to think most people will work till they're dead and won't see retirement age?

[tugging]

Ok massive generalisation but I see a lot of people talking about how they're 40 or so and have 20 + years before they retire.

As a society, we're more sicker, more stressed and more busier than ever. These things would shorten your life expectancy. I can't imagine working till I'm nearly 70- I'm not even 40 and I'm already knackered! I think I'll be dead before I reach retirement age. I know so many people who have died before 60. They never got to retire and enjoy a work free life.

I know people can retire earlier but not many people have a decent pension that i know of and are forced to work till they're nearly 70 or till ill health.

I'm no spring chicken and hope to be able to work for as long as I possibly can health permitting. I can't see retirement being an option or enjoyable. I'd retire tomorrow if I won the lottery and could have the lifestyle I want (it won't happen as I don't play the lottery)!

Average life expectancy is well into your 80’s which is exactly why state retirement age has been extended.
If you keep an eye on your weight, exercise regularly you’ll be fine.
Always exceptions - cancer etc but realistically most people are alive well into their 80’s

I am in my mid fifties and the year I was born was the year that most babies were born since the end of the Second World War. Some people will have died and others emigrated but we are mostly still here and reaching retirement age in the next ten years. Successive governments have had decades to make sure that there is enough for us to have a pension but have buried their heads in the sand and not prepared for it. They have had plenty of time. Unfortunately, I can foresee a time when people might not get a pension until we’ll into their seventies. Many, many people will never be able to afford to retire.

@saltinesandcoffeecups

The average lifespan in the UK is 79 (men) and 83 (women) as of 2020.

At 40 as a woman you are at the midpoint of your life. Barring health issues (which are usually lifestyle culprits) there is a lot of living to do between your 40’s and retirement age.

Perhaps less looking forward to slowing down and more activity and momentum is needed.

Just my opinion 🤷‍♀️

You're life expectancy is longer than that if you've reached 40 years old. The average life expectancy figures also take into account infant and young adult deaths. As you get older, you've "survived" that far, so the number of years you have left increases.

But that's all averages anyway. If you're lucky enough to have been able to retire early in your 50's, you're probably going to live longer than someone without a gold plated pension who has to continue working into their 60s, so they've more likelihood of ill health, stress, etc due to working.

YANBU, 'twas always thus.
And therein lies the 'problem'.

The concept of retiring at age 60 for women and 65 for men was all well and good, when you take into account the anticipated of mortality in 1971 in the UK was around 70 years.

By 2011 this had gone above 80 years and these figures are rising constantly year on year. As a result, the state pension age has risen and keeps rising.

To add to this, medical care for the older population has improved dramatically over the past 50 years.

My advice to any and all young people, women in particular, is to 'front load' your pension - pay in as much as you can reasonably afford when you are as young as possible.

Meantime, as much as possible, live to enjoy today as much as you can.

@80sEyeShadow My advice to any and all young people, women in particular, is to 'front load' your pension - pay in as much as you can reasonably afford when you are as young as possible.

Easier said that done when they have student loan repayments, historically high housing costs, and the prospect of tax rises on the horizon to pay for covid. The "squeezed middle" are rapidly extending to the "squeezed young" too!

YANBU. Absolutely right. We have to work longer, have more stress in our jobs and life, there is more cancer.

TBH, I think the retirement age will be one of the first things the government will look at to reduce the debt incurred during covid. I wouldn’t be surprised if for this current generation of younger people, ie under 50, the pension age will be increased to mid 70’s. I look at my own mum who is 75 and just can’t image she would have been capable of a day’s work if she was still having to do so.

[quote Kazzyhoward]**@80sEyeShadow* My advice to any and all young people, women in particular, is to 'front load' your pension - pay in as much as you can reasonably afford when you are as young as possible.*

Easier said that done when they have student loan repayments, historically high housing costs, and the prospect of tax rises on the horizon to pay for covid. The "squeezed middle" are rapidly extending to the "squeezed young" too![/quote]
This!

@Livelovebehappy

TBH, I think the retirement age will be one of the first things the government will look at to reduce the debt incurred during covid. I wouldn’t be surprised if for this current generation of younger people, ie under 50, the pension age will be increased to mid 70’s. I look at my own mum who is 75 and just can’t image she would have been capable of a day’s work if she was still having to do so.

If they try that, then they also need to change the rules/laws allowing "early" retirement and tax free lump sums from aged 55. Otherwise there's a very real risk of a two tier retirement society and a lot of unrest. You really can't have one section of workers taking a whopping tax free lump sum at 55 when others are having to work till they're 70 or over for the basic state pension.

My dad was recently made redundant at 75. He didn't want to give up working. He has the energy. I on the other hand really hope I don't have to work that long. I didn't start paying into my pension till I was 33.

Does this depend on what age you are.
All my friends who are late 40's, 50's vent wait to retire. Bet it won't be 67 when we get there though!

Maybe I'm not 'most' people but women in my family typically live to 90+, so I certainly hope I will get a good retirement even if I retire at 70! I also know another lady who just retired at 70 and is still in good shape. So you can't apply your experiences to everyone OP.

My dad is also still going at age 62 and doesn't want to quit until he gets kicked out. As he says, there's only so much golf you can play!

Ahh I used to think like that but when you get to 50 ish things start clicking into place.... Kids grow up, houses have lots of equity , investments start paying out etccc
You'll be fine

This has been a regular discussion in my work place for the last 10 years.

I said we will see more ill heath retirements or people going on benefits due to ill health as they get older and I'm starting to see it with the people I am working with.

I don't plan to work full time after 60 and would like to retire in early 60's.

I’m praying I die from a benevolent flu by 70.

I doubt very much my job will want me around until that age and with a meagre pension I really don’t want to end my days not being able to pay for heating or be half way gone alone in a nursing home.

My Mum retired at 60 on a final salary pension. Based on her health and ancestry will probably live to be 90. My Gran before her had just her state pension after a lifetime in a shop. Her parents before that recalled with horror their relatives going to a workhouse. State pensions were initially means tested.

I can see why pension provision has had to be pulled backwards a bit, it's too expensive. I think the new retirement age will be 68 and I am OK with that. I do think pensions should be more transparent and that companies should give more guidance. Also financial education at school.

Years ago we used to hear about men dying soon after retirement, it was such a big change in lifestyle for them. Hear about this much less nowadays.

I knew two women at work who passed away within a few years of retirement in their late 60s, firstly they got a good period of 18 months-2 years, then got cancer. Really unfortunate for them and their adult children, as they worked FT in their early 60s as adamant they couldn't afford to retire till 65.

Made me think not to work FT till 67, I either want to retire at 62/63 from FT (we have wind-down starting about 3 or 4 months before retirement) or go PT in mid-late 50s and work longer. Like a PP we have flexible retirement on offer, but I imagine it reduces the pension, and no wind-down allowed as you're seen to already benefit from that.

Went to a talk at work about AVCs with the 'man from the Pru'! He explained about paying these additional contributions even if quite late on, eg after raising children, then drawing an income eg between 63 and 67, to maximise the occupational pension and avoid early retirement penalties on the public sector pension we are in (the joys - in the last restructure the employer was trying to force some women 50-54 to take vol severance by removing their jobs, as from age 55 the employer has to pay the pension penalty if they manage someone out).

@tugging

Ok massive generalisation but I see a lot of people talking about how they're 40 or so and have 20 + years before they retire.

As a society, we're more sicker, more stressed and more busier than ever. These things would shorten your life expectancy. I can't imagine working till I'm nearly 70- I'm not even 40 and I'm already knackered! I think I'll be dead before I reach retirement age. I know so many people who have died before 60. They never got to retire and enjoy a work free life.

I know people can retire earlier but not many people have a decent pension that i know of and are forced to work till they're nearly 70 or till ill health.

Part of the issue will be that the pension age will be raised but some older people will not be able to work because of illness, while others will not have a job because of age discrimination.

I've known people retire in their 50's and early 60's last a few short months and drop dead. It happens a lot, always has.

It can’t happen a lot, though, can it? Otherwise the average life expectancy would not by in the mid eighties?

Only 53 now, not worked for over 10yrs, only paid into my NHS pension for 10yrs before that and is had to reduce my hours to part time due to my disability by the time I finished. I've spent the last 10yrs on benefits.
No inheritances coming my way, my mum was in a council house almost all her life so far, my dad's wife had made it perfectly clear that when they fall off their mortal coils everything they have is definitely going to be children not his.
I'm fortunate enough to have just finished paying for my house but it's a mid-terrace, ex- council house in Birmingham so worth not much more than £100k.
So basically, there'll be no cash left over if I try to downsize, pension will be a pittance, benefits don't give much opportunity to save, so no savings, no inheritances, I guess I'll be living on cold baked beans if I make it to 70.... no. thank. you. Kill me off before then please!

If they try that, then they also need to change the rules/laws allowing "early" retirement and tax free lump sums from aged 55. Otherwise there's a very real risk of a two tier retirement society and a lot of unrest. You really can't have one section of workers taking a whopping tax free lump sum at 55 when others are having to work till they're 70 or over for the basic state pension.

I don't understand this. One thing is about people using their own savings, personal money. The other is about money provided by the state. They are not the same thing. Will you also say young people who've saved can't spend their own money because some people are claiming benefits/ aren't yet entitled to them? That reasoning is bonkers.

Successive governments have had decades to make sure that there is enough for us to have a pension but have buried their heads in the sand and not prepared for it. They have had plenty of time

This is a joke, right?

Are you seriously suggesting that ‘successive governments’, since you were born in the 1960s, should have been stashing away the cash so that your generation, and those following it, could retire at 60 and spend an average of 25 years in state-funded retirement?

Where do you think that the money for this should have come from? Schools? Hospitals? Or do you think that somebody else (not you, obviously!) should have paid more tax so that we could all retire at the same historic state retirement age, despite life expectancy having risen dramatically?

State pensions were never designed to allow people to spend a third of their lives in retirement. If you can afford to do it using your own private pension savings, more power to you but you can’t expect the poor sods staggering under the weight of massive mortgages and student loan repayments to bankroll your 25 years of leisure. That’s who would be paying for it.

Or maybe you think that the government should borrow money to make your retirement dreams come true. Let’s ask the Greeks how that worked out for them, shall we? Oh, hang on. We already know.

Face it: the only sensible solution is to delay payment of state pensions so that we work for longer.

@Iamthewombat

Successive governments have had decades to make sure that there is enough for us to have a pension but have buried their heads in the sand and not prepared for it. They have had plenty of time

This is a joke, right?

Are you seriously suggesting that ‘successive governments’, since you were born in the 1960s, should have been stashing away the cash so that your generation, and those following it, could retire at 60 and spend an average of 25 years in state-funded retirement?

Where do you think that the money for this should have come from? Schools? Hospitals? Or do you think that somebody else (not you, obviously!) should have paid more tax so that we could all retire at the same historic state retirement age, despite life expectancy having risen dramatically?

State pensions were never designed to allow people to spend a third of their lives in retirement. If you can afford to do it using your own private pension savings, more power to you but you can’t expect the poor sods staggering under the weight of massive mortgages and student loan repayments to bankroll your 25 years of leisure. That’s who would be paying for it.

Or maybe you think that the government should borrow money to make your retirement dreams come true. Let’s ask the Greeks how that worked out for them, shall we? Oh, hang on. We already know.

Face it: the only sensible solution is to delay payment of state pensions so that we work for longer.

Well a smart Government would have done something of that nature, yes. Have a look at what Norway did with the money from North Sea oil.

www.nbim.no/en/

This is how responsible Governments behave, securing the future of their citizens.

The UK has one of the lowest state pensions in Europe. Our Government operates our state pension scheme as a ponzi scheme, using current NI contributions to pay out current pension liabilities (having already spent the money those pensioners invested in it over decades). Instead of investing what each of us is paying now to pay our own pensions later, therefore avoiding any issues around population size at different times etc.

They have known for decades that their model is unsustainable but haven't fixed it. Much like the NHS. So continue to rip us all off.