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.

It seems to be have been taken too far. Plenty of people die or become seriously ill before 70. Friends of ours both earn over £100k each and don’t spend a penny, barely seeming to enjoy life. Say they’re whacking as much in the pension pot as possible. I’m frugal and I have plenty saved in ISAs and property, but my God I’m not putting everything into an almost fictitious pot of money that we may or may not be allowed access to at 70. No thanks.

I am very much planning to retire by 55. I’ve worked at least 4 days a week through my children being young. I don’t think you can have everything. I’ve always paid at least 10% into pensions even when I was first starting out on a graduate scheme and hope that time and compounding will do the heavy lifting.

I am quite chilled out about the mortgage. We’re currently not due to pay it off until 68 but pension should be sufficient to pay it off alongside any inheritance.

At times working with small children was just horrendous and hard work. However, you then also see the converse of people staying at home during that time but struggling later on.

Our biggest risk is not retirement- it’ll be the period between 50 and 55 when we still need to earn to support children but it’s the age where health seems to be more of a lottery and where I think a degree of age discrimination in the workplace starts to kick in.

I work part time. I am actually upping my hours and may even go full time for a bit before adjusting again when I start to feel tired...I like my job and have another promotion in me in the next 10 years. I have always paid into a pension so if I keep working for the next 20 years will be comfortable in retirement.

Just started what I plan to be my very last job at the age of 55. Full time, plan to do another 2 years max before retiring. Pension pot currently at around £350k and I also have a decent amount in ISAs which will be enough to pay mortgage off in 3 years with some left over. Final salary pension of around £5k per annum kicks in when I'm 60. Feel like I'm in a good place to retire early.

Early fifties, had enough of work, slowly reducing hours, then at 60 plan to live off my work pension until state pension age. I will use up most of my work pension doing this with a bit left at state pension age. Have a bit of savings too.

I intend to keep working until at least 67 if I’m able to as my work is constantly busy and stressful, most nights working once home in the evenings. I have a private pension and investments and may look at dropping to 2 or 3 days at 65/67. DH is planning to retire before that as he works abroad, his DF retired at 50! My DM had dementia and to be honest I want to keep going to keep my mind as active and focussed as possible and I also want to help my DDs financially if I can. The oldest age I would retire, if I’m able and well, is 70. But at the end of the day our plans all depend on health and ability.

I haven’t read the other thread but I used to work full time in a stressful career (and had the money which came with that, of course) and I genuinely look back and think I was killing myself! I was just so unhealthy.

Now work three days a week in a lower stress job, have less money but am so much happier and healthier. I think this is a better situation for everyone including my children.

I suppose the ideal is a well paid full time job which isn’t stressful but I never managed to find one of those.

Interesting that there are more than a few who are planning to do more working hours and later retirement dates to be able to provide more financial support to the DC. I think that’s a notable shift from the past early retirees where the expectation was that the DC could be self sufficient sooner. Not that they didn’t financially help necessarily, but it wasn’t such a factor in their own life planning.

I’ve noticed this too. I actually work with a man who retired and has now come back to work, his primary reason is to provide financial support to his DC who are all adults in their 20s/30s, and have no additional needs as far as I know.

I worked part time until my DC's were in secondary school, and worked full time from then and added voluntary contributions to my pension to try and catch up. However, my DH was made redundant and now works in a zero hours contract part time due to MH so I cant do that anymore, as I'm now responsible for all the bills. I'm a bit annoyed about it tbh, as its thrown my plans out, but that's life I suppose. My plan is still to carry on full time until about 55-57 - I'm 52- and my DC's are adults then gradually drop hours until I get to state pension age. I really want to travel again (as I did before I got married) and hope I will be able to do that while working part time.

I'm not planning to stay on in work to help my DC out when they are adults. I have been around for my DC whilst they have been at school, during divorce, during COVID, supported all activities, given them lots of different experiences, helped or coerced with school work and have put a little money in savings for them. I figure I have done my part to enable them in life. If I win the lottery or they are in dire straights I will of course try to help them out as best I can, but I am not smoothing their life financially all the way through their lives at the cost of my having a few active years to do as I wish.

My plan is to downsize and give them a lump sum.

my pensions and cash should support me well enough. Not luxury but enough for basics. Together with dh we should have enough to live on plus a few decent holidays.

when they’re reasonably independent and unlikely to end up back home I’ll sell and get a city centre flat. That will reduce expenses significantly, and there should be enough equity to split between us for a few good holidays and maybe a house deposit/loan repayment for the kids.

i intend to leave the house to dc anyway- so will need to downsize as my IHT allowance will be halved if I don’t leave to dh.

I really don’t want to sacrifice retirement years for them though. I don’t want to retire when I’m too old to travel and actually live. I reckon retire at 60 and I’ll hopefully have a good 10 years of being relatively fit and active, walking, cycling, surfing holidays etc. then I can “retire” and potter around doing the garden and shit.

Interesting that there are more than a few who are planning to do more working hours and later retirement dates to be able to provide more financial support to the DC.

I had help to buy my property from parents & I have been saving for the dcs deposit since birth.

Any inheritance will primarily be used to set up my dc. There is an interesting economic theory that when the boomers start dying there will be a large supply of family properties on the market and prices will be suppressed or at least stagnant. Plus families are smaller now & utilities are never going to get much cheaper so people don't necessarily want bigger homes. I also think governments will come for that housing wealth as there aren't many other routes for raising tax.

I've mostly worked part time as I've brought up my kids. I'm in my early 50s and run a small business which is almost a full time job and will certainly be full time in the next 12 months.

I've got 2 kids - one at uni and the other about to go - who I'd like to support in whatever way I'm able to over the next decade. That may mean financially or, later down the line, with childcare if they eventually decide to have kids. So really, I'm keeping all options open (and this all assumes I'll stay in good health) but I'd like to earn as much as I can in the next 5 years or so.

I've paid into a private pension since my late 20s and I'm due the state pension when it kicks in. They'll amount to nothing spectacular but it'll be enough to retire on somewhere in my early 60s. We have some savings but nothing major. Husband will have a higher pension than me. The mortgage will be paid in our early 60s but I expect we could end up downsizing sooner. Any inheritence will probably go straight to the kids.

It really does depend on your salary and also lifestyle wishes though. Lots of people earn more in 3 days per week than others do in 5 days.

The majority of the large family houses on the 1980s housing estate I live on are occupied by boomers - mostly couples, but many singletons too.

I have started to question this, really. With the age increasing, so we need as big a pension pot?

Just planning to retire next year… I’ll be 56 and DH will be 58. DC both graduates, both in career jobs and by then both in the housing ladder.

we’ve both got a mix of defined benefit and defined contribution pensions plus full state pensions from age 67.

we sacrificed time with dc in favour of full time work, paid avcs and we’ve taken hits such as negative equity too over the years.

we started talking to financial advisors recently and gave enough funds to see us through so that’s it… we plan to now enjoy active years rather than working any longer.

if I could give anyone starting out advice it would be to pay in early as you can as with compounding, it’s possible to accumulate a good pension pot and retire early.

I'm training to be an Educational Psychologist. My older children are adults and mostly independent (but still live at home). One is under 18 and has additional needs.

I plan to work 4 days per week for the LA when I qualify. Then retire possibly around 65.
I don't have much company/private pension due to low paid jobs, just state pension to claim at 68.

It depends on my circumstances but for now I'm hoping that 15 years local government work, and maybe some private work to supplement in retirement, will do.

Dream: retrain, earn more, eventually reduce to PT + side gig.

Reality: FT til I drop dead.

I’m hoping to finish by 55, I had my dc younger though

Kids are 9 and 12. I’m currently 3 days a week and am lucky enough to stay this way until they are both finished with school. I’m 43. I don’t feel I’m lacking anything not being full time. Also, I teach Year 2 and it just might finish me off if I was full time! And despite the rubbish pay and often difficult working conditions, it’s definitely fulfilling. But it’s exhausting so I can’t envisage doing it past 60 and may well do something else once my youngest leaves home.

Earnt a lot in my 20s, saved and bought property, then left to retrain in a challenging and secure but less well paid field. DH similar. So we are now asset rich and relatively income poor, but with good pension pots and mortgage-free property. Plan to work PT another 10-15 years or so (takes me to early 60s) and reevaluate based on health, DC income etc (both currently expensively at uni). Hope to retire about then(or retrain in something else with no view to profit! Like art. I love collecting skills and knowledge), but as DH and I are already both PT and having a nice life, working til 65 or 70 might be sustainable.

Who knows. Unexpected shit happens.

Can I (73 years) just say make sure your DHs pensions (if they are private) are transferable before and after retirement. Just in case something unexpected happens. Mines wasn't. Fortunately we had savings and I had a small work pension so I was OK. Even after Covid-19 got him at 67 in 2021. Most pensions are but best to check.

@OnlyLittleOldMe sorry to hear about your husband.

Sorry if this is a stupid question but do you (or anyone else) know the best way of checking a pension is transferable? Is it usually obvious in the paperwork or is it case of contacting the provider to check?

I am named beneficiary in my DH’s pensions…will that do the trick?