To be worried how I will manage to work until I am 67?

[brasty]

I am in my mid fifties. I already get more tired than I used to when younger. I wonder how I am going to manage to work full time until I am 67 years old. And continue to do my share of cooking, cleaning, family stuff and actually having some fun.

Haha! Confused! I'll have a cup of tea with you bit late for wine anyway.
And why are we getting so snippy with each other?
We all have our own joys and sorrows.

I personally have keyboard warrioritis....

I'm off to sleep if I have to down a half glass of wine to do it.

Cheers to you too, itsonkyme. Modern life is stressful. And these boards and topics can be polarising. Also, I'm having a bad day, as the whole royal wedding thing is pissing me off, while I'm selling my belongings to fund counselling. On the bright side, I'll have more cupboard space!

Cool, morphene. I'll hopefully join you in dream land, soon. First I have to find the neighbours cat that has snuck in and chuck it out. Fat, black, greedy moggy.... Where aaaree yoouuu?!

I think some people are mistaking a comment on a rational decision, in this case, suicide after carefully exploring other alternatives and being constantly miserable.

If I was the latter, I would not be here now. And yes, some of us have experienced having our close family killing themselves. This means we have an idea of what happens to the people left. However, we do not want or have to disclose every little detail of our lives here, this is after all the internet.

All we ask ( me and my parasites, I am not the queen 😉) is a valid discussion about euthanasia because of population and human rights issues and knowledge that we will not be able to live with dignity in our old age/retirement.

Apologies if this does not make any sense, it is late after all.

Except most people now in their mid fifties and early sixties started work far earlier than the present generation

I started full time work when I was 14 years old. In Woolworth's in Leeds. It sounds ridiculous now, I know. My school did not have a fifth form (which admittedly some did, in order for you to take O levels. But they were the posher schools) Mine didn't. You were in your fifteenth year, so it was time for you to leave. It was a standard school in a slum area. Yet it churned out pupils who were mature enough to take on a full time job. Most of my classmates were champing at the bit to get a proper job and to be 'grown up'

I was lucky enough to land a job with a a large telecom company who paid for me to go and get some 'O' levels. I got five on what they called 'day release' I got English, English Lit, History, Geography, and Maths O level. All at their expense.

I also got free lunchtime meals between 15 to 18 years old. That wouldn't happen now. Mostly because nobody really has a proper job at that age and young folks nowadays lack the commitment that we could be relied upon to have.

At that time, and in that situation, we knew which side our bread was buttered and we knew when we had got lucky. It's all different now.
Kids are coming out of uni with a degree in media studies and expecting to fall into a well paid job and be paid thousands for it.

I came out of school at 14 and got lucky because I extended myself.

Nowadays, forty years later everything has changed,

Classroom education has taken a massive nosedive.

Behappylalala

I know. I take that on board, me dear,

I'm not judging. It's just not that easy for most of us to get away from our own thoughts. I agree that it would be a brilliant if we could.

It's sometimes impossible for us to do that though

My dd is now fast asleep, so I'm off to bloody bed.

I sleep when she sleeps.

zzzzzzzzzzzzz

Have you ever watched documentaries about tribes people's from around the world, they have very little material wealth but seem to enjoy life so much more. Outlook on life in most if not all cases is key. Suffering is the hardest burden to bear, whether people want to execpt it or not, it is there to teach us and grow. A hard concept to grasp I know.
The introduction of AI can solve the vast majority of the problems that people are speaking about on this thread. The world will look very different in 20 years time. I believe this will be used in a way to destroy the masses if we let it though. We have the resources now to solve a lot of the problems but think we are powerless to the control of the powers that be.

I'm guessing you aren't digging holes in the road, unloading lorries etc.

Well no I'm not! As I'm a 70 year old woman, I don't think that sort of work would suit me.

Well no. But I’ve heard that men work too and some of them do physical jobs.....

Have you ever watched documentaries about tribes people's from around the world, they have very little material wealth but seem to enjoy life so much more.

I dare you to go on to one of the threads where someone has nothing in their cupboards to feed their kids and is down to the emergency electricity.

I have a small pension of £40 a month that will start to pay out at 60. Nothing else.

Instead I took stupid (almost bankrupting myself) risks on buying a property. I had ccj's at one point plus debt management plan. And bailiffs at the door. Really stupid, but I was determined to keep the house.

I was divorced in my 30's and it cost me a fortune.

I now have 300k equity (but a new 20 year mortgage at £1600 a month) - so if 'something happened' I COULD move to an area of the country where I could buy outright.

I think we are INCREDIBLY lucky. It's only luck, have had very poor judgement and been made redundant at the worst times.

There is no way dh will be able to carry on in teaching til 60, honestly he will have to stop or move jobs by 50 I think - he works in an incredibly challenging school and last week he clocked up 80 hours. He's nearly 10 years younger than me too.

Right now I feel 'secure' because even if property prices fell through the floor in London and dh lost his job and I lost mine - there would still be SOME of that equity left to move and buy.

We've got a spare bedroom in London we could rent out if we couldn't pay the mortgage too.

Last year before we moved we got so close to losing the move as our buyer kept pulling out - dh was having to stay in a hotel at £1000 a month. We literally had 1 month left of 'room' on the credit card before the entire house of cards came down. Scariest time ever.

It’s goingbto be really hard for some people to carry on with their current work (and a minority with any work) into their late 60s onwards. The government should be planning for this but won’t as FPTP means every decision taken is short term. We should be looking at a residents wage (there is a name for this, can’t remember) for everyone, building more social housing, rent capping, taxing wealth more when everyone dies to help pay for the financial costs of keeping us all into old age. This will also have a knock on effect of keeping house prices in check. Unfortunately we live in a society of every person for themselves, I earned my wealth, why should I pay for someone who didn’t work hard/ made bad choices, etc etc. A crunch will come at some point though which will force a rethink of how we manage this. Despite the prediction that babies born now will live to 100, I actually think generations behind baby boomers will be in less good health, witness obesity among the young. The wealthy will live to a ripe old age, most of us will not.

This is why I have alternative investment's to a pension. Most ordinary people can’t afford to give up enough of their salary to put away enough to provide for retirement. There’s a major crisi being stored up, most people’s pensions are worth jack! This, I think, will be far more of an issue than Brexit. All thesetinkeringrefors are just to calm the masses

For those suggesting that people "just" need to have a positive state of mind, you do realise that's possibly the second worst thing to say with someone with depression? The worst of course being "Get a grip on yourself, and go for a brisk walk".

I do try to have a positive state of mind, and CBT has helped me to try to find something positive about every day. But when you are watching the overdraft getting bigger and bigger by the day on just basics like mortgage interest, utilities, food etc, and you wake up in pain which stays until you go to bed then wakes you up at night and will only get worse over time, and you cry at the slightest thing, and realise that your once-good brain just doesn't work as well as it used to, it's hard to think positively.

Then you get turned down yet again for one of the few jobs you feel able to do because "you're overqualified & will leave us as soon as something better comes along". You can't say why you're looking at a low level admin job, because then they will shy away from the mental health issue or just assume that you won't be naffed to really do the job well.

Then the car breaks down, the TV goes bang, and the freezer stops working, while the only income is ESA.

So yes I TRY to have a positive state of mind as much as I can, and have my gorgeous cats to help me, but some days I just want it all to be over with.

Allergic I have employed someone with a mental health problem who was over qualified. She was an amazing worker. I normally say to people not to disclose mental health problems to potential employers, but in your case it might be worth doing.

Doesn't look good for those of us who are full time carers for family

I had to work to till 65 nursing at night, hard work, a commute of almost 100 mile round trip, unable to sleep during the day, had started NHS pension 15 years previously, couldnt afford before 2 mortgages, unreliable (now ex) husband, 4 kids, debt caused by him.But because I went part-time as I got older, it ammounted to 12 years, is less than £4000 2nd DH 7 years younger than me. We downsized,moved to cheaper area, bought a "doer upper" got rid of the mortgage, soon after we moved, my DH went to work one day and was told company had liquidated there and then, so I had to rescind my retirement notice, and return to work fullt-iime, which I did for the next 3 years.Things have a way of sorting themselves out, they have to.

I don't know why people keep saying the Government need to start doing this, that and other. It's down to the individual to prepare for their old age and retirement. This attitude that it is someone else's problem won't help.

Well because we are going to be tripping over all the homeless old people in the streets Kath and it will make the place look untidy.

More likely the numbers of older people of working age on JSA and ESA will increase. And the numbers of relatives caring for elderly relatives will decrease.

If the powers that be stopped ripping most people off we wouldn't be in this predicament.

I also expect to see a rise in complaints amongst younger people about older workers clinging on to their jobs, but no longer really up to it.

Interestingly, I read yesterday from Robert Peyton that some sort of universal income is likely to become the norm as AI and and an aging population really start to bite. I also think that social care will end up under a central Gover mentioned remit as some counties such as Cornwall are facing a perfect storm of cuts, low income workers and a very large proportion of retirees getting more frail (and often have little back up in place as the family live elsewhere ).

Either than or dignitas will become more acceptable. I am a Millenial, so we are fucked financially in four different ways from house prices to university debt to pensions. We also need to find a way to pay for all the social care required - I think some sort of land or wealth tax is inevitable.

The answer is not forced suicide of older people, but a fairer society where working people can actually afford to live and save for retirement.