When you are young and enjoying everything that life has to offer you don’t always think about that time when everything is paused and you have to reinvent your lifestyle.
In these modern times we are living longer, working longer and hopefully staying healthy longer. If we are lucky enough to reach an age when we can retire do we have enough money to stop working, do we still lead a healthy way of life and so many other questions that need an answer before we can hang up our work tools.
In my case I have always worked, not for the same company and not in the same industry but since the age of 15 I have never been out of work of some kind. My fathers mantra was ‘strive on you have all eternity to rest’ and it has stayed with me. My mother worked into her 90s so I have a lot to look up to and would not want to let the side down.
I had never put much thought into retirement, I paid into a few private pensions over the years but they would never mature because I always needed something like another horsebox or a new bed! I have never been flush with money even when I was married so there is no pension pot. Young minds can rarely look further than the next 5 years and I was a case in point. If you entered a job for life after school you would have some of your income put to one side to top up your state pension when the time arrived. But if like me you have been self employed for a majority of your working life then unless you earned a healthy income adding to a pension pot doesn’t look so attractive as maybe a holiday to somewhere hot.
Luckily for me I had an inheritance which allowed me to buy a property to live in mortgage free and I am now old enough to draw a state pension so all should be good…..but it is not so. I enjoy good food, want to keep my car and don’t want to class going to the hairdressers as a treat. So, I work still. Not full time but try and earn enough to pay my way should I go visiting with friends and to be able to pop into the coffee shop while in town and not have worry when the water bill lands on the door mat.
Personally I think young people should be made aware of the pitfalls of becoming a pensioner without a healthy pension pot, it does no good to have the opinion I am too young to worry about that I am sure it will work out when I get that old!
(C) Storm Grayson