To wonder how the bloody hell I sm going to be still working at 70?

[ItsAWonderfulCervix]

Nurses, midwives, teachers, etc

Physically and mentally, how?

I'm pretty knackered now. I'll be hobbling with a zimmer by then.

And if we all have to work until we are 70 who will do the free childcare for our grandchildren?

How do you start setting up a pension? Mind you, I'm 24. There will be feck all when I retire

A 60+ teacher sat with a class of 28 foundation stage children does not paint a picture of positiveness.

How about getting a job you enjoy?

There are lots of people who work out of choice rather than economic necessity.

The question I'd ask the OP is: What's so bad about working?

50 more work Christmas parties:(

I have a job I adore. I work with 2-4 year olds. When I'm 70 I wouldn't be able to lift them safely, run after them etc. I would probably have to look into running training courses etc or writing about childcare. Neither of which are why I got into my job.

The question I'd ask the OP is: What's so bad about working?

Many ions are physically demanding, more are mentally demanding with high stress situations and constant deadlines and pressure.

Not many are fun and easy. I know that obviously some people have enjoyable jobs, but I don't think I'll be able to do mine at 70.

Suppose there wil be a big increase in people retiring from 'difficult' jobs and going to work part time shits in gift shops or something!

I too have no faith that the state pension will ever materialise for me. I am 10 years away from being eligible. A lot can happen in 10 years and I can't help thinking that the pension may be means tested by then - and because I have been saving into a personal pension since I was 41, I probably won't qualify. That possibility/probability spurs me on to save as much as I can now, while I am still working.

urbane it's not that we're against working. Many of us fear becoming too infirm to work or being made redundant and not being able to find another job because people assume we can't.

If you had seen what I've seen you'd understand. People so crippled with arthritis they struggle with the simplest of tasks, people with COPD or heart failure for whom just going to the toilet leaves them wheezing and gasping for breath, the people with dementia who no longer know who they are or where they are, some even forget how to eat or go to the toilet. Many of these people are under 70 and with each increased year of age the chances of developing at least one of these conditions rises exponentially.

I actually love my job ( well one of them). I don't smoke, drink, do drugs and I'm not obese so I've removed as many modifiable risk factors I can. However I'm not naive enough to believe it guarantees me continued good health, we can't know what the future holds.

Where are all these "easy" jobs going to come from. Have you tried job hunting recently? Even with a full set of jobs available to apply for it's rubbish never mind being physically capable of only a percentage of them add to that the ever increasing numbers of people in the same position and competing for positions.

A 60+ teacher sat with a class of 28 foundation stage children does not paint a picture of positiveness.

Why ever not? Would you like to explain, *RinkyDinkyDoo?

I have had quite a few jobs in my life, I moved around a bit, sometimes I changed jobs through choice, as I was offered better pay & conditions, but a couple of times it was for redundancy. Consequently I have several private pensions, none of which I paid into for long enough to get very much back. The one I paid into for longest is on target to pay me £3.70 per week when I retire! I know in theory you can move private pension funds when you move jobs, in reality I have never joined a scheme which wanted to accept my existing pension plan. Therefore I had no option to build up a solid pension in any one scheme. Given the concept of 'jobs for life' is now very dated, there must be loads of others like me. Without the state pension, I will have very little at all to live on. I have savings, but not enough to rely on for years of retirement. My mother got early onset dementia- what if I go the same way, I won't be able to work until I drop. It is all really scary TBH.

WHat's do bad about working?

Nothing. If you are physically and mentally able to.

I honestly will not be able to do this job in 30 years time.

Who else will employ me?

Most of my family don't make it to 60 so I doubt I will need a pension or a retirement!

The NHS pension scheme retirement age is 65 isn't it not 70?

Funding kids through university is not obligatory. Let
them fund themselves.

People dont think enough about retirement and it's a time bomb waiting to go off.

I think we'll end up with more polarisation. The healthier pensioners will work part time to subsidise their pensions, and maintain a work-life balance.

There will also be more people living in poverty and ill health whose life expectancy will suffer for that.

Two things may change the situation. We currently have the larger baby boom generation approaching retirement. There are also more older people who have benefited from positive changes in the 20th century leading to a top heavy pyramid. As the generation of people currently in their 30s and 40s reaches retirement, the weighting of the pyramid will shift favourably. Our current baby boom will become economicly active and the older population will dip slightly.

Also there's a polarised forcast for people living unhealthy lifestyles. If such a large proportion of the population is making themselves susceptible to a premature death before retirement, that eases demand on pensions. The question is what is the toll on healthcare? A major heart attack is cheaper on the system than a chronic disease.
Bleak stuff!

Just out of interest how much would i need to contribute to a pension now per month at the age of 42 , to have a decent livable pension at say 67 ?

I agree with grumpyoldbat on the previous page.

I'm 51, have worked since I was 19 in the private sector, full time and then self employed for the last 14 years. 6 mths maternity leave over the course of the full time employment. paid into various private pensions, currently paying in c. £50 per month (except the months when the payments bounce...) however they all seem to be worth bugger all looking at the income projections.

have no official retirement date in view and imagine I will have to go on as long as I can find something where someone will pay me to do it (not always easy, self employment not being very secure and part time paid employment not easy to find).

What really scares me more than working for longer though, is the prospect of being old, on the breadline, and being put through medical procedures just to extend my life and make me a burden on my family and the state.

I think we have gone too far in extending life in old age, to the extent where there are so many incapacitating conditions which are now treated but leave the individual in need of serious support or care. Doubt there will be much budget for that, so when the Grim Reaper shows up for me I will judge very carefully what the outcome could be when the doctors say "no, dont go yet, we can do this this and this..."

I think that, historically, we may be currently saving unusually little towards our retirements, while at the same time living longer.

As I understand it, a 19th century middle-class couple would be aiming to put 1/3 of working income towards retirement - which certainly puts my pension contributions into perspective.

Middle class in 19th century meant doctors, lawyers, factory owners etc. I'm pretty certain that today's doctors, lawyers and so on will have a comfortable retirement. The 19th century working class lived hand to mouth and didn't retire. I know my ancestors were still working as agricultural labourers into their old age. I hate to think what their lives must have been like.

I have heard that you should pay (your age/2)% of your income into your pension

ShinyBlackNose - yes and no. Yes, agricultural laborers were very definitely working class. However, there was a huge spread of incomes across the Victorian middle classes, from clerks and lodging house keepers to successful civil servants - even a doctor might be on a huge income or barely scraping by. Their big issue was that a woman and children might have £0 income (and 0 employability) if her husband died, so that a family as a whole couldn't rely on the obvious solution of working until the father dies.

Its because we spend the money, we have never ever put it away and saved the money for when we are old - spend today and don't worry about tomorrow.

My Dad paid into a pension scheme his whole working life. Got made redundant at 55 and couldn't find new work and then his health suffered. Just before he was at age to get his work pension - pension scheme went bust. Government bail out scheme did kicked in but there are o.k more to GP house going for a song and thus them getting an inheritance of a 2 bed nice area house.

I worked in IT every company had different pension scheme - by late 20's I had 3 different pension schemes - one of which I'm mid 30 now has already wound up other been taken over by someone else and I have more bloody schemes.

DH works in HE - has just 3 schemes - one local gov one of his Uni was different and the HE scheme that was in news recently as it's in a massive deficit and one he had with a private firm he was with 2 years. he's in his late 30's.

They all have some in but all pay admin fees or transfer fees and all send docs so complex that despite DH and I having post graduate degrees and very good understanding of maths we struggle to understand what they say.

It's not that people don't save - people save and get shafted and/or entire pension for life thing hasn't caught up with modern working practices of zero long term jobs. Plus with DC and price of living even basically it's bloody hard to save - I mean have you seen house prices these days or utility bills.

This whole feckless young shit - is just another blame game.

A 60+ teacher sat with a class of 28 foundation stage children does not paint a picture of positiveness.

A very good 63 year old one I know - had my youngest last year - just did. She was great. Retired more so her divorced DD could work with her doing unpaid childcare to help her out and spend time with her GC.

I know a Nursery nurse late 60, past 65 anyway, working with 2 and 3 at per-school best one there though the groups are smaller.

Other teachers not nearly as old I have seen burnt out - but then that's pat of the issue people age differently.

We might as well kill ourselves now, eh, Grumpy?

Grendelsmum - Bob Cratchit really would have been considered middle class by the Victorians???