Bold leap into retirement

chuffinnora

I've read every page of this thread and its fascinating.

I can't help but wonder at the bigger picture in society. 40% of the population are over 50.

Even just in this thread alone there are quite a few people retiring or part retiring in their 50s and early 60s.

Not sure how that pan's out UK wide, and I appreciate a lot of low paid workers will be slogging their guts out to 67 and beyond.

My mother-in-law carried on until 80. Different generation and how they mostly looked at life-long jobs. Not very common now.

We are surely going to be getting deeper into a skills crisis and available workforce.

I work in IT and can already seen the writing on the wall with AI replacing a lot of traditional jobs.

The world is changing fast and even Covid has caused a lot of our generation to re-think their plans and outlook on life.

Looking across our two families, the vast majority over 50 are now retired or pleasing themselves when they work. Its only the younger ones that still have that hunger and career focus.

I'm sure some of reasons for ditching work is the increasing BS and nonsense around the workplace. Initiatives, targets, development, blah blah blah. Surely the people who come up with a lot of this are in the same boat. 

There also seems a never ending debt and doom loop for most nations finances. The workforce situation is only going to make that worse.

No wonder we all now want to enjoy the fruits of retirement.

QrizB

chuffinnora said:

My mother-in-law carried on until 80. Different generation and how they mostly looked at life-long jobs. Not very common now.

Thanks to the Triple Lock, the value of the State Pension has, for many low paid people, increased significantly since your MiL reached pension age. For someone with a relatively full NI history, there's unlikely to be any need to work beyond SPA.

Cobbler_tone

chuffinnora said:

I can't help but wonder at the bigger picture in society. 40% of the population are over 50.

Even just in this thread alone there are quite a few people retiring or part retiring in their 50s and early 60s.

Not sure how that pan's out UK wide, and I appreciate a lot of low paid workers will be slogging their guts out to 67 and beyond.

The aging workforce issue is real and not really sure what the answer is. Out of my team of 17, 14 of them are over 50, with 4 of those over 60. All with 20-40 years service in manual roles. I haven't had the need to recruit in 9 years, apart from a small handful of agency workers. Many could afford to retire but don't want to. We spend break times discussing our ailments. Mine won't be a unique business or industry. You end up with a very experienced workforce but not the most dynamic and it makes change painful. Even I have been in role for 10 years, after spending 22 years in another role with the same company. Certain other areas of the business see fast tracked promotions or a much higher turnover, so depends where you work.

I know that I won't be physically capable of working at 60, or finding it tough, so got my exit plan.

The aging population is going to be a real problem for the country. Logan's Run? 

Phossy

Logans Run, but with a twist - rather than a cut off being based on age we should set it on accumulated wealth... wherever it is stashed. 

Nebulous2

chuffinnora said:

I've read every page of this thread and its fascinating.

I can't help but wonder at the bigger picture in society. 40% of the population are over 50.

Even just in this thread alone there are quite a few people retiring or part retiring in their 50s and early 60s.

Not sure how that pan's out UK wide, and I appreciate a lot of low paid workers will be slogging their guts out to 67 and beyond.

My mother-in-law carried on until 80. Different generation and how they mostly looked at life-long jobs. Not very common now.

We are surely going to be getting deeper into a skills crisis and available workforce.

I work in IT and can already seen the writing on the wall with AI replacing a lot of traditional jobs.

The world is changing fast and even Covid has caused a lot of our generation to re-think their plans and outlook on life.

This corner of the internet and the people you know are possibly the exception rather than the rule. I think we are going to see a lot more variety, but the general trend will be up the age range, with fewer people retiring in their 50s, or else retiring and returning in a different way. 

Japan provides some clues to what will happen. They are probably 15 years or so ahead of us on the demographic curve. They have whole towns with no-one under 60.

We have had a pull from the countryside to cities for 200+ years. There are occasional reversals - the move to the country during covid - but over the big picture the movement is one way. 

An elderly relative here has 3 carers who are over 70. Retired nurses, sometimes with tales of bereavement themselves, who have gone back to work because they want to, not because they can't afford to stop. Our local paperboy / grocery delivery driver is in his late 70s. 

For those of us in rural areas and small towns there is already a recruitment crisis which will get worse. We either need to contribute in a meaningful way to our own and our community's wellbeing, do without, or get out ourselves..... 

MetaPhysical

Agreed. it is a ticking time bomb. I'm quite passionate about this subject being a mentor for a lot of young people at my employer over the years.

It is laughable that Jeremy Hunt told us to get off the golf course and back into work.  Is he real?  Us oldies working longer is not the solution - there are tens of millions of people younger than us so it's for the government to provide incentives to them as individuals as well as to employers to get them up-skilled and not perverse incentives that make it easier to be on benefits or out of work.  It is shameful and a massive failure of statecraft that governments of both stripes have let this situation develop.  Seriously, how can there be a million young people not in work because of stress and anxiety?

In my case I may "only" be 58 having just handed in my notice but I feel I have done my bit - albeit nine years before SPA.  However, I still did 42 years in the workplace and I paid a huge amount of tax and NI.  I worked shifts, weekends, being on call, studied part time for my degrees and masters degrees.  I have worked very hard.  I have trained hundreds of apprentices.  Most of us reading this will have a similar story to tell.  I saved a lot into my pensions and savings and forgone money that I could have spent.  I feel I have earned my right to put my feet up for my remaining years and I have zero guilt about it.  I am sure you folks feel the same.  Any failures should be pointed at a huge national failure of government policy to upskill and incentivise the population and not us. 

I'll get off my soap box now! I respect other people's views of course.

QrizB

Not wishing to get political, but immigration had previously filled in a lot of the working-age demographic holes. All those plumbers and builders, for example. Brexit cut off that supply.

A shortage of immigration is part of Japan's demographic headache, too.

cloud_dog

.....and now back to the fret and joys of making that bold leap....

MarlowMallard

QrizB said:

chuffinnora said:

My mother-in-law carried on until 80. Different generation and how they mostly looked at life-long jobs. Not very common now.

Thanks to the Triple Lock, the value of the State Pension has, for many low paid people, increased significantly since your MiL reached pension age. For someone with a relatively full NI history, there's unlikely to be any need to work beyond SPA.

For someone with a full NI history and a modest auto-enrolment pension who owns their home, I agree probably not essential to work beyond SPA. If they are still renting or paying a 35-year mortgage,  it's very different. 

chuffinnora

I know there are a number of financial experts on this thread, so I have a question.
I've been looking at 5-10 year old fixed annuity plans.

They look attractive, however when I for example look at a 5 year plan using £250k with a £100k lump sum at the end, looks like its approx about 15-20% additional over the 5 years incl £100k. If I left the £250k invested in a DC pot for the same period I guess its possible it could also earn a similar amount dependent on growth rates of course.

Am I looking at this the wrong way and missing something that needs consideration?