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.

StripeyDeckchair · Today 20:10
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 agree with this. But when I mentioned this on a thread a few days ago, some posters claimed they had never heard of private pensions - and didn't know there was such a thing, (even though they were in their 40s and 50s.) Some posters (again middle aged and older,) claimed they had ONLY just heard of them this past 3-5 years.

I found this impossible to believe as they were widely advertised from the 1980s onwards. They may as well have claimed they didn't know banks give out loans, and lend you money to buy a house (a mortgage!)

Someone accused me of living in a middle class bubble, and told me to 'check my privilege!' which made me LOL because I'm as working class as they come. I never went to Uni, I lived in a council house with my parents until I was 20 (when I moved into my own rented flat,) and I worked in factories for the first 5-6 years of my working life. Then I retrained for admin and office work, and moved into a secretarial role.

I opened a private pension around 1998, and I can draw from it at 60 - next year. DH has one too that he has paid into from the year 2001. He will start drawing off his at around 63. (When we both plan to retire... We are only a few months apart in age.)

I am not 'middle class' or 'privileged,' I am just someone who is fairly intelligent, has always been switched on and had my eyes wide open throughout life, and who is careful with money. And I have always worked fucking hard for everything and been given no handouts from anyone (ditto my DH.) So the 'middle class and privileged' label was fucking farcical. Just because I know what a private pension is. Fuxake! 😆

I find it ludicrous that anyone claims they have never heard of private pensions, especially when that person then goes on to say they are in their 40s or 50s. WTAF? have they been living in a cave since 1979?! 😆

I know a 67 year old who travels 50 miles to work every day on the bus/train. She’s alone, no interests, work is her life.

I also know a 68 year old who retired and regrets it!

A 74 year old blind fitter, works all the hours God made.Bloody loves working, has had cancer, could afford to quit years ago!

Then there’s me mid forties, shattered😬🤣. Loser!!!!!! 🤣🤣🤣I don’t sleep well, have DD 8 and DM who is sick. I stress a lot.

I’m 67 and still working part-time on a hospital ward. I still enjoy it and get a buzz from it but do get tired so thinking of retiring soon, although the idea of retiring is quite scary … almost like giving up!

Nearly 62, work 52 hrs a week, inc 20,000 miles a year. Feel fine!

I think it's just everyone's different, personality-wise and in terms of health, lifestyle demands etc. I go to work in the office rather than wfh so that contributes to tiredness. I'm very introverted and crave time alone doing nothing. I have two teenagers, one with ongoing MH issues and I've suffered horrendously through peri-menopause and a couple of other health problems. Also, I'm not 'young at heart' in the way some people are, I'd like a slower pace of life but I'm only 50

I'm mid 40s. I'm pretty fit. I'm never ill. I look after myself. But I really cannot teach into my 60s. It's a much more physical job than people think (hello carrying boxes of 30 books across the school to get to a different classroom; getting all your steps in just walking round the classroom each lesson to try and keep kids on task) and it's draining. I should be working now, because i left work at 5, but I'm just bone tired tonight, so it'll roll over to tomorrow night.

I survive term time by effectively shutting off everything but work and some gym during the week, then doing a catch up of the work I couldn't finish at weekends. I used to be able to work until 10 at night, especially when dc were little and I had to. But I was 10 years younger then and I don't know how I did it.

On my team, we have a 73 year old man, a 68 year old woman and a 64 year old man. None of them showing any signs of retirement either.

My aunt is 76 and runs marathons. I'm 48 and in bed by 8 pm most nights. Everyone's different I guess.

I plan to work until I’m 70. I live my work and it’s office / client facing. I have to think, but that’s it. Not stressful as I control my diary.

Edit: my dad was 70, but my aunt was 84 when she stopped.

I'm 56 and working full time but in a fairly easy job which is mostly sitting and a bit of travelling to fill out forms for people. I'm hoping I can continue past 60. DH is chronically unwell and is 60 and still working full time, I don't think he will be able to continue for more than another 2-3 years but we have two kids at Uni for the next few years so have to try to carry on. A colleague said to me today that my dh ' should just claim disability benefits' as if it was that easy. I don't think he would qualify yet and even if he could claim them they would in no way match his salary. My worry with dh is that by the time he does retire his health will be too bad to enjoy the things he wanted to do.

@HeySummerWhereAreYou lots of employers didn't offer pension plans until they had to, when the stakeholder scheme was introduced. The stakeholder scheme itself is also fairly shit unless both you and your employer pay substantially extra into it.

Of those employers that did offer pension plans, many were restricted to people earning over a certain amount, nearly all excluded part time workers, people with less than two years service or anyone on fixed term contracts.

A fair few also went bust with no recompense especially during the merge/acquisition heyday around the millennium.

So for the first swathe of people whose state pension age is seven years older than when they entered the workforce, those people had many barriers to building a private pension to compensate for it.

Glad you're ok though.

I'm early fifties. I work from home, job isn't particularly stressful but it is mentally tiring. I'm hoping I'll be able to carry on full time until I reach 60, then start to reduce my hours as pensions start to kick in. Thankfully house is paid for so that takes some of the pressure off.

Some people past the menopause get second lease of life if they love moving and keeping fit. I work currently a physical job and there is a lovely colleague, who works very fast , gets very sweaty but looks more full of life than perimenopausal me with flat feet, asthmatic lungs and swollen ankles

😱 I want to write boring quotes from home. What would this job title be?

Sorry, forgot to say the colleague is early 60s, but muscle tone and shape much more shaped than me, very joyful and active, I am so perimenopausal with the perks of it - get tired, hot, breathless, dizzy, you name it

the way you made by nature physically also. I have back issues, joints issues, burning ankles...some women are slimmer, taller, with stronger backs, straight legs and their body survives many more challenges than what my body can do

In fairness most people don't work a 12 hour day in a physical job. Most of us work about 8 hours a day in fairly sedentary jobs, which brings its own health issues, but you can certainly manage it well into your sixties

I am a 61 year old foster carer to a small child with complex needs. My days involve lifting and carrying a non-mobile child as our home isn't suitable for adaptations (we are hoping for a move soon to somewhere I can adapt) and I often function on 4 hours sleep a night. The thought of retirement fills me with dread, I intend to carry on until this small person is well into his teens.

Clearly there are very different levels of office jobs. I've done plenty of office work in the past and it was not remotely comparable to teaching in terms of how tiring it was, just a different world altogether (I did NHS admin and for private companies). Of course, if you have a job, or particularly a career, that's office based and has a lot of responsibility, deadlines and stress that's a completely different thing and no doubt as stressful or more so than teaching but I don't imagine that's what the OP has in mind.

My mother started a new career at 58. Retired at 70. A job that required being on her feet all day and being switched on. She wasn't overly fit and enthusiastic, she just really liked her job.

Last month I employed a carpenter, he took out some sash windows on the top floor and carried them single-handedly all the way down two long flights of stairs and along landings etc and out to his van, mended them in his workshop, brought them back, and then carried them again single-handedly all the way up the stairs, lifted them into place and refitted them.

It was only after he was finished and we were chatting that I found out he is 72 years old.

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?

Lots of people can't afford one though. There's loads of lower paid jobs and not everyone is able to get a higher paid one. Add in life circumstances that can limit earning potential - illness, caring responsibilities, etc, and the high cost of living, and many people are struggling to afford today's essentials let alone save for a pension.

The cruel irony is, not always but often those same low paid jobs are more taxing and so harder to do when older. Even if it's not an extra taxing job, poverty affects health and prematurely ages people. So the poorest are those who often are in most need of earlier retirement but least able to take it.

Also even if it's a non taxing job, there's an issue with age discrimination from many employers.

Another thing ignored with raising the state pension age is many grandparents provide childcare.

Op I had breast cancer in 2021 and have never really recovered my pre cancer energy levels. I didn’t have chemo but high intensity radio wiped me out for months after.
I took slightly early retirement at 59, although I had only been working 2.5 days a week after selling my business at 55.
I still do a day a week ( I have a job that pays well so it’s worth it) but DH had a stroke a couple of years ago and can no longer work. I’m pretty much his carer although on the surface he is still physically independent, his subtle loss of cognitive skills means he is no longer the same person.
I am currently wasting time before I attempt the mammoth task of sorting out DHs clothes ready to leave for uni on Friday. He is very laid back and I suspect he is deliberately leaving it all to me to keep me busy. If I was working I’m sure he’d do it all himself, he’s a clever lad and reads me like a book.
Im still getting used to having all the time in the world to do things. My default, after a lifetime of running a business, is to fit home stuff into odd pockets of time such as ironing at midnight and washing at 6am. I just can’t get out of the habit.

My DH is 74 and still working, no intention stopping yet. I only stopped last year at 73.

56 here - tiny private pension - certainly won’t be able to retire on it!
waiting for my state pension at 68 ! Will keep working until I drop

OP the vast majority of office jobs certainly don't require you to work till 8pm. Obviously being a CEO or the like would, and that is an office job, but bog standard admin means you're done at 5 and off home. I think you'll find it substantially less taxing than teaching!

As for how people work into /past 60s as others have said it's mostly luck and positioning. Luck in terms of health. Positioning in terms of jobs. Certainly people still working now in their sixties never expected to have to do so when they started so wouldn't really have had opportunity to position themselves too well. Mostly it's a bit of a scramble.

I do wonder about raising the state pension age so much, if it will just mean we have more people of nominal working age drawing disability benefits, with all the stress and uncertainty that brings instead. After all if you can't work, you can't work, regardless of when state pension starts.

I wish you well OP in your health journey and hope you manage to find an office job that isn't too horrible to tide you over.

My team are mostly in their 60s, two approaching 70. Office job. No one shows any sign of retiring!

My worry from a work point of view is that there could be sudden major illness (because I think they’ll literally continue until they drop), which is more difficult than a planned retirement.

Some of them could afford to retire, but they get a lot of personal satisfaction from working, and the idea of retiring is scary (even when approaching 70). Personally I’ll be off the moment I can afford to.