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 am one of the economically inactive so I don't have much going on financially but I am not worrying about it. I can't control the fact that my health is utterly f*cked, didn't ask for osteoarthritis before the age of 40🤷🏻

You need to stop reading Tory propaganda.
Baby boomers are the ones giving deposits to their dc. I’d be at leat £60k better off if i didn’t give my dc money.

Research from Imperial College says that life expectancy in the UK was starting to decline even before the pandemic, which did then also have a further effect on life expectancy. This meant that the increase in state pension age to 68, which had been brought forward, was put back again.

Unless there is a significant improvement in quality of life for people across the board in this country, I can’t see that there will be precipitous increases in the state pension age in the coming decades. Instead, I think it will remain around where it is now, and people will just be dying earlier which will, in some respects, save the government money and keep a state provision just about viable. 30+ year retirements will exist only for the very wealthiest.

@Kendodd we are millennials we bought run down houses no one wanted. Whilst our friends went to the Caribbean and Asia we stripped walls and fitted kitchens. Our boomer parents helped and paid for some nice bits we wouldn't have had. It's only since turning 30 (10 years later) that we've had the life our friends had in their 20's.

The mind set about retiring is changing, we expect to be able to claim our work pensions at around 65 (early) and have other investments that mean at that point we should be able to go part time or fully self employed until we get our state pensions what I suspect will be 10 years later. I wonder if that will be a more common "retirement" going forward.

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

Oh well that must be true because you read it "somewhere."

I'm 60 and very sympathetic to the younger generation but don't understand why they're not more politically active to try to change things.

And I question the wisdom of 50% going to uni. My 19 year old is there now, doing a humanities degree and I question if it'll improve their career prospects.

Much better to start working and saving.

And it would be daft for me to be retired at 60 as I'm perfectly capable of working and very much want to.

What will retirement look like?

Speaking personally, either non existent or very short.

There needs to be cross party consensus on issues such as old age ( and therefore the NHS and social care) as these need decades of consistent planning. Sadly that’s never going to happen because difficult decisions have to be made and politicians hate those.

It doesn’t help that at the moment we have this Schrödinger’s “old person” cognitive dissonance thing going on ( as seen on MN but not unique to it) whereby we have both “80 isn’t old. People run marathons at 80” but also “ it’s outrageous that I have to work past 65.”. This is not helpful to thinking about these issues. We need to be realistic about the impacts of aging at society level while also not fetishising youth ( part of the reason we like to deny that 80 is old is because we associate old age with mainly unattractive characteristics) and making ambitious and energetic people over 50 unemployable.

Most folk won't be eligible to draw their pension in their 70s because they will be dead by then. For some occupations it's impossible to keep working into your 70s, thinking joinery/plumbing type of occupations.

But that was the norm before people started living so long. Most people only got a few years.

Not a boomer ( Gen x) but I’m not sure that’s true. My parents definitely get how hard it is to buy a house now. However I must admit I do raise a brow at things I read on here like the “need” for en-suite bathrooms at Uni when it’s all on tick. Yes Uni bathrooms are skanky but they always were. Possibly I’m being unfair and it’s a relatively minor expense.

I read an interesting article about political activism and the role of SM in events such as the Arab Spring and HK democracy movement and how SM has made it a lot easier and quicker to get a cause going/ whip up the masses to demonstrate but much harder to make it stick because the people involved haven’t been through their points of difference and agreement and worked out a way forward and the compromises involved in getting what they’re asking for. I often think about that and wonder if that’s why it’s hard to change things- people think because they’re typing into the void on Twitter they’re doing something.

I don't think they can put the pension age much higher. Health wise there is often a big shift in mid 60s onwards. I've seen it in my parents and aunts/uncles etc who are all now in 70s. The majority of them couldn't still be in the work they were doing before retirement due to physical and health issues. My mum was only 73 when she died this year - only 6 years over retirement age for women.

Retirement is an acknowledgement that certain jobs can't be done by the time you reach a certain stage. I know some people have jobs they can still do but not the majority.

I'm sorry for the loss of your Mum. Was she in reasonable health leading up to her death? My parents are 70/71 and I've just noticed there are a few niggles creeping in. Still working though.

There are certainly some jobs that can't be done past a certain age. We need support for people to move into more suitable jobs when they can't perform more physical jobs anymore.

I'm 35 and have had it hammered into me from a young age that I need to prioritise pension (parents, media etc), so it has always been a huge factor when job hunting. DH and I have very good public sector pensions, obviously you never know how things are going to change, and I wouldn't do a job I hated just for the pension, but seeking a good pension has hugely influenced my career choices.

Pension is important but I'm not paying into it at the expense of experiences today. I'd hate to sacrifice living to find that I don't live long enough to use the pension, or have the health to have those experiences, later.

I think if get into part of a couple it will be ok whatever they do but yes agree it will probably be means tested

I agree with @Sparehair - the public services need a long-term solution which would require some very difficult decisions that politicians avoid because those decisions would not be vote winners.

I would welcome euthanasia being an option rather than going into a care home. However I imagine old age would become msinly the preserve of the rich

Have to say i work in an office with lots of people in their twenties - they are all buying their own homes taking multiple foreign holidays so I don't actually see first hand a lot of what posters on here say about young people struggling. They don't have kids though which is what makes a huge difference

They need to look at whole picture NHS care etc but it is a political hot cake

I am 33. I pay 8% of my salary into my pension but I'm on a low wage. I won't be able to retire if there is no state pension. I'll just have to carry on working. It's a sedentary job so I should still be able to do it providing I've still got all my marbles at 70.

State aided support (Bevan was the politician I think) started after WW2 in a different society from now Mortality was 60 for men more for women but they had less money which no one thought about so unequal Never mind They spent too much helping people live longer which I think was not really the aim
Short term support for job loss turned into long term and so on
Large number of disabled people helped with medicine and benefits No longer possible With a failing NHS I can see life expectancy falling Even with private healthcare they do not cover many long term conditions
This is just part of the cycle After all we have had a good era 1950s. to early 21st century

I am in London and I don't personally know anyone who can buy a home and have multiple holidays in their 20s and also have no family help (even if its a few years living at home). I have such a life now (own my flat and take lots of holidays) but I had 3 years of living at my in laws and being very frugal .

50% of FTB have family help and i guess the fact that you work in an office and probably in a professional role probably means it may be more than 50%. Its the other 50% that really struggle. In fact, what makes it even harder is that higher income earners are also more likely to have help (cash gift or otherwise) as their parents tend to be from professional background and for professional boomers, saving on inheritance tax is a real concern so many boomers give money away even if their children could technically do without it (buying a smaller house for example). I even know an investment banker who was living with mum until 30 (travelled most weeks so it didn't matter much where he lived I suppose). Imagine his savings lol as i presume his expenses abroad were also claimable.

It's pretty much impossible to live solely on the state pension now let alone in 30 or so years time...I know everyone thinks that pensioners are rolling in it but could you live on £10,000 a year?
Young people need to get out and vote. Most of them didn't vote in the Brexit referendum..and look how that turned out. Pensioners are listened to because they vote in huge numbers. Squeaky wheel and all that.

Arthritis is shit, I'm also someone who developed it before 40 (including in the spine). Is there no level of work you can do? I have a hybrid job so can WFH on bad days.

Our teenager is already gearing himself up for FIRE. He wants to own and have paid off a house by 40 and have passive income to do what he chooses. Whether that happens or not is debatable but I'm glad he is so much more financially literate than I was at his age.