How can I carry on working until I'm 67?

[hulmegirl1]

I work in the NHS and it's a physically and mentally demanding job that although vital is not well paid.
I am in my mid 50s and am definitely a lot more tired than I used to be.
Quite often I get home (my job means I'm standing most of my shift) and I'm exhausted physically and mentally.
I can't see that I can carry this on until I'm 67. My husband is five years older than me and self employed and doesn't earn much so we rely on my meagre salary to ensure the bills are paid.
Does anyone have any ideas how we are all going to cope with this new reality?
I know if I'd been advised a lot sooner I'd have made very different decisions.
I still have never had a letter advising me of my retirement date and really was not aware until well into my 40s.

Everyone I know working over 60 has compromised or got a different job. So that’s going part time, or changing job completely (and they’ve gone on to work in shops, Be delivery drivers, work as receptionists, admin assistants and so on)

Excuse my ignorance but why would you need to carry on with the same role for the last few years of employment?

I’m mid 40s, so 10 years younger. what I don’t get is how people oy recently realised that they would have to work longer? i remember discussing at uni (so 25 years ago!) how we would likely have to work until we are 70, and would have to prepare.
I agree it’s not great for manual jobs. on the other hand, retirement was never supposed to be for 20 years plus, the current situation is extremely unusual. something will have to give!

passthecherrycoke, because it means for most a drop in pay.

I'm definitely feeling the pain of the 'sandwich generation' I belong to that's for sure. I've recently applied for a less well paid job but one that I can hope to do for longer. Fingers crossed my age doesn't go against me.

I'm 50 and in the NHS, I am starting to feel more tired recently and had cardiac problems recently.
DH and I are making plans to retire earlier. Maybe do something "easier".
We quite like the idea of fostering.

Yura You do know there was a long phase in of this change, that was more recently scrapped? That is what has taken people by surprise.

clairemcnam Yes naturally, but I guess the assumption is life is starting to wind down (mortgage paid etc) because after all, if the desire is to start drawing your pension instead of working it will be far less than your salary, no matter how good it is.

@clairemcnam i know, but it was extrem likely to happen! the chance of not getting hit by it for anybody who is now younger than 60 was very, very low.

Is there a reason your partner can't take on some employed work to pay more of the bills OP? And if you post your expenses, I bet people could help you whittle it down a bit. Could maybe be used to go in your pension so you can claim earlier without losing out or help you reduce your hours?

I'm 58. I started a 2nd career at 43. I had 8 years at home with the children before that. It wouldn't have been possible under the old rules. I have recently had a huge promotion.

I knew at 35, 23 years ago, that pensions rules would change.

DH os a workaholic but has changed direction to work at a pace sustaonable for another 10 years. Still works 10 hour days.

I'll keep going for as long as possible. May reduced hours in the next two to five years.

Will be able to take my occupational pension.

Mortgage is paid. Children's education is paid for. Most of my money can now be saved.

My grandparents were farmers. They did hard, physical jobs into their 80s. No occupational pensions.

I think the changes are marvellous for all sorts of reasons. I love working.

@OhTheRoses same for me. it was entirely predictable more than 20 years ago (although i would love to retire at 67 or so, but that’s a pipedream- 70 would be great)

passthecherrycoke - you do know not everyone older owns a house? Plenty of people still rent and have the same bills as before. And others have a mortgage that runs until they are 60 or 65. And they may have extra costs. So we paid for extra care for FIL. Others my age are subsidising their young adult children.
Yes if you had a big mortgage and have paid it off, you will be better off. But this does not apply to everyone.

OP, you need to try and move to a less physically demanding role.
It's hard because I think some people believed that what was available when they were in their 20's would remain the same by the time they retired (final salary pensions, early retirement options etc). Around 30 I realised the career I was in was not sustainable as I got older (crazy hours, young person bias). I retrained with half a mind to having a career that would work as I aged. I'm planning that as I age I can do less hours, some private work or consultancy.. what skills do you have that be used in a different context op?

@applesarerroundandshiny

Haffiana just looking at your ridiculous response of 19:35 copying in a previous post and saying 'wtf are you talking about '

If you actually read the post you are responding to instead of leaping on to your high horse you would see that the poster was talking to insancerre and not you.

Well yes, exactly. I was responding to the point that the poster made just as you are responding to me except that I responded to the content, rather than making a (deeply ironical) ad hominem post.

OhTheRoses - I come from a farming family. We persuaded my father to stop farming in his late 60s as he was going to drop dead on the farm. He was no longer capable of doing the work and was getting ill on it. Most tenant farmers I know retire in their 60s. The ones that keep going either have adult children who do the more physical work, or can hire staff. I dont know any tenant farmers in their 80s who are still farming without this considerable help.

clairemcnam

Sorry I’m confused. Surely the argument is

• I can’t work until 67 because it’s too hard. I want to draw my pension earlier but I can’t. How can I work that much longer?

Which indicates
-said person wants to live off their pension

• said person can afford to live off their pension

Of course there will be a state pension. Otherwise people would starve in the streets. And putting enough by to replace the state pension, rather than top it up, is beyond the financial reach of the average person.

There might be a state pension but doesn't mean there will be for everyone. I do expect it will be means tested. The fact the government has imposed a law whereby all companies must pay into a pension for their employees is very telling.
I'm lucky I work for a very generous company who pay into private pensions for me. There's a sliding scale but basically, I put in 8% of my salary, they put in 16% so I'm getting 24% each year.

That is very generous whisky.
I suspect I will die before I reach retirement age. So problem solved I guess.

There won’t be a state pension to speak of for anybody. if you have any assets (house etc) you will be asked to live of these. if not, the equivalent of universal credit (and the expectation to work!) until you drop. the current pension scheme is not sustainable

I could definitely see it going like child benefit, being kept available to the large majority and maybe even all, but frozen for lengthy periods so the value erodes in real time.

I am 68 and still working 5 days a week. Do all my own housework and gardening and look after a husband with MS. No problem for me.
Good for you!

I am bloody knackered early fifties, bringing up teenagers alone, FT work, elderly parent care. I completely empathise with OP who is in a much more physical job than mine Have some fucking empathy

I remember my.brother making a point about police pensions. For every 1 job they pay it 3 times. My grandad was a police officer and he got his pension in his 50s, then when he died in 2011 aged 87 my granny now gets the pension AND they then have to pay pension to the person who took his job (and is now probably also retired). That is not sustainable!

It is just the way the whole thing was introduced so rapidly and not gradually and sooner.

The actual problem is that no political party dared increase the pension in relation to the increasing longevity of retired folk, because it would lose them votes.

Unlikely to affect me as I envisage a further couple of years or so added before I retire and predict I won't be living that long, as anyone in the maternal line in my family would have died before that age, so really unlikely I'll get a pension (a shame because I have a fair bit in private pensions)

If they make a state pension means tested, there will be no point for anyone on a lower wage to pay into a pension.

Jesus - listen to yourselves! No wonder we women in our 50s face discrimination in the workplace with the way you're talking yourselves down. You're making out all women in their 50s and 60s are feeble - physically and mentally!