stage of paying childcare, so we can’t afford to lose any more than the compulsory minimum to a pension. We’ll probably be 45 before we have enough spare to pay decent pension contributions. It’s not because we don’t prioritise it - we literally don’t have any money left after essential expenses.