Keeping going to 66/67 or beyond.

[mehefin]

Wondering if anyone wants to share their experiences of this.
I was born before April 1960 so get my pension at 66, less than two years to go now. I have worked in hospitality, admin roles and social care so always what I would call jobs rather than a career. As things used to be I would have gone part time at 60 but that was no longer an option.
At 60 I was still fine with full time work which got a lot more demanding when Covid hit but four years plus down the line I am constantly exhausted.
I considered changing jobs but with 20 years with my current employer losing that security seemed too big a risk and I didn't feel I had the energy to job search or give to a new role.
I've got to keep going so I have done a couple of things to make that easier. Over the years my role has become quite varied and I took on a lot of extra responsibility relating to Covid issues so I reviewed that with my manager and it was changed. Some things I dropped and others I was given time for during my shift when I had been fitting them in before so now I have less work to accomplish in the same time. This is actually the correct amount of work for the time and makes me realise how hard I had been working for a good few years.
Secondly I am using my annual leave to take an extra day off each fortnight, compressed hours are not an option. This really helps me pace myself through the weeks. The downside is no long break but I used those for trips or diy projects neither of which I have energy for right now.

I also have a couple of secret countdown charts to remind me there is an end😅

No way i could work until 66/67.

Im a teacher and im going to retire at 57/58, so 2-3 years to go. Just downsized to pay off the mortgage.

Going to save loads to add to my pension.

I'm encouraging my colleagues in their 20s and 30s to set up private pensions so they have options later on but it's sadly hard to get them interested.

They see those of us still working in our mid 60s struggling but as is ever the case with the young they can't imagine it happening to them.

We downsized and moved to a cheaper area so I could take early retirement at 58, no way could I have gone until 67.

I'll be working until 67... single mum, limited pension. If you have no option other than to work, you will cope.

I am struggling now (chronic health conditions) and have only just reached 50. I have no clue what I’m going to do because there is no way I can manage until 67. I am trying to get young adult interested in starting a private pension but they seem to think that paying money out, and working so long, is a mugs game. They seem to feel they will just magically earn millions somehow and so not need to pay into a pension. I wish I’d had the knowledge and opportunity to start a pension earlier!

I was born in the early 60's and am looking at 3-4 more years working in order to reach a full pension. Like you, I took on more duties during Covid but have not been able to give them to someone else. I find I am more tired when I get home at the end of the day. I very rarely do any chores - laundry, yard work during the week. I'm just too tired. Weekends are jammed pack with all the things I used to be able to do during the week.

@momtoboys exactly the same here, I can do very little in the way of household chores on the days I work and I still have what feels like a two year backlog of tasks from the Covid years.

Have you had a discussion with your manager about rationalising your work load? I am fortunate in that mine seems to be willing to address the issues that arise from an older workforce.

@ChronicallyOversharing I'm sorry to hear how tough it is for you and I can see that many people will be in similar situations.

Proper pension education really needs to be a part of the curriculum in schools and colleges.

My father was a doctor and retired around age 74. Unfortunately died at 79. I'd retire when you feel financially able.

I disagree that young people aren't engaging in pensions because they think they'll be fine without one. They are not engaging because they assume they will be fucked either way whether they buy them or not and I don't think they are irrational to think that.

I'm in my 40s and started a workplace pension straight away like a good little girl but it was just before stakeholder pensions and it had no worth once I was made redundant so that was money down the drain. I've had a portfolio career with pensions built up here and there (limited portability). DH is even worse. His fully private pensions have barely grown some years. It feels like a bit of a waste of money, and if we were younger, trying to pay either rent or mortgage at today's prices it would be completely unaffordable and probably futile since the state old age pension keeps receding out of sight.

I'm 60. Changed jobs last year and am now commuting to the office most days. By the time I get home in the evening I am done, so like a previous poster find my weekends filled with all the chores I should have got to but was too tired for.

I am hoping to reduce my hours over the next couple of years, but strongly suspect I won't get to see pension age.

And going part time isn't an option as it affects your pension so markedly. Who would work for 40 years then voluntarily half your pension due to a few years at the end of your working life?

And it doesn't help with the ageism already rife at work to be seen as a bit useless in your 60s. I've been fit and healthy all my life but the past 10 months I've had one thing after another wrong with me, two lots of surgery, what I thought was long covid but is being investigated for COPD. It's so shit.

But I love my job and used to be so good at it. So do I take ill-health retirement now on full pension but lose all the stimulation, or go back to work when I've recovered from the latest surgery and find I can't actually cope and have to take early retirement on a reduced pension?

I am going to be 65 soon and have just over a year to go until I can retire. I am so tired all the time and I try explaining to my boss and to rationalise my work but they just don't understand why I would need to. My team are lovely and really clever but I am seen as the go to person so that's that. I have said that they need to start training up my replacement but they think I will stay on no matter how many times I tell them bluntly that I won't

I don't want to stop working ever. Not until I'm physically incapable. I'd get so bored if i didn't work. Other people can do other things with their lives,that's fine for them.

A friend of mine is still working, six full days a week, at 82.

I am still working at 74 years old - usually six days a week. I have my own counselling practice and love the stimulation and fulfillment it brings me. I can't imagine being able to find enough to do to fill my days if I wasn't working. Luckily there doesn't seem to be ageism in this business - people seem to prefer seeing an older counsellor who has life experience and, hopefully, wisdom.

The difference is about being able to chose to work past 60, until such a time as we want to retire, and having to. My commute alone takes it out of me each day.

@minsmum sounds like there are similarities in our situations, I was definitely the go to person. There are now six of us in our mid sixties in a workforce of about forty and I feel I have had to be some kind of an advocate as we negotiate this new reality.

One part of that reality I think is that employees will actually leave work when they are able to at 66/67. People staying on and going part time was very much the norm in the past and that kept a lot of experience in the sector with time for phased handovers of roles. Also those experienced part timers gave a lot of flexibility in terms of covering shifts at short notice for sickness etc. That's a real asset to a sector that needs 24 hour coverage.

@deplorabelle What do you mean, your pensions have no value? I'm older than you and have about 10 pensions from different jobs. They have quietly carried on appreciating. Why would yours not?

Create a spreadsheet of all your pension plans, check and record their value once a year. Just because you changed job, they haven't disappeared.

I will retire later this year [ aged 66 ]. I am a domestic in a busy hospital, and even now physically struggling. There is no way I can carry on doing this. I also have some health issues which are now really affecting me. I am very much counting down until the day I finish 😁

I think it very much depends on your job and your health as to whether you choose to retire at pension age.

I will sign up for bank shifts at the hospital, but these I can choose when and if I do them

You're the inspiration I needed this morning thank you !

I've just been on holiday in Germany and got talking to a lady about retirement. It's 67 there at the moment, but the government are thinking about doing away with retirement altogether. She wasn't happy...

Snap. Sometimes we didn't have enough for a bottle of milk, let alone a pension. Always worked and supported my now adult children though.
ExH very comfortable of course as he never had to pay for childcare or curtail his career either.
I'll be working beyond 67 but tbh am happy with that. I feel fit and well at 61 and exercise regularly and intend to stay that way.

I mean that's a fundamentally wrong understanding of how pensions work. Going part time for a few years will not half your pension or anything like it.

Everyone's circumstances are so different. When you are young it's impossible to know what age you will be knackered at in order to plan for that.

The amount of money you need to put into a pension to get any kind of decent income in retirement can be a very high percentage of your income if you don't earn much. Fine if you're minted.

I worked part time first many years and although I have my full state pension forecast, I was aiming to retire at 60 and thought I'd be ok. But I won't. My pension I pay into isn't enough to live on. I will be ok when my state pension joins it. But between 60 and 67 I will have to come up with a plan.

You need to be paying about £150 from age 21 to get a small pension that you can basically live on until your state one kicks in.

It sucks. I hope we get universal income before then and it's half decent!