One of the best pieces of advice — in retrospect — that we had from our GCSE Geography teacher was: as soon as you start earning, start saving into a pension.
I fear the advice was a little lost on me as a 16 year old, but aged 36, perhaps not yet approaching middle age, I’m beginning to see the wisdom of her ways.
Whenever I log in to look at my pension, I see: “Your Retirement date is on the 04 August 2056, when you will be 68.” I must confess this still seems a long way off. I also think of people I know that age who don’t want to retire, who enjoy what they do and want to stay mentally and physically active.
According to the Office for National Statistics, “Life expectancy at birth in the UK in 2020 to 2022 was 78.6 years for males and 82.6 years for females; compared with 2017 to 2019, life expectancy has fallen by 38 weeks from 79.3 years for males and by 23 weeks from 83.0 years for females.”
I’m grateful to be blessed with good genes in my family; my grandpa lived to 98, still walking daily and sharp as a tack. He missed out on a birthday card from the Late Queen by two years!
It’s an interesting prospect how we prepare young people for a long, healthy and fulfilled life and encourage long-term thinking in an age of fast food, social media and quick fixes.
How do we incentivise people to stay healthy and keep alive? How do we plan when we don’t know how long we have left? David Cameron famously had his nudge unit, talking about banning chocolate from the check out at shops.
The lyrics from the musical Rent come to mind:
“Five hundred twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes Five hundred twenty-five thousand moments so dear Five hundred twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes How do you measure, measure a year?
In daylights, in sunsets In midnights, in cups of coffee In inches, in miles In laughter, in strife In five hundred twenty-five thousand, six hundred minutes How do you measure a year in the life?
How about love? How about love? How about love? Measure in love Seasons of love Seasons of love.”
Patrick Dunne, whom I was lucky to serve with on the University of Warwick Council, has been doing some interesting research and writing in his book “Five Generations at Work: How We Win Together, For Good”.
I think of my Grandpa who studied an LLB at the LSE in evening classes, then had the same employer (the UK Government) from aged 21 to 60, retiring for almost as long as he’d worked. He worked hard, he served his country and he deserved his retirement.
He also had a very steady temperament, remained calm, full of common sense and had a great sense of humour.
Should we start thinking in terms of centuries rather than seconds?