UK Youth Beginning to Get Anxious About Retirement

Hooray! It looks like the tide of information over the last few years has been making a difference, because the current trend that everyone’s talking about is the fact that many younger consumers are beginning to get anxious about retirement, to the point where they’re actually planning. Now, most of you long term readers realize that we’re constantly talking about saving for the future and preparing for just about any situation that you can think of. Whether people actually pay attention to that is another story, but we’re definitely trying to get the “good news” out there. Thankfully, it looks like this fast growing population is looking to the future.

It’s not like retirement is the only issue that’s plaguing a younger crowd. Massive student debt and rising property costs are keeping many across the UK concerned about the future.

The National Association of Pension Funds has been digging into this cross section of the population, from age 25 to 34 years old.

The NAPF surveyed this group and found that well over half of the younger workers really wanted to make sure that they put away more money for retirement, not less. This actually lines up with something that we’ve discussed numerous times on our site — it’s better to start saving earlier than trying to catch up later. Time is something that’s very powerful. You might as well make sure that you’re using your time to the fullest rather than just getting further and further behind.

There is a Government overhaul project in the works to streamline the system as we know it, as long as refining the automatic enrollment system. This is projected to rope in nearly 10 million people into workplace pensions. Is that type of “forced” savings something that we approve of? It’s a mixed bag — you want to make sure that you save for the future, so in the long term it’s a good thing. But if you’re already struggling as it is, you might feel that the pension system is a bit intrusive. It’s completely up to you to figure out what you would like to do, however.

Make sure that you really take time to look at your pension to ensure that you’ve gone with the best one. Looking at annuity rates isn’t a bad idea either. Even though your “time” might not be here yet, it never hurts to see the process, as well as what you’re really getting into. Good luck!