If you are a mum in your 40s or early 50s, what's your plan for career before retirement?

[Rekka]

Just that. I'm curious what other people's situation is.

I started putting pension/saving in the pot so late (in my mid 30s), I think I will have to work full-time until mid 60s. But in my field, unlike in accounting or HR, I haven't seen and can't imagine any female working into their 60s. Also most mums around in DC school seem to be all working part-time or not working at all.

I hit a bit of a career brick wall at the moment, but can't just quit and lay back. So I'm wondering what other people's plans are in the next 10-20 years.

I’m 39 and I’m just pushing forward with my career now and aggressively saving into my pension. My DC are 12 and 10. DH and I are saving hard to be able to pay off the mortgage in about 5 years then hope to retire by 60.

Me too. Still think I won't have enough to retire before 67.

I am 52/DH 57

I never returned to F/T after DD was born, currently at 80% and I will stay like that.

Due to our mortgage just repaid, we will funnel some of the money towards extra pension contribution for DH and me.

My private pension will kick in when I am 65 but I hope we have saved enough when I am 60 to retire to cover the gap.

DD will leave for uni this year, we expect to support her for the next 4 years. But her support is sitting in another pot to be used if necessary.

This is an interesting thread.

I am mid 40s and working PT in an easy, low paid job. (My MH is a bit rubbish so I daren’t take on more pressure either in terms of hours or seniority). Luckily DH has a good salary and a good pension.

We paid off the mortgage a couple of years ago and are both paying as much as we can into private pensions on top of work schemes.

Hoping to retire in about 10years time.

I’m 42 and I’m am a nurse and qualified age 21. I worked full time for 11 years, went to 30 hours after child 1 and 22.5 hours after child 2. My youngest is 8 and in year 3. I currently work school hours and will continue while my youngest is in primary.

Once the children are more independent we will see if I can increase to 30 hours or full time and hopefully a promotion to a band 8a (currently a 7). We will retire when we can afford and at a similar time. I have been contributing to NHS pension the full time. Husband is same age and civil service and had similar length of service and pension.

Perfect thread for me!

Early 50s, now full time was part for about 16 years while DCs were young went from 3 days to 4 now promoted and full time.

Plan was to chuck as much as I can into my pension, however DH has struggled with MH and is now signed off work. So ‘surviving’ on my wage, SSP and board from the DCs.

I’ll just keep going and see what happens!

I’m retired now, but my career took off in my 40s and 50s. I had several promotions and, when I thought I’d retired, I was headhunted to do three days a week, which I did for a few more years.

I'm hoping for a restructure / promotion in 12 months or so - dd2 starts secondary school in Sept 2026 so I have a vague plan of going FT at that point.

DH's pension is better than mine so the best plan might be to murder him just before he retires, to maximise both his pension and his life insurance 😂

I worked FT till I was 54 and then left, took my pension at 55.

I'm 45 and have a creative pt job which fits around my dcs. I've only been paying into my pension for the past decade but it has grown dramatically as I've put all my earnings into it and maxed out my ISA every year. I take a high risk approach which has worked out well, and I'm on track to have a healthy pension and other long term savings. I plan to continue working pt and develop my career when the dcs are older (both under 8 now), but I feel financially secure and I wouldn't want to work too many hours at the expense of my own wellbeing and having time with the dcs.

Thank you for sharing! Looking like lots of us are on the same boat - need to double down the savings into pension!

We won't pay off the mortgage till about when turning 60. Could have over paid. But I gauged and decided with the interest rate for mortgage, it's probably better off to put the extra money into stock ISA. But not sure how the stock market would look like in the next few years with the craziness going on in the globe.

Mine are 20 and 22 now. One working and one at uni. I am 53 and winding down. Retiring in 18 months from NHS after 37 years. DH is going 6 months earlier also at 55. I inherited ten years ago, lost my parents young and invested it all for this sole purpose.Then we will travel.

I'll have only done 3 years PT then back up to FT. Once both kids are teens I might try for promotions but won't progress more than one level up as I like a balance. Once childcare fees are just wrap-around for one child I want to increase pension contributions and then increase them again once my mortgage is paid off.

I had my kids late. So I had my career pre-DC. I worked 0.8 from when DC1 was 2, 6 years, then took redundancy from that role as I’d been there 12 years and the VR package was a once in a lifetime opportunity. Currently been 0.6 for 7 years. I’m 55, have no plans to increase hours as DC2 just hitting secondary school this year.

By the time I was 40 I’d had enough career! I’m planning on retirement at 64, as get a pension at 60 which I can save for 4 years to bridge the gap. I’m incredibly lucky that I’ve had excellent pension provision in 3 jobs since my early 30s. We will not be rich, but we will have enough to enjoy what we like to do, which isn’t expensive.

Am 52. Have 20 years of final salary pension but now work in a different industry and the pension is pretty rubbish. Plus I've been part time the past 10 years due to raising DS. Intend to try and work another 12-15 years and use that time to build up as much pension savings as possible.

I plan to pay off the mortgage by age 55, retire and take a low paid job. My children should be through university within a year or two of that. I aim to downsize if I need more money. I don't want to spend all my life planning for retirement. You never know what is around the corner, and I value my time with my children too much, right now.

I’m 52. I’m pretty senior in my role and can’t really get any higher, nor do I want to.

I really love working and I have only been back to FT for 10 years. I have t even thought about retiring but I do have a really good pension. My slightly older husband is now overpaying his pension, and I plan to start doing the same.

I feel really uncertain about this. Thinking of perhaps retiring in 5 years (when I'll be 55). Not sure whether I should therefore focus hard on my career now- after all I don't have long left- or just pootle along. I have about £30k in a DB pension which will start paying at 67 and enough in a DC scheme and ISAs to get me between 55 and 67.

I started my company pension which is still final salary, believe it or not when I was 24, and have been at the same organisation for 24 years. I don't have much savings but I'll get a small inheritance after my parents depart for the bowling lawn in the sky and the lump sum will be significant. I won't be rich but I'll get by. My official retirement age is 67 so not state pension until then, but I hope to be away on retirement at 60-61. I hope to own my own home by then which will help.

I’m mid 40s with a 20 year career as a PhD level health scientist. I’ve worked both full and part time since becoming a parent. I’ve recently left my job (due to long term sickness, I have cancer, but I was also just burnt out and bored with it too). I don’t think we are meant to do the same thing for like 50 years.

I’m re-training by doing some additional qualifications and then will go self-employed (it would be outing as very niche, but think of like consulting). I should earn a similar salary to more than I made previously. I have a workplace pension and I’ll continue to pay into my pension. I certainly plan to work as long as I can, but expect I’d go part time when I need to.

When I’m working, generally I work about 30 hours a week. Dh probably does the same, also self-employed. We worked very hard in our 20s and 30s so have a very nice house, good investments, don’t have to worry about money, which means to an extent, we can pick and choose what work we take on (or like now, I’ve taken a year off work and we’ve been okay).

A lot of people seem to treat the second half of their working life as just a slog towards retirement. We don’t want to do that. I want to still learn new things. I want to pursue work I enjoy. I want to meet interesting people. 25 years is a long time to just drag yourself along doing something you don’t love. I recognise it’s a privilege to have the choice to do work I enjoy, but I think more people could, women especially, if they prioritised their own long term goals and interests.

I'm like many on this thread - I've focussed more on a full time career since my childre hit mid teens. I'm also trying to max my pension contributions in an attempt to compensate for lean years.

I think OP's point that she doesn't see women in their mid 60s working is an interesting one - I do think this is something that is changing rapidly. Current women in their 60s may have been able to retire early but this is not going to be a given for people doing the same career 15 or 20 years younger.

I got what is realistically my last big promotion at 48. Am 50 now. In theory I could aim for one more but it is a significant amount of additional effort and there is a ‘queue’ which I could join but I’m probably 3 - 4 years away. My friend who did this step said the pay rise isnt really worth the effort.

I have no mortgage and my kids have some money put aside for a deposit or similar thanks to inheritance so I have been putting a reasonable amount into pension and some into savings but its a private sector dc scheme so even with as much contribution as I could afford it’s pretty average.

I will have to help dcs through uni (both seem to be heading that way) but have made it clear this will be undergraduate, 3 year course only, I expect them to work where possible etc. after dd2 is through I will be 57 so the plan is to keep on in this role (if I can - who knows what will happen) until then. Once I don’t have to fund uni, I think realistically I will either look to go pt or change down. I am not planning on accessing my pension until early 60s.

i do want to wind down. I have worked since I was 14, back full time after kids and my job and family are full on. I’d like some time to transition, get some hobbies maybe make some new friends before full time retirement.

I had to switch from pt to ft when I was around 40 as the pt option no longer existed. I moved sideways into another field and started at the bottom.

For the next 10 years, I got as much experience as I could (ft) and changed jobs every 2-4 years, each time with a promotion and at least a 30% increase in pay. Now in my late 50s, I am earning 3 x what I was at 40 and as high in my field as I want to be. I am looking to retire from the top job in about 3 years when my youngest ds graduates from university and then slowly plan to plane down to pt in my early 60s until the state pension kicks in at 67.

My pension pot is healthy. I could retire now if I wanted but prefer to be in ft employment whilst I still have dependents.

I’m a teacher at a private school, and I worked my way up to HoD so that my DC could attend my school with free tuition. I just got the confirmation of their places for next year, woo!

This is my plan basically. Work in a leadership level at a really good school which will allow my DC free tuition until they graduate. Then, try and move into a government role in education for the last 10 years of my career. I probably won’t ‘need’ to do that, but I would like to give each of my DC money for a house deposit, and also fund their tertiary education.

I'm 46 with 4 DC who are now 12, 15, 17 and 20. I went back to work nearly ten years ago after having DC and trained in a "career" public sector job. However, I left after a year because I was having to commute nearly three hours a day and the organisation was too inflexible to be able to move me. I then went to work in education but again what was supposed to be an 8-4 job took over my life and I left after a year.

Currently working PT for the business DH and I have and enjoying the lack of stress and flexibility. I have always made voluntary NI contributions and we both have pensions as well as some property. I also have a side hustle which is my passion and pays me a bit extra on the side. In an ideal world this would become more of my income but it depends on how it goes. The DC still take up a lot of my time and two of them participate in high level sport which requires a big commitment.

DH is a director in another business and has a 25% share. It is starting to take off, particularly as they are now moving in the direction of AI. They are hoping to sell it at some point, hopefully when the value goes over 20 million (currently around 12) but it might all go tits up so we can't rely on that. We may get an inheritance too but Id rather DH's parents live a long and healthy life and spend it on enjoying themselves so can't rely on that either.