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 love the idea that we can all "choose" to have high paying jobs, live frugally and save a third of our income into a pension.

I'd love to do that. Where are these jobs being handed out please?

RemainOptimistic it was ever thus. When I was a young mum with my mortgage at 15% I wished I could opt out of my pension, we weren't allowed to then it was part of our contract. Now I thank heaven I didn't have the choice but it was hard at the time.

octopusballs most people won't have 2 lots of PIP, or 2 lots of carers allowance, which is probably in the region of £200 per week added together. I for example am not quite disabled enough to claim anything for my arthritic back & hips, and wouldn't have anyone to care for me at home anyway, so will just get state pension & the smallish amount I have from a private pension.

Most people don't get free bus passes at 60 either.

I'm looking forward to the bus pass. I'm not sure how I get one but we will face that when the time comes.

I'm not even 30 yet and I very much doubt retirement age will be 67 by the time I get there. I don't have a pension as I'm self employed and can't afford one right now.
I don't worry about it to much because like I say I'm sure the goal posts will be moved and I will die before I retire. Sad really, we're born, we work our arses off, we die. When are we supposed to truly enjoy life?!

I'm heading towards mid 30s and I fully expect to have no pension provision from the state. I'm lucky in my job as the private pension is decent, although there always seems to be ways of fucking around with it.

I'm worried about my own health; I've had a chronic illness for a long time now and the pattern is that it gets worse. I'm ploughing more money into provision for losing my job due to ill health. Definitely won't qualify for any benefits.

I'm also worried about my mum; she's 20 years older than me and is staring retirement with ever shifting goalposts in the face. She was a SAHM and then low income worker for the best part of 3 decades.

Also mid 50s, a social worker and cannot imagine doing my job for another 12 years. As I worked part time because of children for 17 years, my pension will be not be a large one so I need to work full-time now to boost it. I would love to go part-time again, but this is my last opportunity to get a better pension. Fortunately we should be able to pay our mortgage off within 2 years so may be then....

My latest statements from my private pension providers advise me that the sum annual total of income I can expect to receive from them on retirement (65) is around £2400. I intend to liquidate my funds asap (next year) and use the sum to pay off my mortgage. I will then be walking the financial tightrope when I do eventually become eligible for the state pension.

I fully expect to be working till I drop BUT what worries me more is who will employ me? It's all very well telling us that we will have to work - I'm not unhappy to do so - but that depends on employers being willing to take us oldies on.

I’m 60 very nearly but still doing some freelancing here and there. My retirement date is 2024. I thank goodness that I have always paid into a pension and won’t have to rely on the state provision. I’m lucky enough to have inherited some money and I have a property abroad that I could sell if necessary. What I would say to you if you are young is make sure you pay into a private pension etc NOW. Too many oldiewonks like me didn’t and now have to face working forever. Pension ages will get higher and the provision will get less. So save now. Good luck to you.

I'm mid 40's, rent and cannot save. No inheritence in the offing - what happens when retire? How am I going to pay £1k rent (which will of course go up) out of my state pension?!! That suicide booth is sounding like a good plan, better than being homeless at 67!

Once you are retirement age, unless you already have an ongoing claim, you can not start a new claim. Even if you are ill or disabled enough to otherwise get it.

fluffi Difference between choosing not to, which plenty of people do, and only being able to pay into a pension fund and get a small amount. Also inheritance can make a massive difference.

I'm nearly 64.
I've seen my state pension age move from 60 to 62 to 65 and 3 months.
I worked full time as a nurse from leaving school to five years ago when I seriously smashed my ankle and could no longer spend hours on my feet. I worked until last June in the third sector, again full time. I reached the point where I was so exhausted I seriously thought I would be dead before I reached retirement. We have a mortgage for another 5 years.
I hate a very small private pension, my DH is self employed. I care for two very elderly parents in their 90's.
I am learning to live extremely frugally, something I never envisaged when I was young.
It's no fun.

Brasty yes I’m very grateful to have inherited something. However I would manage without it though probably more straitened. The point is I really persevered with pension contributions and I’m so glad I did. Better a pension contribution than an iPhone X is my point.

grannytomime The state pension provision is actually better for younger people than those approaching retirement. You need less NI stamps and nobody is contracted out so everyone who has enough NI gets the maximum state pension.

They can't backdate changes, but they can totally change the basis of the pension scheme from a certain date. And yes I think public sector pensions are now all based on 1/80th.

I have always worked, but have worked part time. When I was younger there was no afterschool clubs, breakfast clubs and the like. Maybe there was in places like London, but I never came across any. And before OFSTED came into place many nurseries were poorly run and I would not have left a child in most of them. Most mums I knew that worked full time all through the kids early years had family who helped with child care. Now days, although it costs, there are far more options.

Women were also still fighting for equal pay. The first job I ever had in a factory, all the young women were put on the factory floor, the young men the same age as me were made into foremen or trained to do forklifts and were paid more. This was still common then.

the rules appear to be in constant flux

This is the problem.
I'm mid 30s, I've got a fairly generous average earnings pension as does DH.
But they keep fiddling with the terms, the ages, amount you can save and it be protected etc.
Someone needs to do some clever maths and do some long term forcasting what as a country we need to be taxed to fund

1. NHS
2. care of elderly and disabled
3. those who need additional support
4. local councils
5. education - including university.
6. emergency services
7. pensions
8. other stuff I have forgotten

Present this in a sensible way which is easy to understand and justify.
If We all need to be taxed more to support everyone, then that's fine. But explain this to the working public.
Then restructure the business tax system. If Amazon sell an item in the UK and supply it from a UK warehouse, they get taxed.
If Starbucks serve coffee in the UK, they get taxed.

fluff Yes I perserved with my pension contributions as well, which is why I will have £4000 a year pension. An iphone is out of my affordability bracket even without a pension.

presumably you have made other financial arrangements for when you retire!

I have, but even in a reasonably paid job I can't save enough. What do you suggest I do, stop paying the mortgage?

Can't believe how many of us are planning the "Goodnight Vienna " option. The idea of getting old in the cold, with little money and not wanting to burden my dd are all deciding factors for me.
If the "suicide drug club" is taking new members count me in

It's grim though isn't it - I hope our society becomes caring again, I have hope, but realistically I can't see it.

YANBU OP. I'm ten years younger than you and have been wondering the same thing. I'm knackered already.

DH and I each stand to inherit a small amount, but that could easily change of course. It is a worry.

makeourfuture, your post genuinely made me lol.

I often have that thought myself.

My dad is still working full time aged 70. I sure you will be fine OP

FFS people who say just save really annoy me. Some people have no idea just how precarious some peoples income is.

And by the way, when I was younger I was earning less in real terms than the amount you now need to get tax credits. I got nothing.

I am really shocked at how many on here don't seem to have provided for their old age. We all know it's coming, don't we, so surely it's best to prepare when we are younger rather than get to 50 something and then wake up to the hard facts.

It's been known for decades that we shouldn't rely totally on the state pension. There are millions of so called baby boomers who have either retired or are about to, and it stands to reason that the government (apart from the idiotic Corbyn of course who as we all know ,has got a magic money tree!) can't afford a generous state pension for all.

It's like anything in life, it's all about priorities, and for us, preparing for old age was something we thought about years ago.