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May 10, 2005

 

Retirement is just the beginning

TRADITIONAL concepts of retirement have been turned on their head, with people viewing their twilight years as a time for challenges and taking risks, a report claimed yesterday.

People no longer expect to spend the years after they have given up work relaxing and playing golf, instead they see retirement as a time of re-invention, new opportunities and freedom, says research commissioned by HSBC. The insurance and banking group, which interviewed more than 11,000 people in 10 countries, found British people felt optimistic about retirement, viewing it as a new chapter in life.

Across all countries it found traditional definitions of old age were considered outdated and being redefined, and people now wanted their retirement to include periods of work, education and leisure.

In Britain, 90 per cent of people thought the retirement age should be increased or they should be able to continue working for as long as they wanted to, while 77 per cent said they would work during retirement, it said.

The report said during the past century, life expectancy had increased dramatically as a result of improved sanitation, vaccines and healthcare advances.

As a result, the length of time people could expect to spend in retired life had risen from just one year in 1900 to 19 years in 1990.

People in Britain are expected to be retired for about 23 years.

Despite talk of a pensions crisis, the report found that most people in Britain were taking steps to plan for their retirement.

It claimed people in the U.S. and Britain were twice as likely to be contributing to a private pension as people in other countries.

The research, which was carried out with the AgeWave consultancy, also found British people did not expect their families to support them during retirement, with just 9 per cent expecting their family to pay for them, compared with two-thirds of people in India.