WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.200 I'm Eric from Time2Retire.co.uk retire. And I retired 00:00:03.200 --> 00:00:06.500 at 55, but it's been about a year now since I 00:00:06.500 --> 00:00:09.080 wrote that final resignation letter to my boss. 00:00:09.199 --> 00:00:11.820 But it's been many more years since I started 00:00:11.820 --> 00:00:14.460 to mentally write it. But when I reached 50, 00:00:14.519 --> 00:00:18.539 like many, I re -evaluated my life and came to 00:00:18.539 --> 00:00:22.179 some life change decisions. Now, in this video, 00:00:22.239 --> 00:00:25.460 I want to look back at what I did and what's 00:00:25.460 --> 00:00:28.399 meant for my family and me. Now, if I go back 00:00:28.399 --> 00:00:31.039 to age 47, I had a very well -paid job. It was 00:00:31.039 --> 00:00:34.079 also a job that had been killing me slowly for 00:00:34.079 --> 00:00:37.060 years. My mental and physical health was shot. 00:00:37.340 --> 00:00:39.899 So, I forced myself to make one of the best decisions 00:00:39.899 --> 00:00:43.140 of my life. I took a less well -paid job, and 00:00:43.140 --> 00:00:46.439 it's easier. Swapped the leashed Range Rover 00:00:46.439 --> 00:00:48.859 for an older model Honda Jazz, and I swapped 00:00:48.859 --> 00:00:51.399 the two weeks in Mexico for a week in Northumberland. 00:00:51.780 --> 00:00:56.560 Life got immeasurably better immediately. I also... 00:00:56.810 --> 00:01:01.149 Up to my pension contributions to over 30%. Now 00:01:01.149 --> 00:01:05.310 at 50 I downgraded my salary again. And I moved 00:01:05.310 --> 00:01:09.569 to a fully work from home job. Which could pretty 00:01:09.569 --> 00:01:11.829 much do it. My eyes closed. I kept my pension 00:01:11.829 --> 00:01:15.590 contributions of 30 % though. Now life improved 00:01:15.590 --> 00:01:18.909 a notch again. So although this is the first 00:01:18.909 --> 00:01:21.829 anniversary of me actually writing my final resignation 00:01:21.829 --> 00:01:25.549 letter. I wrote it mentally quite a lot earlier. 00:01:26.319 --> 00:01:29.359 Let me talk about some of the stats that you 00:01:29.359 --> 00:01:31.920 may have considered when choosing your retirement 00:01:31.920 --> 00:01:36.200 data. We've been told the same story for 50 years. 00:01:36.280 --> 00:01:39.519 Work hard, save your pennies, and enjoy a long, 00:01:39.659 --> 00:01:43.140 golden retirement. When we look at the ONS charts 00:01:43.140 --> 00:01:47.900 and see life expectancy climbing, reaching 79 00:01:47.900 --> 00:01:51.819 for men, 83 for women, we think, ah, I've got 00:01:51.819 --> 00:01:56.400 time. Well, there's a darker side. buried in 00:01:56.400 --> 00:01:59.780 the data. We aren't necessarily living longer. 00:02:00.379 --> 00:02:04.920 In the UK we're actually dying slower. Modern 00:02:04.920 --> 00:02:07.739 medicine is really good at keeping us alive but 00:02:07.739 --> 00:02:18.560 it's struggling to keep us well. I'm going to 00:02:18.560 --> 00:02:23.780 explain why at age 47 I decided that I wasn't. 00:02:23.949 --> 00:02:30.189 Going to retire at 67. So let's look at our health 00:02:30.189 --> 00:02:35.050 span data. So we take a cold heart look at the 00:02:35.050 --> 00:02:39.069 ONS data, 2026. And if you're the man in England, 00:02:39.129 --> 00:02:42.969 your life expectancy is about 79. Your healthy 00:02:42.969 --> 00:02:47.050 life expectancy, well, that's only 61 and a half. 00:02:50.030 --> 00:02:55.909 Now for women. The gap is even wider. Lived until 00:02:55.909 --> 00:03:02.810 83, but fallen into poor health at age 62. Now, 00:03:02.810 --> 00:03:06.550 obviously, these are only averages, but when 00:03:06.550 --> 00:03:09.250 thinking about future dates, I think looking 00:03:09.250 --> 00:03:13.610 at averages is quite important, really. So think 00:03:13.610 --> 00:03:16.629 about that. The UK state pension, currently at 00:03:16.629 --> 00:03:22.340 66, but rising to 67 by 2028. The average person 00:03:22.340 --> 00:03:26.120 stops being healthy at 62. Well, that's terrifying. 00:03:26.360 --> 00:03:29.780 We're asking people to work five years past the 00:03:29.780 --> 00:03:32.699 point that their body begins to fail just to 00:03:32.699 --> 00:03:36.699 reach the starting line for retirement. We're 00:03:36.699 --> 00:03:38.939 not funding the golden age. We're funding the 00:03:38.939 --> 00:03:48.400 management of decline. As we look at the geography, 00:03:48.659 --> 00:03:53.500 it's not equal. This is the postcode rotary of 00:03:53.500 --> 00:03:57.719 dying slower. Now, if you live in Richmond -upon 00:03:57.719 --> 00:04:01.020 -Thames, you might get 70 years of good health, 00:04:01.080 --> 00:04:04.560 but move to Blackpool or some part of the North 00:04:04.560 --> 00:04:09.319 East, and that number plummets to 52. Also, if 00:04:09.319 --> 00:04:12.120 you're a manual worker in, say, a deprived area, 00:04:12.219 --> 00:04:15.479 you're just retiring later, you are effectively 00:04:15.479 --> 00:04:19.639 spending your... entire retirement in a state 00:04:19.639 --> 00:04:25.060 of chronic illness. You've won the prize of long 00:04:25.060 --> 00:04:28.639 life, but the quality of that life prize is being 00:04:28.639 --> 00:04:41.120 stripped away. So does this change the retirement 00:04:41.120 --> 00:04:44.600 date conversation from a financial one to a biological 00:04:44.600 --> 00:04:49.459 one? If you use a Standard financial advisors, 00:04:49.720 --> 00:04:53.060 safe withdrawal rates, they plan your money to 00:04:53.060 --> 00:04:56.139 last until you're 95, but they don't tell you 00:04:56.139 --> 00:05:01.420 that your utility of that money drops 80 % after 00:05:01.420 --> 00:05:12.120 your health fails. Now, spending £5 ,000 on a 00:05:12.120 --> 00:05:14.740 trip to the Alps had 60 years of investments. 00:05:14.860 --> 00:05:19.279 It's a memory. Spending £5 ,000 on a private 00:05:19.279 --> 00:05:25.699 car at 85 is survival. If you wait until 67 to 00:05:25.699 --> 00:05:29.800 start gambling, you'll be a statistical outlier 00:05:29.800 --> 00:05:33.339 who stays healthy. The UK averages say you'll 00:05:33.339 --> 00:05:38.399 already be 5 years into your slow decline. So 00:05:38.399 --> 00:05:43.860 what do we do? We have to fruit load our retirement. 00:05:43.860 --> 00:05:49.649 Here are... Three radical shifts for a UK retirement 00:05:49.649 --> 00:05:55.990 plan. Instead of working full -time until 67, 00:05:56.290 --> 00:06:02.209 can you go part -time at 55? Use your healthy 00:06:02.209 --> 00:06:06.149 years while you have them, even if it means drawing 00:06:06.149 --> 00:06:13.029 a small pension earlier. Now in the UK, we rely 00:06:13.029 --> 00:06:18.019 on the NHS a lot, is a care for the sick not 00:06:18.019 --> 00:06:21.600 a care for the well your pension is going to 00:06:21.600 --> 00:06:24.040 be useless if you can't walk your gym membership 00:06:24.040 --> 00:06:27.259 and your diet are actually your most important 00:06:27.259 --> 00:06:31.560 pension contributions also is there an option 00:06:31.560 --> 00:06:35.300 to downsize early why wait until he's 75 and 00:06:35.300 --> 00:06:39.339 can't climb stairs maybe downsize earlier or 00:06:39.339 --> 00:06:41.620 lock the equity and spend it while you can still 00:06:41.620 --> 00:06:46.209 enjoy the go -go phase of retirement rather than 00:06:46.209 --> 00:06:51.810 the slow, slow phase. Okay, so living till 90 00:06:51.810 --> 00:06:56.470 is a miracle of science, but living well till 00:06:56.470 --> 00:07:01.009 90 is a miracle of planning. Don't let the state 00:07:01.009 --> 00:07:04.430 pension age dictate when your life begins. The 00:07:04.430 --> 00:07:09.170 ONS tells us that this slow decline starts early 00:07:09.170 --> 00:07:13.490 in our 60s. Look at your calendar, look at your 00:07:13.490 --> 00:07:17.680 health, and ask yourself, Am I saving for a life 00:07:17.680 --> 00:07:21.120 that I'm going to be too tired or too old to 00:07:21.120 --> 00:07:24.779 live? Thanks for watching. See you on the next 00:07:24.779 --> 00:07:24.899 one.