I know there are some who don’t want to retire at 60 in the case of women and 65 in the case of men, they’d much rather work on, this mainly being on the theory ‘if you pack it in, that’s it!’. In some cases this may be true and good luck to them, but personally I can’t see the reason why we should want to work until we’re 70 on the pretext that a). surely we must want a bit of a wind down and b) we may not get that far !

According to the BBC, the average length of life for men in the UK is 75 (14th in the World) and 79.9 for women (18th. in the World).
Now, by the time we hit 70, we may be young at heart, but the physical body side of us is fairly fed up with about three hours of it’s day getting going, or stopping, so why not use the young at heart side of it to it’s best advantage; see more of the family, see the World around you and have a good time outside of a routine working environment?

I guess there’s many self-employed people who don’t want to give up their job altogether, the ideal situation being passing the business on or at least still managing it all beit in a downsized manner. Some people don’t know how to stop, should they?

One side of me says this could be a quick fix five years free of paying out Pensions and / or getting us to restart the popularity of having Private Pensions.
On the other hand, more people working =-more people not working if you see what I mean

What worries me most is I for example struggle remembering someone’s name after 10 minutes, why I went upstairs and what day of the week it is, so are we expected to work through this in an efficient manner? What if we get ill or have to leave a job for any reason? Would Benefits cover this? The list of possibilities is endless.
Then you take ageism into it. Someone made redundant at the age of 68 isn’t exactly a bright prospect for a prospective Employer!

I reckon it’s best to keep it as it is with an option of working another five years or simply keeping it the same and having a situation which appears to suit most people and that is, retire – get a part-time job within the legalities and spend more time doing what you want to do rather than what someone else wants you to!

The old saying ‘If it’s working, don’t fix it’ springs to mind.

I retired from full time employment at 52 with a Railway Pension just right enough to pay about half my living costs. I’ve had to continue working, but not in the conformist way. I’ve done a bit of this and bit of that. I’m lucky to have a reasonably paid summer job which I love and make do through the winter oddjobbing when I have to.
I’ve always said that if I wake up more than three days out of five saying “I really don’t want to go to work today”, I shouldn’t be there, move on. You may not earn as much, but seeking your dream is keeping the mind and soul active enough, plus you’ll have the fun and the challenge of doing it.

There are some things we should not be told to do. If we are seriously not up to working a five day nine til five job after a certain age, why should we. We’ve paid our way in the form of taxes and NH payments over 40 years or more, surely it’s our turn to get some of that back, not so much in finances, but in time.


We’re only here once, it’s not a practice run, let’s see through the final chapters with a bit of chill and a bit of fun ! Senior moments – we deserve many of them !

Growing up in the 50’s and 60’s pages

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