How on earth do people work into their 60's and beyond.

[BG2015]

DP and I were talking earlier (he's now asleep at 7.15pm) and saying how do people work into their 60's and 70's.

My DP is 59, he works in demolition which can be quite an active job. He's out of the house at 6am as they travel all over the country and he often isn't back until 6pm.

I'm a teacher recently dropped to 4 days after ongoing health issues after having breast cancer in 2021. Im 55, 56 in February.

We're both knackered. Neither of us sleep very well at all. We eat healthily and used to go to the gym 2/3 times a week but now only manage walking as our form of exercise.

I'm desperate to change jobs, planing to retire at 58 and get a part time job in an office. I think once I retire DP will reduce his hours and slowly retire.

But how do people have the energy to keep working. A teaching assistant at my school has just retired at 71 and I really don't know how she's kept going.

If it isn't I'll walk away and find something that suits me.

My mum is in her 60’s and works full time in a management role. I don’t think she’ll ever ‘retire’, but I think she should when the time comes. But she doesn’t know how to relax.

You had cancer though, that’s no small thing to recover from.

Well people are fond of being able to feed and house themselves I think.

Dh is 65 and leaves the house at 5am for a 12 hour manual shift. Gets home 6.45 pm.
Does that for 4 days on , 4 days off. He's fit as a fiddle.

I'm a teacher too OP - just turned 60 and in my 31st year of teaching. I was full time up until this past few weeks as I decided to take my TP and cut down to 3 days.

I 'joke' (but it's not even funny!) that I now 'only' work 50 hours a week instead of the 65-70 I was when full time. It's relentless and I'm still knackered, but I do now at least have my weekends (as I do my planning/marking/assessments and other work related admin on the two days that I'm not in class - and not being paid for! My payslip tells me I'm being remunerated for 19.5 hours which, laughingly, doesn't even cover the 'core' hours that I'm supposed to be in my classroom!)

I genuinely could not have carried on working full time - I was working 7 days a week and totally exhausted.

I guess the people who are not struggling over 60, are ones with kinder jobs, or where there is a genuine cut-off at the end of the day.

Teaching, policing, law, NHS etc (there will be others) don't have this definitive 'work/home' divide where, once the days work is done, you can forget about it until the next day.

My child is a police officer...I genuinely cannot imagine doing what she does at 60+ 😢

I'm lucky that I've also got a LGP that I've now moved into my teachers pension as I worked for Social Services before I became a teacher so that's bumped it up a bit.

We've also downsized and now have no mortgage. I need 2 more years of paying National insurance to get my full state pension at 67.

Having cancer definitely puts a different perspective on life.

This is why you need to have a private pension
a) you can start to draw it earlier
b) who could live on just the state pension?

I'm telling my kids to make sure they invest in a pension from day 1 of their working life.

I'm hoping to retire at 60 & increasingly can't wait. I'm out of the house at 7am and back 17.00- 19.00 depending on what's going on. Yesterday, unusually, was a 14hr day & it's nearly killed me.
DH is 3 years older. He now mainly WFH, his work is project based and he's able to pick what he does which means he's able to have more time off & work hours to suit him.

I don't work on a Friday and I cannot tell you how precious that day is. It's improved my mental health so much. I refuse to work on that day, instead I get my laptop out on Sunday afternoon.

Totally lost my love of teaching for many reasons.

Not a question of how do they do it - most don't have a choice so you just have to I would assume, otherwise they would retire/not work! 🤷🏼‍♀️

Look to be honest I'm a bit offended that you view part-time office work as 'retirement'. I mean what? I work part-time in an office and it certainly doesn't feel like I'm retired. I work hard and I feel like you're saying 'oh but I'm a teacher don't you know so I do proper work'.

@StripeyDeckchair the teachers pension is one of the best there is and certainly trumps any private pension. It's not a pot as such but a defined pension you get for your retirement years until you die. It won't ever run out like a private pension does. It's also index linked and increases each year with inflation.

And because I've been teaching pre 2015 I get a decent lump sum too.

I'm going to RETIRE from teaching but still carry on working in an admin type role to supplement my pension. I'm not going to retire work.

Think you've misunderstood my post.

I feel like you’re reading a bit much into this. There ARE plenty of office admin jobs where you can leave at 5 and not think of it again until you’re next there- I’ve had a couple of them! That doesn’t mean anything about your particular job or circumstances

My DH has just started a brand new FT (office, but in at work every day) job at 67. And is living with cancer. He wants to work, doing something worthwhile, for quite a bit longer. He has a workplace pension and a salary coming in, although he's deferred his state pension for now as it's worth more if you do that.

I'm a bit younger, working FT, but can't imagine not working at all.

So everyone is different!

Ah I see, yes that is a completely different scenario then. Because you said you were planning to retire I thought you meant you were going to retire from work as that's what retirement means to me.

I am 63 and still work full time in an SEN school. I don't teach but my job is very full on. DH is 61 and has just retired but he has a good pension unlike me. He would like me to retire but I can't quite take the plunge yet. Some days I'm knackered but then so are all my colleagues and I'm at least 13 years older than my oldest colleague so I'm not doing too bad!

I'm a paramedic - we are expected to keep hauling people around until we are 67. It's a physically and mentally demanding job at times. As an 'essential' service, rather than emergency service (in the HO's eyes) we are mandated until 67. Our blue light contemporaries can retire earlier with no pension penalty.
I'm lucky in that I'll have had 34 years service by the time I reach 60, so I can take the old '95 part of my NHS pension with no penalty but younger staff will not have that luxury.
So many retiring staff now die within a few years of retiring too, so lots to look forward to!

62 and retired this year from self-employment as I was burnt out. Lucky in that DH has a great private pension which paid off the mortgage and leaves enough to live off so he transfers his state pension to me. We also get some income from renting out part of our house. Happy, fit and healthy, very busy with hobbies and the gym, and looking forward to the next 30 years.

Really? I've just turned 50, work full-time in an "office" job (albeit I WFH) and I don't feel any more tired than I did 20 years ago. I've just been promoted and am taking on lots of new projects too.
I'm not being bitchy, btw, I'm genuinely surprised because I don't feel that way at all.

I'm 46 and work full time in an office role where I wfh most days. I'm senior enough these days that my role is more about consultancy than getting stuck in the weeds of the work. I delegate a lot and am paid for my expertise. I love it and unless my health rapidly deteriorates, I don't see why I couldn't do this job into my 60s. Financially DH and I need to work full time until we're 60 at least.

Well, everyone is different. But I think having a job you love is the key.

I work a manual job and most of my long-term colleagues are now in their 60s; they're mostly managing fine - and it is hard physical work - though there is one woman who can't lift much any more. One of my male colleagues is in his early 60s and he works really hard, then goes home and does weight training on the side (and painting very lovely pictures).

I think it depends on how well you look after yourself, but also how much you can enjoy and be motivated by what you're doing.

Give it 3-5 years, you will be fucking shattered half the time!

I have no idea how I'll manage another two decades (as I reckon the pension age will be shoved up repeatedly now to make sure enough of us have died off to make it vaguely doable) physically. I bloody hope I can mentally.

All being well though, I think I'd have to work to avoid going absolutely insane with boredom. And being too skint to do anything about it.

I'm a primary school teacher in my 40s. I'm exhausted and can't imagine doing it in my 60s! Maybe it will be easier when my own children are grown up, but then will also have elderly parents. I imagine jobs where you are on your feet a lot are harder going when you get older. My plan is to either go part-time or try to find a lower-paid office-based role when I'm in my late 50s. Who knows if I will be able to afford it.

Oh man, there is no way in HELL I will get bored not working! 😆