to think the whole idea of retirement is going to become unrealistic

[worksmartandfast]

I am sad writing this as I think it is a truely nice idea that people get to take some time out to enjoy life but my practical head says it can't continue. When the age was set to retire that was a policy made for a totally different era, people started work at 15 and died at 65 in general society has completely changed since then. It was never envisaged that education would last so long for children/young people it is really an accident of history that for the last decades it has been possible to effectively stop working in their early 60s/late 50s despite being perfectly capable adults and spend potentially 15/20 years living a life of pure leisure. While I'm sure this idea will be unpopular in reality I can't see how in a world with ever better medical care increasing life expentancy it can be expected that it will be possible for it to be the norm that most people can spend the final quater of their lives retired even if they are perfectly able to work. Aibu?

I believe that people will have to go before a panel who will then decide if you are still fit to carry on working . People are living much longer .

In recent times retirement is seen as a reward for a long working life during rather than a recognition of a failing body or mind as was originally the case.
The only issue is that most can’t afford to live 10-30 years post retirement in any comfort.
We are going to have to adapt sadly by working longer than we might want to.

I’m hoping that one day robots and AI will do all the work and everyone can live a life of leisure with a universal basic income allowing them to pursue their passions. Of course, it won’t be in my lifetime. But I do think “work” will become obsolete in the future.

Logan’s run ..

and other similar Sci-fi

We already do?! Well it’s several panels and assessments now, but how do you think people are determined to be permanently disabled and put on disability benefits/get disability pensions?

On one hand I think people might find it very difficult to retire in future. Spending longer in education means they perhaps didn’t start paying into a pension until 25 or even 30. Low salaries mean people can barely even afford to pay the minimum into their pension, which isn’t enough. Most of the cushy pension schemes are gone. People won’t have the money to retire.

On the other hand, if they don’t retire then there won’t be enough jobs for young people. I had this argument with a friend who thinks it’s great that his Dad is still able to work at 84. I pointed out that he was depriving a young person of that job, a person who wanted to use that salary to get a mortgage and have kids. Who was probably broke and stuck renting because his Dad was hogging that secure well paid job instead of passing it on.

Yes I think a better work-life balance is the way forward. People can't just keep working longer and longer. Retirement used to be something that happened when you were still relatively fit.

There's also still an expectation that retired parents will help out with childcare. If people are working until their children are in their 40s or 50s, that's just not going to happen

We have a massive demographic shift coming so things are going to get very expensive.

Having worked for almost 40 years in the nhs in a very stressful job I'm retired and hoping for many more years, thank you. Contrary to popular belief I don't have a pension big enough to live on (my DH thankfully does) because I've worked most of it part time. No free child care when mine were young.

I very much feel burnt out and exhausted from working and I make no apologises

Life expectancy has stalled in the UK though despite pension age increasing

I think the current era where many people are able to enjoy a long retirement, a lot of it in good health, is going to be a historical blip.

There will be greater inequality with people who inherit more able to buy houses & retire.

It’s interesting- we’ve increased life expectancy but for those last 10-20 years we’re likely to be dependent on something or someone. It raises an interesting debate on quality of life over quantity. Eg is it worth having invasive treatment to extend one’s life by say 6 months. Who decides? How to we value life? Who decides if we should keep working til we’re very old? Do we need to have shorter hours for the elderly? What if we’re just too bloody done in when we get to that age? Do you think life expectancy will drop in future?

My dad didn't make retirement, died at 63.
My state pension age is currently 67, 13 years away. If I make it, I'll have been working 51 years. I'm chucking everything I can into pension savings. But I'm still not convinced it won't be raised again.

Do you think life expectancy will drop in future?

It has since the pandemic

"However, the Covid-19 pandemic caused life expectancy in 2020 to fall to 78.6 years for males and to 82.6 years for females, the level of a decade ago."

and it hadn't really increased since the 08 crash.

People may have been living longer (until the last five years or so) than they did 30 years ago but that doesn't mean they're able to work full time at the same level they did as a younger adult. This includes non manual jobs. Most people by the time they are mid sixties will have picked up a couple of health conditions that won't get better as such, and by seventy this applies to pretty much everyone. In addition there is cognitive, sight and motor skills decline all of which are absolutely normal but don't necessarily make for high performing employees. In some parts of the UK especially in deprived areas the average age that health starts to notably decline is as young as 50.

As the birth rate continues to drop we do need to think about solutions but I don't think that having people work until they die will do anyone any favours.

The idea of a traditional retirement certainly has changed in recent years.

People are living longer and are in better health. They don’t necessarily want to retire even if they could. I know of several people well into their 70s who are still working in some capacity. One gentleman I know is in his 80s and has found work that suits him for a couple of days a week

i honestly don’t think my dad would cope with nothing to occupy his day and mind with. Fortunately he had been able to keep working part time from home within the industry he was part of.

I think how we see life will change. Working lives will be longer, and they’ll be more variety of shapes to them.

A friend of mine is an NHS psychologist and tells me that full retirement is very bad for brain function, so to hold off dementia perhaps we should all stay working PT

There's a labour shortage at the moment and over a million unfilled vacancies in England and Wales. I've heard no suggestion (until now) that the working elderly are keeping young people out of jobs?

news.sky.com/story/amp/the-ranks-of-the-economically-inactive-are-needed-if-worker-shortage-is-to-ease-12633643

Expected retirement age is being pushed further and further out that's for sure. We are still planning to retire by 50, so another 10 or so years of work. Maybe even earlier depending what's going on then.

I love what @SkyLarkDescending has been reading.

I agree traditional retirement is on its way out. Or retirement of the last 50 years. I'm in farming and although it's physical a lot of full timers "retire" when they get their pension but return for harvest or part time hours to help out. It helps the farmers massively and also keeps them fit and healthy for longer on a far more flexible basis.

I couldn't agree with this more. I have three little kids and no family so work part time to look after them. A lot of my child-free friends express envy and say 'I wish I could go part time'. But why can't they? Financially it's a hit but they don't have children to pay for so they could have a really nice balance to their lives. It's just not seen as acceptable though, and the idea that we must grind all the time until we retire and finally get a rest or time to focus on other things seems really unhealthy to me.

Realistically I might not live to retirement age. Some people don't. So you work like a dog and then never even get the reward? It just doesn't seem fair.

@Suddha
I pointed out that he was depriving a young person of that job, a person who wanted to use that salary to get a mortgage and have kids. Who was probably broke and stuck renting because his Dad was hogging that secure well paid job instead of passing it on.

Damn this is so ageist!

I’m not sure that the living longer and better medical care to live well is necessarily going to continue. This only happens due to good nutrition, good housing and access to medical care. The cost of living has put paid to the first two and who can even get a GP appointment for the latter? I won’t be surprised if life expectancy falls sharply as the rise in the chronically and seriously unwell rises. This may be a self solving problem.