Not sure how many of us actually fantasise about living into our hundreds nor the extent to which we can prepare for it. ‘The second 50 years of your life can offer both opportunities and challenges’…well, yes, and how many ‘it all depends’ are there likely to be in any consideration of those? Health, obviously; motivation, and knowing, for some what the heck to do with themselves; and, yes, money. It’s because so many are living so much longer that those now old-fashioned final salary pensions have closed and are fast disappearing as their remaining members gradually shuffle off. Most were geared to pay index-linked pensions for an average of ten years or so, not 30 or 40. So without other savings, those centenarians will need more than just a letter from HM to sustain them. And there’s the rub.
“Why you should never retire”
On my 50th birthday, I will always remember, amongst the card or two I received was a letter from Saga’ who’d managed to find out my age through the wonder of the internet, and were pleased to tell me I now qualified to join my parents and go on holiday with them.
