To think most of us will work to death?

[Fifi0000]

I was thinking retirement age is rising again. I'm now 30 my grandparents are late 80s and retired before I was born. They aren't wealthy , They have only started really slowing down health wise. I was thinking about this and very few of us will get a 30 year retirement. If the retirement age rises to 68 I'm dreading what it will be when I reach that age and my daughter. I do have an ok pension pot but I think the expectation will be very short retirements in poor health basically work until you drop.

I have no interest in a 30 year retirement anyway.

Or if I'm honest living to 80+

My work is important to me, and I plan on continuing to do it as long as possible — but I recognise that not everyone feels similarly, or couldn’t cope with the demands of a physical job.

The current retireds didn’t pay enough into the system so the rest of us will work til we drop after they’ve finished their long holidays and art classes.

YANBU they're trying to get back to the idea of work until you're about to die and maybe have a couple of years hanging around until you do.

The problem is that the boomer generation were able to acquire wealth to a degree that is not widely possible these days. A boomer colleague retired recently at 54 mainly because they had a final salary pension that the company bought them out of (millions) and because they'd bought a house at 21 so were mortgage free by the time they were 40. An impossible dream these days.

This is why Jeremy Hunt has announced more occupational health help for musculoskeletal problems.... Because we're all going to be like Julie Walters in the waitress sketch, except in pain!!

A 54 year old boomer?

Yes, we'd all like to retire at 50 and then spend the next 35 years doing cruises.

Who's paying for it though?

Let's be realistic.

I checked the other day, and I’ve still got 43 years worth of NI contributions to make 😳🤯 I can see that number gradually increasing over time until I am still pulling pints when I’m 80 🙃

You can choose to retire at any age. Whether you can afford to retire at an earlier age than your State Pension becomes payable is a different matter and will depend on what other sources of retirement income you have accumulated over time and what your anticipated expenditure needs will be in retirement.
That bit's down to personal responsibility.

Do grow up dear!

Who is paying for it?

If you retire at 50 it's certainly not the state it's money that you saved up all by yourself

Why should anyone have to work all their lives ?

That sounds like humans feeding a machine not building a world that works for us

Yes historically workers got to save more of a company profits as their future pension- and we need to get more money back in the hands of the work force

Yes the government choices have given people housing wealth although I don't know of anyone who has benefited from that to help them retire

But this conversation often deteriorates into pure jealousy and greed

Exactly my views.

What a load of bollocks. Those that can afford holidays and extras have probably paid off a mortgage and have savings or private pension. If you have rent to pay and have just your state pension you will be just getting by, unless you can get extra benefits. Most workers will now be paying into a workplace pension so will get an extra pension in addition to the state pension. Furthermore, the majority of pensioners now started full time work when they were 16 (or younger) if you go to Uni you will be 5 or 6 years older before you start work and start to pay in.

I think the retirement age will become a lot less consistent. For sure, some people will be working until they die, others (for example those who inherit large amounts of boomer-wealth) will likely still be able to retire early.

Look out for the stage when no state pension age exists and it reverts to some sort of universal-basic-income-after-a-certain-age type of benefit that one then tops up with additional part-time or fulltime work as financial means require.

A boomer colleague retired recently at 54 mainly because they had a final salary pension that the company bought them out of (millions) and because they'd bought a house at 21 so were mortgage free by the time they were 40

a 54 year old is not a boomer.

My parents are in their 70s and I couldn’t imagine either of them working. Lots of ailments and general weariness.

I’m a teacher and can’t imagine teaching GCSE and A-levels when I’m 68 (or higher!). Teacher pensions changed as well so they can’t be claimed until state pension age. I often say my DH and children will be better off if I die in service! I’m sure many of us can’t still our current jobs at 68 so that’s why we need to plan for the future. I have my pension but I want to leave teaching in 5 years and move to a less physically demanding role.

This. A lot of us are saving extra into our pensions, overpaying mortgage etc. so we can retire early. If you sit back and wait for the government to fund your retirement you’ll probably be over 70 by the time it happens.

Are you sure? You only need 35 years contributions in total.

The pensions website is horribly confusing though. It shows how many years contributions you have already made and also the number of years you have till state retirement age where you can still make contributions. The latter makes it look like you have more years to pay than you actually need

My parents have also had a long retirement. I’m 54 and my health is already deteriorating, but I have sixteen years left to work. I think the generation above ours got lucky in terms of housing being more affordable and being able to survive with only one parent working. I think the post war period was a time when men who were fit to work were at a premium and people were seen as more valuable, hence the introduction of free healthcare, better pensions and so on.

My father also ended up retiring early at a time when age and experience rather suddenly stopped being considered valuable, and when younger people suddenly began to be promoted earlier. He was in teaching and suddenly headteachers were expected to be young and dynamic and not experienced and wise. He didn’t want to retire, but was told he had to reapply for his job and might get demoted in a job where pension depended upon your final wage.

Really it’s little wonder there is less money available now, if his generation were widely thrown out of employment ten years early and had to be paid for all that time. He would happily have been productive for another ten years.

Life feels a lot worse now than it was when my parents retired, but I suspect their generation was a blip, rather than the norm. My grandfathers both had much shorter retirements

It will entirely depend on the job you do and where you live. Someone in the South East working at a computer or using experience and brain in an non-exec role, can continue working well into their 70's and die in their 90's. Someone working in Glasgow in a heavy manual job, less so.

My mam died at 67 so I'll probs die before retirement tbh!

For most of human history inactivity as an adult
has been a relatively short period. A brief blip/bubble gave a generation an combination of high retirement income at the same time as increasing longevity and health , and quickly made those sorts of retirement arrangements unaffordable. This has created a false expectation for those of us who followed. We need to remember they’re an anomaly.

It's actually that demographically we are becoming more and more of an upside down triangle. A smaller group of working age people paying in to support an ever increasing cohort of oldies. I'm 62 with 44 years of NI contributions and 4.5 more years to work. I've also paid into a workplace pension. Kind of feel I will have made my contribution when I finally retire, assuming I don't die first.. You can't blame individuals for a baby boom or improvements in public health!

@Sarahconnor1 could be - I only had a quick look after seeing it mentioned on a Facebook group I’m in.
In all honesty, everything pension-related is like a total minefield for my brain to navigate!