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.

Baby boomers are now aged between 59 and 77. Your colleague is not a baby boomer.

Pesky 54 year old boomers 😂 I’m not sure that’s possible but anyway…

Final salary pensions ended for a lot of people, cheap housing and the ability to buy your own council house for £3k (which my uncle did), grandparents passing away young leaving some assets to family members, (happened to aunts and uncles) but now people are living longer, properties sold to fund care, houses aren’t being passed down through generations.

Previous generations saved, lived more frugally, things weren’t so expensive. Cars used to be driven for longer, not renewed every year. Holidays maybe once a year, or they didn’t go. Ate out less, no takeaways, no SKY, no mobile phone contracts. No Mrs Hinch. Kitchens not renewed every few years.

Simpler lives.

The “boomer” bashing on this site is constant!

I don’t know anyone in my circle whose parents are living the life of Riley. I think it’s probably the first generation where divorce became more “acceptable”. So, assets were split, often with mum not having worked for some time.

My parents, especially my mum, are not rolling in cash. Basic state pension, plus a VERY small private pension from care work she did once we reached school age.

Boomer is a very lazy argument a lot of the time.

"A boomer colleague retired recently at 54"

That's GenX then, if they turned 54 in last 3 years, anyway. We didn't benefit from no mortgage tax relief. Some bought homes cheaply in mid 90s, fair enough.

omg, so many "old" people here, are you nuts. and I say that in the most perjorative sense, and as someone on the far side of 54. Cruising FFS. I can't think of a more dull way to spend my leisure time.

All this hand-wringing about "we'll never be able to retire" has been repeat thread topic on MN in last 5 years, then guess what, people on MN come on to say they retired recently in their 50s. People retiring well before age 65 since Covid is all over national news. Men are over-represented in this "economically inactive" group. Looks like still very commonly possible for those who want or need that.

Yes I am like you. Simple needs and low overheads. I work about 3 and a half days a week at home. I am on the autism spectrum as it goes and it suits my lifestyle needs to be honest. Not good with pressure and aged 59.

The miners from the 80’s who lost their livelihoods, homes and communities under Thatcher. They’re all boomers. Please tell them how lucky they are.

Holidays maybe once a year, or they didn’t go. Ate out less, no takeaways, no SKY, no mobile phone contracts. No Mrs Hinch. Kitchens not renewed every few years.

where does the above narrative come from?
Younger people are less likely to have a car let alone change it annually. Yes mobile phone contracts will have increased because they didn't exist 30 yrs ago. Pubs, nightclubs & drinking alcohol are not done so much by younger people. Not sure how young people are renewing kitchens when they don't have houses.

Most people don't end up needing care. Should retirees spend their time huddled over a single bar electric fire, eating cat food, in case they might end up in the small percentage that need to go into a care home?

But that's care homes, how many need care in the home?

Exactly this.

YANBU, I definitely will be. Unless I win the lottery I won't ever be able to buy a house so I'll have rent to pay until I die. The only saving grace is that I've got a council flat so rent is cheaper than average.

You're 30. Try to make a plan to save enough do you can retire in another 30 or 32 years.

Also, for thousands of years people had to work till they dropped dead, the generation before us were just lucky. To an extent so are we with state pensions taking away a lot of the load. Plenty of us do have possibilities to save during our life. If you want to retire earlier, make it so.

Yes, if you want to maximise your pension, but (for Local Government at least) you can take it at any age from 55, with the amour you receive being in a sliding scale.

I work with elderly people and so many of them tell me they "went downhill" after retiring. People need a purpose.

Retirement was never designed to last 30 years, it was designed to give you a rest when you couldn't work anymore. People are much healthier these days.

Although I can understand why you feel the way don't wish your life away now, focus on finding a job you enjoy and /or earning lots of money for holidays.

Precisely my thoughts.
I retired at 63 through ill health, I didn’t get my state pension until I was 67 but by living frugally I managed on my hard won NHS pension. I worked from 16 to 63 with one short 2 year break having my DCs.
i damn well needed to stop working or probably die. Not being dramatic, the truth. I reckon I have paid and contributed more than enough to society without being slagged off for retiring early - if I’d been born a few months earlier I could have retired at 60 🤬

This sounds completely unaffordable for the state. I’m in Australia and most of our prescriptions are subsidized but not free.

i damn well needed to stop working or probably die. Not being dramatic, the truth. I reckon I have paid and contributed more than enough to society without being slagged off for retiring early

But the point is not everyone had paid & contributed enough. My aunt who hasn't worked much takes about 12 tablets a day, gets AA allowance, free transport to & from hospital appointments, a carer once a fortnight for a few hours. That's fine as she needs that help however she gets all that because of low income which is true. However she has a very expensive house & a holiday home. That's the bit that doesn't make sense. Taxes shouldn't be so focused on income.

I’m in my 70s and volunteer! I’ve always found things to do since retirement. Part time paid work in my 60s, local community stuff, volunteering, fitness classes, grandchildren, our small garden. As long as my health holds out I’ll keep busy.

DH has a hobby that he enjoys, we have a good life without a big income. Perhaps our modest expectations of retirement have meant we’re not disappointed! I use my bus pass, we buy few new clothes, we mostly cook from scratch.

And I see with the constant swapping of her tablets how much waste there is, it's quite shocking tbh.

I'm in my 30s and 've bought two rental properties, one when I was early 20s and another a couple of years ago. The mortgage on one should be clear by the time I'm 55 and the other around 60. Hoping this may be enough to tide me over until state retirement age (whatever age that will be by then!).

We also invest heavily in our private pensions and hope to downsize our current home so we can both retire around 60 on a reduced budget. That's the pan but who knows...

I've been reading this thread with interest as not sure anyone else has raised this point, that as our fixed mortgage came to an end we have now had to extend it to be paying into our 70s just to afford the (now cheapest) monthly payments. Hopefully there will be ways and means that it will become more affordable in years to come but for now it was the only choice we had. It is a worry.

The issue is that when state pensions came in, people weren't living all that long after retirement age, so the outlay was significantly less on average. It was always viewed as something to support someone in the 10 years between stopping work and dying. Given that there was indeed a 'lucky' generation of those who got the state pension at a reasonable retirement age but lived for 20 or so years post retirement then yes, it does seem unfair but as I've seen someone say on this thread, that generation is an anomaly rather than the norm - life expectancy increased significantly while state pension age didn't.

Ultimately it then becomes down to the individual to plan/save for retirement. I thought the workplace pension scheme was an excellent idea but poorly implemented (and hellish complicated when you get into it) - but it's about encouraging people to take control of their retirement age rather than relying on the government to support them for many years. A message that hasn't hit home enough in recent years.

Yet the people who do manage their own retirement- and retire in their 50s or 60s are being vilified - they should be working and contributing more taxes and they should have their savings taxed if they won't

Hardly going to motivate people is it?

Anyway it won't be long before life expectancy falls so the problem may go away - it's stabilised

Ultimately it then becomes down to the individual to plan/save for retirement. I thought the workplace pension scheme was an excellent idea but poorly implemented (and hellish complicated when you get into it) - but it's about encouraging people to take control of their retirement age rather than relying on the government to support them for many years. A message that hasn't hit home enough in recent years.

It hasn’t hit home to the extent that many people now seem to believe that anyone retiring early because they’ve saved enough into a private pension is somehow leeching off taxpayers.

I should have said other taxpayers.

I have a great NHS pension. I'm out the door at 60-61, I'll have done 38-39 years of work with one 10 month mat leave, and that's enough.

None of us know how long we have and how well we will be. I want a good retirement while I'm well enough to enjoy it.

DM and MiL early 80's mine very fit and well but slowing down. MiL in a nursing home after several strokes.