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Original poster

to be feeling a bit french over having to work til 66!!

48 replies

babymutha · 20/10/2010 13:06

Sixty Flippin Six!!! is the plan to make sure most of us die shortly after (or before) reaching retirement age?

Get your marchin boots on?

OP posts:
MrsC2010 · 20/10/2010 13:09

Hmmm. My dad retired over 10 yrs ago at around 54 (lucky bugger) and is still more than capable of working at 66. But then I know some the same age who aren't. Who knows.

ArseFeckDrink · 20/10/2010 13:09

The problem is you won't likely die till you are pushing a hundred (well not a problem as such!) 60's really isn't that old anymore is it?

Original poster
babymutha · 20/10/2010 13:22

mrsc - my dad took early retirement too, but he's not capable of working and is 63. Could it be that your dad is capable of working BECAUSE he took early retirement and left the stress and day to day grind behind?

OP posts:
Highlander · 20/10/2010 13:24

PMSL at "feeling a bit French" Grin

Are you going to let some sheep loose in your local town centre? Wink

MrsC2010 · 20/10/2010 13:32

Nope, in his old job (a pilot) he might have struggled but in an 'ordinary' job he'd be fine. He still freelances as a pilot, lectures and does an awful lot of manual work round my folk's place and on their boat. Everyone is different is all I'm saying. In this day and age many of us will live till our 80-ies, we could still have 20 yrs of retirement (one of my Grannies is 88 and the other is 94). Don't get me wrong, I'm all for finishing sooner (DH and I both teachers Confused) but nowadays 66 isn't old.

Original poster
babymutha · 20/10/2010 13:49

Mrs C - wish I had your dad's energy! I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be ageist - but I see both my parents in their early 60's, both worked very hard, now retired and a bit worn out.

Highlander - where can I get hold of sheep in south london [scours yellow pages]

But seriously - the French are rioting about the retirement age being raised to 62! We will grumble a bit and huff around but nothing will change. In fact by the time I get to retirement age it will probably be 70 (at least). Angry

what am I thinking... there won't be any state pension when I get to retirement age...

OP posts:
emptyshell · 20/10/2010 13:51

My brother's comment a while ago when changing his degree course and driving my mother crackers was, "well I'm going to be working till I'm dead - may as well do something I like doing."

expatinscotland · 20/10/2010 13:53

You are kidding yourself if you think you'll be able to stop at 66.

Here's teh deal, 'retirement' was supposed to last, statistically, the last 5 years before your life expectancy was met.

In other words, you were supposed to work till you were near carking it.

It was never meant for adults to spend 40% of their lives not working.

We, people my age, near 40, will shortly be toiling to support today's pensioners who will still be alive when we were 66, after their not having worked for 40-50 years, knowing full well that we will get nothing, utter FA, for supporting them to play golf for the past 40 years.

If they think I am going to take that lying down, they have another thing coming.

If we're all in this together, then why is their neck more sacred than mine or that of my children's?

MrsC2010 · 20/10/2010 13:55

Oh my mum is a completely different story, at 60 she hasn't worked in years.

Fairly classis baby boomers, grrr, as much as I love them! Nice pensions, house prices gone in their favour, no mortgage on a £750k house (bought for £250k mortgage free in 1999 after retirement)...all the things DH and I will struggle to ever have. Bloody house prices, we could just about afford£250k, and would never have to move, but £750k??!!

Lauriefairycake · 20/10/2010 13:56

You're supposed to die shortly into retirement! - it's a very western and recent thing to expect a loooong retirement.

My gran retired at 60 and then lived a further 30 years - as long as she had bloomin' worked! She had a second career after retirement (on full public sector pension).

Lauriefairycake · 20/10/2010 13:57

I've started another thread this morning about means-testing pensions and trying to find a way to at least approach this subject.

expatinscotland · 20/10/2010 13:58

Exactly, Laurie!

And we're goign to go back that way.

Why?

Becuase people like me are going to get fed up of paying for people just a generation above us to sit around and not fucking work when we're expected to support that by working till we drop.

Sorry, but fuck 'em.

GetOrfMoiLand · 20/10/2010 13:59

Totally, totally agree with expat.

I fully expect to work til I drop. My daughter will probably do the same. I don't see why pension funds should have to pay for lengthy retirements. I think it is perfectly feasible to expect people to work until their mid 70s, tbh.

I have no intention of retiring personally.

MumNWLondon · 20/10/2010 14:00

My grandma was very Hmm about being forced by NHS rules to retire at 70. She was a GP and of course COULD have retired at 60 but chose to keep on working but at that point.

By the time we are old, the retirement age will be 70. When the retirement age of 65 was fixed for men after WW2 the life expectancy for men was 66!

ShirleyGarrote · 20/10/2010 14:01

yy expat.

Fancy not having a look at the universal benefits for penshioners. FANCY.

GetOrfMoiLand · 20/10/2010 14:01

I saw in the paper a couple of weeks back talking about welfare budgets and where the cuts were going to hit.

By FAR the largest weldfare pot is that of the state pension, by far exceeds that of income support, child benefit, jobseekers all put together.

Put 'em out to work, I say

GetOrfMoiLand · 20/10/2010 14:01

Funnily enough lots of pensioners vote for the liberals and torys.

ShirleyGarrote · 20/10/2010 14:03

PENSHIONERS?

I have gone a bit mental.

expatinscotland · 20/10/2010 14:03

I'm not running. A lot of these people are only 20 years older than I am!

They are not old. And I will not toil away for them because they expect me to.

Fennel · 20/10/2010 14:04

I don't mind the idea of working til 66 or beyond, but I am very aware that most of the men in my parents' generation in our families retired at 50. and they are still all healthy and mentally alert and physically active, 20 or 30 years on. That is a long, long time to be retired and in good health.

66 doesn't seem that old to me, not when women of my age are supposed to be likely to live til 90.

RandomMusings · 20/10/2010 14:06

lol at a bit french and penshioners

a small ray of laughter in a bleak day

OldLadyKnowsNothing · 20/10/2010 14:07

"They are not old. And I will not toil away for them because they expect me to."

What's your alternative, expat? Live on benefits yourself till you retire?

GoreRenewed · 20/10/2010 14:08

Work until I drop? No thanks. I am not going to 'drop' at 66. It doesn't bother me. I like my job. I like having the money it earns.

NomDePlume · 20/10/2010 14:09

lol @ feeling a 'bit French'

Grin
expatinscotland · 20/10/2010 14:10

'What's your alternative, expat? Live on benefits yourself till you retire?'

Where did you get the idea that I live on benefits, pray tell? Because, well, I don't.