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.

I don’t expect anything from the government when I retire. I am assuming at this point I am on my own.

DH and I have a plan we have purchased a small holding and we are going off grid, the idea is that we will be fully sustainable and able to live on very little money.

OP, YANBU - this is something i also worry about. Most of us are really going to struggle at retirement.

Unless we can keep up exponential growth (mathematically impossible on the longer time scales) then the stock market cannot continue to be a magic money tree for ever....and in fact could at the drop of a hat turn out to be a magic money pit.

It is a real concern. Because it is the very nature of the beast. Everyone, in our system, cannot be a winner.

Investment is risk, plain and simple. Governments work hard now to stabilise and remove extreme risk ("controlling" interest rates for example), but it would be a fantasy to think that they have somehow changed the nature of finance....that there can never be losses. Without risk there would be no return on investment.

I'm a senior HCP and my retirement date is when I'm 68. My NHS pension won't be enough to live on and I rent so won't have any assets.

I'm planning to start saving a bit next year when I've paid off existing debt but I already worry about retirement. My Mum was made redundant last year aged 60, hasn't been able to get a job and is going to have her house repossessed because she can't pay the mortgage.

God knows what she'll do.

In a way I think it would be fortunate if I didn't live till retirement age because with no assets, partner or children it currently looks fucking bleak.

I was also under the impression that the average pension fund doesn't necessarily beat inflation given you can't play the stock market if you have shares in everything simultaneously......

That's why investment managers are paid humungous amounts, to ensure that you at least match if not exceed the stock market performance. You also have to bear in mind that with a private pension, much of the pay out should be from interest/dividend payments that are made rather than eating into the capital - that's why currently you should calculate income as being approximately 2.5-5% of the value of the pot. If you "draw down" your pension, i.e. take part of the capital every year as income, you need to realise that as the pot decreases then the income it earns also decreases and accelerates the rate of value reduction.

Yanbu.
I'm 43 and have paid into a tiny private pension for 15 yrs. I'm due to get a few hundred a year from that. Not sure how much my ancient local government and current employer pension will add to that, but I won't be much as I'm part time.

I work my backside off keeping healthy but I've got a couple of things that could floor me (bowels and heart). The only thing I'm hanging onto is that my mortgage should be paid off by 55 and I can increase my hours and squirrel money away for a decade.

To those worried pensions will not exist when they are old, there will always have to be some provision. Lots of people simply do not earn enough to fund a pension that will support them throughout their old age. Even before the welfare state, there were workhouses and charities that paid a small pension to certain types of people. People in the past relied on their family to support them or went into the workhouse. Only the well off could afford to support themselves through retirement.

430 West that is very unfair and harsh. It is a FACT that not everyone can afford to take out a private pension.

That's why investment managers are paid humungous amounts, to ensure that you at least match if not exceed the stock market performance.

Everyone can't beat the average. You will end up with many, many who don't.

Go to Las Vegas. You may very well end up having a good night and walk out with considerable winnings. But the vast, vast majority will not. There would be no casino if that were the case.

430 West that is very unfair and harsh. It is a FACT that not everyone can afford to take out a private pension.

It is harsh, but more so very foolish. We are stable because of our social contract. Society will begin to darken when suffering reaches a critical point.

You would not know from looking at me that I get tired more easily. Nearly everyone I speak to of my age, including a friend who runs marathons, says the same.

Same for me brasty. I do all the same activities I always have, but they tire me out more. Something will have to change in order for me to keep working until 67, but I can't imagine what that would be.

DP and I both work in the public sector. We have relatively good workplace pensions, but the age we can take them goes up in line with the state pension age. We will have to keep working until at least 67.

As someone in my 30s this is a real concern particularly the masssive hole in the public sector pension pot.

If you look at my parents & their friends many had normal jobs e.g. police, teachers, etc & all retired before late 60s on pension of 30k+. They all own their own homes, many of them now worth 500k+ & some of this did with only one parent working.

This is not a pop at baby boomers & completely aware you can't generalise an entire generation but how have we gone from that to what we have now so quickly?

Yes I really don't think younger people realise that you do get more tired. Both DP and I work full time, play sports, support family and socialise. And we are bloody exhausted at times.

boomboom78 to answer your question, I refer you to my previous post on page 2 of the thread

I guess at 50 I'm still too young to understand.

When I was Uni age I used to spend one day every week (it was Thursdays) almost useless. I usually had an 8-9am lecture & my dad would drag me out for dinner in the evening; otherwise I slept & ate all day. That went on most weeks for years.

I'm a lot more energetic ever since.

myusername could have written what you have said.
I’m in my forties, and I actually think I will just finish work one day get measured up for my coffin.
Don’t have any private pension

I understand about the low paid but for people in good pension schemes like social workers, teachers, NhS and Civil Service I think you should be OK. If you have had a full career you retire on 2/3 pension mostly. Now I know people will say but I can't but my income by 1/3 but the reality is you don't. You pay less tax, you don't pay NI, you don't pay pension contributions so the difference in what you take home before you retire and what you take home after isn't that great and if you don't have commuting costs even better.

I will be one of the first group of women to get SRP at 65, if I was 8 hrs older I would get it about 3 months earlier I think. I am retired from my old job for 3 years but I do a few hours in one job, run a small on line business, have my private pension. I also do lots of childcare with grandchildren so my NI is covered. I am also my husband's carer. I do get tired but think I could manage close to fulltime if I didn't have the caring commitments. Financially it is a bit tight at times but only because I am doing lots to the house so I won't have to worry in future.

grannytomine Only if you have worked in that job for 40 years. And very few women have done that. Maternity leave used to only be 3 months, many mums took years out.

Missed that monumental but just read it. Very depressing but your probably right. It won't be an easy adjustment though!

I don't think the majority of public service pensions are 2/3 final salary any more. Most (e.g. the central govt one I'm in) are based on 80ths so a maximum of 50% after 40 years (I did nowhere near that), and some I understand have changed to career average earnings.

Bottom level civil service jobs aren't really paid that well either, these people will fall into the bracket of minimal work pensions.

Must be me then, I worked for 43 years and had 4 kids. Most of my friends were the same. I don't know anyone my age who had years off.

I know pension changes are going to affect younger people but for people who have been in a job for 30 years it won't make much different will it? They can't backdate the changes can they?

The current doom & gloom over pensions has also played its part in the housing crisis - since people realised their pensions were not as safe as they hoped and in many cases paid out a lump sum rather than an annuity, there has been a corresponding rise in buy-to-let. Many people choose to invest their pension pot in property to yield an income in retirement because it is a type of investment they feel they understand and therefore know how to manage (unlike the stock market, for example)

I'm late thirties and not had a career, so no pension savings. Also have a lot of debt from studying. I plan to end my life when I get too old and tired. There's no other wat, as although I will get a small inheritance, it won't do much to help apart from pay off my debt. I'll try and enjoy my life as long as I can then check out with an overdose of valium. That sounds perfectly pleasant.

I retired a couple of years ago aged 59, I have health issues and couldn't have worked until 67. I don't have a work pension at all as I have always been in low paid work, but we claim pension credit and DH's state pension starts next year. It's not a high income but we own our house outright and the pension credit pays a similar amount to my old wage so we're used to living on that amount of money. Plus I don't have to pay for travel to work (we have free bus passes) or other work costs, and spend more time growing veg/shopping around at markets. DH and I get PIP and we get Carer's Allowance for each other, and we don't have to pay council tax. Bigger expenses are an issue but my adult dc have done well and are generous (they clubbed together to replace my ancient washing machine last month, and my DDs have paid for us to join them on holiday). I think because we've been on low incomes in the past, it's been manageable for us to cope without private or work pensions now as we've never had a high cost lifestyle.