In a brand new survey by experts, it was found that 40% of British people in the workforce believed they will never get to retire.
This isn’t because they don’t want to of course. No…it’s because they won’t have enough money to retire, which means they will be have to keep on working well beyond the retirement age into their 70’s and even 80’s.
In my opinion it isn’t just employed people that should be thinking about this, contractors and the self employed in general must also be planning for their retirement.
As I’ve talked about before on this blog, there are many contractors who simply don’t save any money for retirement and don’t put anything into a pension, instead, hoping to rely on the State Pension to take care of them when they get to 65.
Well, some news for anybody expecting to do this. For one, the eligible age for a State Pension is going up soon, to 67 I think, although many experts predict it could be 70 in the near future. If you still have 30 years to go until you are around retirement age where will it be then? It might very well be 80! That is if there is any such thing as a State Pension by that time.
Not only that, but a basic State Pension doesn’t provide you with much money on a weekly basis, and with everything getting more expensive it really is nothing more than spending money for most people.
That is why I am always telling contractors, gig workers, freelance professionals…whoever…you must be putting some money away into a pension or some kind of savings. If you don’t then you probably won’t ever retire, just like the 40% of people asked in the survey.
Interestingly, there was differences of opinion in the survey depending on where you lived. For example workers in London didn’t have much optimism about retiring, with 45% saying they will always be clocking in, while only 32% of people in Scotland agreed.
Maybe North of the border they know something that people in the capital don’t know? Or perhaps they are just more educated when it comes to saving money and being smart about pensions? I think that is probably right.
There are some contractors who don’t ever want to retire though, and in actual fact they would call themselves already retired.
These are the people that work from their laptop, working a few hours that suit them but using most of their time taking breaks to do things they enjoy. A good lifestyle if you can get it, but for most Britons this isn’t a reality.
