Finding money in retirement.
We are all of us getting older. We are also living longer and whether we like it or not we cannot escape that nor can we escape the fact that we are going to have to support ourselves more in our old age. Lamentably for my generation, X, this is not something that we have thought about. We can see our parents from the silent and early baby boomer generation enjoying retirement at 65 and a triple lock pension ensuring they get a steady income. From Generation X onwards that will not be an option as we shall be the last to get a state one so for Generation Y, the Millennials and Generation Z choices will have to be made. When the Labour Government of 1945 set up the National health Service and the Welfare state they did not realise that it would ensure that we would become an ageing population plus the combination of an extended peacetime in Europe and the thankfully the wider world has meant that we are ageing and surviving beyond our seventies and into our eighties and beyond with a greater regularity. Figures of those aged over 100 are set to rise. This means that someone who retires at 65 could be looking at taking a pension of 25 years and this is markedly more than the original government ministers planned which was thought to be only 5 years being needed.
Increasingly more innovative ways of finding money for retirement need to be found. Retirement is expensive for the people retired as they need to possible fund care, medical expense and also try and maintain and active social life. Costs that should melt away as you grow older such as car maintenance and or memberships of clubs need to be kept up plus the increased cost of living has to be made for food and fuel. The government is keen on private pensions as it is clear that that it will not be able to use the public purse especially if less people are of working age to bring in the taxes. Many people continue to work beyond 68 the new retirement age (which may rise soon or not even have an end date at all). There is also talk of extra taxation to fund care in the future plus there are schemes that can be privately taken out on owned homes such as Equity Release Wiltshire. One such firm offering advice is https://chilvester.co.uk/equity-release/.
Whatever happens we are faced with some tough decisions as to what happens to our elderly now and for when we become the elderly in the future.