It is perhaps not surprising that most people find it difficult to imagine what their life will be like beyond State Pension Age, nor that they start to find it easier with age.  25% of total respondents said they find this easy, and there is a significant jump from 23% to 37% saying they find this easy, when comparing 45-54 yr olds to those aged 55+.  However it is notable that men and people in more professional roles are most likely to say they find it easy to imagine what their life will look like and what they will be doing (29% men compared to 22% of women and 30% ABC1 compared to 19% C2DE).  With the gender pension gap at 35% and rising levels of pre-pension poverty, this highlights the importance of supporting women and people on lower incomes to plan for later life.

With longer lives we increasingly expect there to be more variety in what people do and when they do it. It could quite dramatically change when and how often people spend periods of time in education, working or not working throughout their lives. One consequence is perhaps that this more flexible approach to a ‘multi-stage’ life may make it harder for people to imagine what their life will look like past State Pension Age. As a result, people will arguably need greater levels of support in the future to plan and make the most of these multi-stage lives, particularly those such as renters, and those living alone that the data indicates find it more difficult to imagine what lies ahead: (52% of renters say it’s difficult to imagine retirement vs. 37% of those who own their home and 50% of those living alone say it’s difficult vs. 40% of those who live with partner). 

We also asked people to select the top phrases they would (like to) use to describe their lives across different ages. 

Enjoyment is associated with every age group, although we observed the well-documented u-shaped curve of happiness, with ‘enjoyment’ as a descriptor dipping to its lowest point for people in their 40s. Freedom is more associated with later decades than choice, opportunity, discovery or control. 

We found that younger people aged 18-29 expect their 30s to be a time of enjoyment and fulfilment, whereas those in their 30s describe it as a time of transition and taking control.  We also found that 18-49 year olds expect their 50s to be a time of relaxation enjoyment and fulfilment, but those in their 50s describe it as a time of transitions, balance and taking control.

The research highlights that people are much less likely to anticipate transitions than to recognise them in the moment or in hindsight. This is important to understand because longer and more varied, flexible lives, are likely to mean we all experience more life events and will need to navigate more transitions. This all paints a picture of people’s changing hopes and expectations for work and retirement.  It shows that many people struggle to visualise what their retirement will look like, and raises significant questions over what new, more or better help people need to manage their finances, health and careers over longer lives. 

Some of what’s needed are structural changes – from growing access to good quality flexible work for example, to increasing awareness and access to careers support and advice for working adults, and development of new and different forms of financial advice and guidance.  And much of what is needed is more cultural, changing our expectations of life’s milestones, of what people can or should do and when, including creating more and varied role models of the different shapes a modern and healthy retirement can take.