Pension Talk – another taboo smashed!
Photo by Ruby Millington
Talking about pensions – my own or other people’s – is not something I do. I’m 72 with a State Pension and I still work a couple of days a week too. Maybe it’s the era that I come from – hippie/punk. We were fiercely independent and anti-establishment. Pensions fell into the latter category as planning for the future was uncool. Money was uncool. Maybe it’s because I worked as a freelance journalist and keeping on working was always the main focus as well as actually getting paid. With hindsight, I didn’t plan my pension because I didn’t dare to look that far into the future.
When I started reflecting on this piece – it made me smile that I should be in this position now. How could the rebel in me write about pensions? I put a question into our Advantages of Age – Baby Boomers and Beyond FB group to see if our members had planned their pensions. Some had, some hadn’t. This was one of the comments – ‘As a WASPI woman I really wish I’d have planned a lot better… I do have a small private pension that pays for my petrol and hairdressers every month so I’m ok but I do rely on my husband for most of our big outings and events… I really don’t like being dependent on anyone! Worked hard not to have debts so that’s a bonus.’
And someone else said this – ‘I was of the working class generation that married really young, and shortsightedly, saw the ability to pay what was then called the “married woman’s stamp” as a useful saving on weekly deductions from a wage packet. I changed to paying full insurance and was enrolled in a workplace pension scheme when I regained my single status, and as I grew older, took a keen interest in keeping track of both NI and workplace contributions and projections. I carefully considered the benefits and disbenefits of any action I chose relating to my pension, remarriage, deferral, taking a lump sum, etc. and still keep a keen eye on my finances.’
My son and his partner are both 39 and work as freelancers in the film industry. They have one son. I was discussing money one week with them – very unusual too – and she said she’d already signed up to PensionBee because they seemed so contemporary and flexible. I was amazed that she knew about them as PensionBee had just become the headline sponsors for our AofA Awards 2025 ceremony.
I read pieces on their website which were all about pension confidence and seemed to include pensions as part of our whole adult wellness. Makes sense when I think about it.
So how and why did Moira Aitken, 65, a retired vet who is not entirely retired, and lives in South East London, sign up?
‘I wanted to retire because I didn’t want to be worrying about animals any more at the weekends,’ she says explaining that it was Covid time and she’d been working for 38 years mostly in a surgery in New Cross which was hectic and wonderful. ‘Initially in my life, I didn’t think about a pension, however within my workplace at a large animal charity there was a non-contributory final salary pension scheme which I was automatically enrolled in. Later this changed to one where I did have to make contributions from my salary and later still it changed to a ‘defined benefit scheme’ which was no longer linked to my final salary. I would not have received this pension until I was 65, so in order to retire early at 60, I asked for the ‘transfer value’ where you get a lump sum. At first, I had a Financial Advisor to arrange and manage this, but after a year I decided that I’d like to manage it myself.”
So that’s where PensionBee came in?
‘I googled and they came up. The great thing is that it’s so easy, you can manage your pension fund with a phone app. You can take out money when you want, from the age of 55 (rising to 57 from 2028). You can add money when you want. I transferred a small pension pot first of all to see how that went and then after it had gone well, I put my bigger pot in.’
Moira doesn’t have her state pension yet but it is arriving next year. In the meantime, she’s topping up her private pension with part-time work. Initially, she took on work as a film extra. What kind of work did she do?
‘Well I walked up and down stairs one day for a TV programme called Black Ops, which is a cop series, but I could never find the episode! And then I was a stand in during the pre-shoot of an advert, so they did the light testing on me before the more expensive actor turned up. The trouble with film extra work is that it’s unreliable and often at the last minute.’
So have you found something more fitting?
‘Yes, I’m an exam invigilator now. I can work chunks of time like 12 hours which suits me better. I am Scottish and I visit my 102 year old dad who still lives independently, when I can. My mum lived until she was 98. I have siblings that live nearby but I like to visit for a week at a time.’
Ah ha, so your pension pot might have to last some time?
‘Well, my family do seem to have those genes so yes, that is a big consideration. When I get my State Pension, I will carry on working and try to top up my pension pot with PensionBee because I’m not sure how long that will have to last for. What I enjoy is being able to manage my funds myself.’
Has it made you more aware of financial markets?
‘Yes, absolutely. Because I see on my phone how much my funds have gone up or down.’
How many of us, older people, engage actively with our finances? Well, maybe, I’ll find myself engaging a little more confidently just from having this conversation. You never know…
I worked in UK universities for 32 years and paid into the required superannuation scheme. I also paid my tax and National Insurance. I see that as paying contributions into giant investment scheme that accrued value over the decades. I took early retirement from academic life at age 56 and drew out a lump sum to pump-prime my own Executive Coaching company. I closed that after eight years to concentrate on writing.
I'm fortunate to have a final salary pension and a state pension but because I ended my academic career nine years early that is smaller than it could have been if I had stuck it out to 65 (And not blown my brains out from overwhelm). Nevertheless, my wife and I are comfortable. We look at my daughter who works in the theatre on short-term contracts, sometimes casual labour, and fret about her old age.
Rose, great piece (you make too much content available for free, dare I say). my youthful rebellion was very superficial and kind of meaningless, and I did save for a personal pension from a rather young age. But it would never have been enough for anything. Im lucky enough to be living on my late husband's pension - half of what he would have got if he'd remained alive, but still a good deal more than I might have accrued. Not sure what I was thinking - like you, always free lance. I wonder what the next generations will do.... no doubt even harder for them.