Pension Age no Longer Means Armchair and Slippers
Unlike the previous generation retirement no longer means a quiet life of reading the paper and walking the dog. Many who retire are still active, but adjusting to this new life can be difficult. Whether you have a good retirement or a miserable one depends mostly on how good your finances are. For some this means a life of travelling and additional adventures, for others this can be financial hardship and a loss of identity.
The fact is however, that most retirees from a health perspective in a better position than ever before. They have benefited from better medical care and improved diets and have worked seven hours less on average than those retiring in 1970.
As such they have more energy not less. Dr George Leeson co-director of the Oxford Institute of Population Ageing at Oxford University believes that soon living another 35 to 40 years past retirement age will be the norm rather than the exception. Although opinion is divided on how much life expectancy will increase in the future, there is nothing from the past to suggest the trend of living longer will slow down or stop.
Dr Leeson said: “Imagine the cohort being born to day. The world they are going to get old in will be a world of old people, and that’s very different from getting old in a world of young people.”
This poses a number of questions about retirement and how work will be organised in the future. It could be that someone who is approaching traditional retirement age could retrain and work part-time in a different role. Of course it is up to governments to legislate for the aging yet active population. As well as the philosophical, questions of finances also surface. Planning a retirement for twenty years is one thing, planning for forty years is something else entirely.
Planning for the big Four Zero
Currently, financing a forty year retirement is challenging unless you are particularly wealthy, and even then careful and considered financial planning is needed. Given that the trend holds by the time you reach 65 or whatever the retirement age is when you get there, it will not feel like the end as it did for retirees in the past. You could find yourself thinking about a different role, retraining, and exploring options.
Regardless of how much of a spring in your step you have when you reach retirement it is important to start planning for it now. This will improve your options and give you a clear and accurate picture of the kind of retirement you can have at the moment. Click here and complete the CALL BACK SERVICE form. I can help you get ready for retirement even if it is more of a new beginning rather than the beginning of the end when you do retire.
Source: The Daily Mail
For more information, please contact Michele Carby at Holborn Asset Management on +971 50 618 6463 and on e-mail at [email protected]
