Do you have plans for the future? Not where you’ll be holidaying next year, but what you intend to do with the rest of your life – and how you’ll make it happen? When East Sussex music teacher Lynda Murray was offered the chance of taking early retirement before her 60th birthday some years back, the decision was a no-brainer.
“I realised I’d rather have less money and more time. People’s perceptions of retirement are all about frailty and slowing down, but for me retiring means continuing doing what I love – gigging and playing my saxophone. Although I’m 72, I’m busier than ever. I live by the coast and swim in the sea as often as I can. I run my own Airbnb, ride an electric bike everywhere and love to travel – I’ve spent winters in India and Cuba. But it’s only thanks to good health and financial planning that I can live the way I want.”
Retirement for Lynda Murray means time for sea swimming, gigging and playing the saxophone
Murray reminds me of some of my friends, people in their early 60s whose lives in retirement don’t match the standard “old age pensioner” narrative in any way. With their children flying the nest and the mortgage paid off, these are people whose second act is enviably exciting. Having given up hectic, demanding jobs in nursing, teaching and IT, they’re exploring ambitions, getting active in their community and setting new goals, instead of spending their post-career days on the golf course or waiting for the arrival of grandchildren. One has just done an MA in art history and provides CV workshops, as well as volunteering at a food bank. Another plans to “go big” on her fledgling business offering yoga classes and retreats. A third is downsizing so he can afford to travel the world and has plans to start his own home catering business, with some weekend DJing on the side.
Life doesn’t just stop when our primary career ends – it often morphs into something thrillingly different. Exploring a long-held ambition, doing something meaningful or realising our passions more fully can be genuinely attainable, provided we can support ourselves financially. And this is why we need to see more positive representations of retirement rather than outdated stereotypes. For too many of us, a comfortable retirement is out of reach, unless we take action. It’s shocking how many people I know – many of them self-employed – who have no pension or assets to speak of, and genuinely no idea how they’re going to finance their “golden years”.
According to a report (pdf) from the savings and investment business M&G, while people are living longer, they’re simply not saving enough for the future. By 2050, the number of us reaching 100 is projected to increase eightfold worldwide to 3.7 million, and with many of us living better, healthier lives, that will involve a lot of additional funding. Yet M&G found that only 13% of men and 8% of women, not yet retired, have a comprehensive financial plan in place that will allow them to lead the life they desire. It also found that a staggering 46% of UK adults who are currently saving for retirement don’t feel like they’re saving enough – and 53% don’t believe there is such a thing as “retirement” any more.
A lack of savings inevitably leaves people with fewer options as they age. Figures from the Centre for Ageing Better show that the number of people working full-time over the age of 65 has increased from 25% in 2000 to 34% in 2023, with a significant number simply unable to afford to retire. While the rising state pension age and increases in the cost of living are partly to blame, insufficient pension savings are a huge factor.
Of course, many of us continue working through choice. Semi-retired illustrator Paul Collicutt, 62, says: “I’ve been an illustrator all my life and I love the buzz of working with young teams doing advertising storyboards. But it can be an unstable way to make a living – in fact it’s only thanks to taking advice in my late 20s from financial advisers that I’ve been able to put a bit of stability into my life and maintain my lifestyle.”
Paul Collicutt found stability thanks to financial advice in his late 20s
Thanks to this advice and the resulting Isas, Collicutt was able to get on the property ladder where he lives in Brighton, ultimately becoming a landlord, which provides a reliable income. Continuing to work allows for a better lifestyle and means he can keep topping up the two private pensions he took out in his late 20s and early 30s, giving him a comfortable future. Having paid off the mortgage, he’s under less pressure. “The financial decisions I took early in my career have given me choices and freedom,” says Collicutt.
Throughout our younger working life, it’s hard to imagine a time when a pension or investment will mean the difference between living well or just surviving. Yet for Murray the decision in her 40s to take out a private additional voluntary contribution pension with the Prudential, now part of M&G, made a real difference to her life once she retired, especially as she had to wait to draw her state pension until she was 64 (it has since increased to 66).
While M&G found that 40% of people cite affordability as the reason they have not started to plan financially for retirement, people also struggle to relate to current media depictions of retirement – of slowing down in cosy domesticity, of walking sticks and frailty – making it harder to envisage their own. A lack of financial education and these outdated perceptions of retirement are holding us back from putting financial plans in place for the future.
For Londoner Nidhi Uppal, 58, getting sound advice in her early 30s from her financial adviser dad to invest in a private pension as well as her work pension proved to be invaluable – because having sufficient funds has now given her the freedom and time to explore her purpose.
Nidhi Uppal now has freedom to volunteer and enjoy creative opportunities
“Since I left the workplace and my role as a science technician two years ago, life has been full of creative opportunities. Volunteering as a welcomer at the Design Museum connects me with creatives, artists and people of all generations, and I love doing sari-draping workshops and being part of the London Colour Walk,” says Uppal.
“For me, it’s not retirement but reinvention. I have four adult children, and I pass on my dad’s advice to invest in a pension now rather than wait until they’re 65 to think about how they want to spend their later life and how they’ll afford it.”
The IMF announced recently that “70 is the new 50”, because we’re fitter, sharper and healthier than our forebears at this age, but the lack of positive representations of this life stage in the media is doing society a disservice – because if we can’t picture it, we can’t plan for it. Nor can we afford it. In fact, several recent studies have shown a recent rise in “unretirement” – where people who had retired are returning to work, often to meet rising living costs.
Through their involvement in M&G’s reframing retirement campaign, Collicutt, Murray and Uppal are helping to change the face of retirement, along with the inspiring imagery in M&G’s portraiture series. Pensions may sound boring, and old age may look way off in the distance, but we need to change the conversation around retirement and the way it’s portrayed. Because the positive impact of investing for our future lifestyle is incalculable.
Understand how people like Linda, Paul and Nidhi are enjoying their retirement and visit M&G
