To Work or not to Work

Relatively speaking, we are retiring earlier now than any generation before us, because we now have a longer life-expectancy. Also, because of improved diet and fitness, most of us are still very active when we retire and we want an active lifestyle in retirement. Whereas retirement used to be an end, it is now a start and we look forward to many more active years.

For many of us part of that active lifestyle involves some form of work, be it full-time, part-time, paid or voluntary. This Guide is not about working in retirement (there are two other guides to help with that, the Guide to Part Time Jobs and the Guide to Voluntary Work); what we look at here is why considering whether to work in retirement and, if so, the type of work to do, should be part of our planning. It may be that we see lots of opportunities available to us in retirement if only we could afford them. If that's the case, we may feel that some form of part-time work will help us to achieve all the things we want to do. It may just be that, as saw above, we just want to keep active and work is a one way of achieving that. Having thought about those issues, if we believe that we might like to do some form of work, we need to think about it in more depth.

'To Work or not to Work' and the other topics listed in the panel are covered in the Laterlife Planning Retirement Guide.

Why not read our introduction to Why Plan for Retirement? and then access the most comprehensive set of online planning retirement resources on the web by visiting www.planningmyretirement.co.uk.  You will find a complete set of guides, plus structured online workshops, for a modest fee, which get you thinking and planning each aspect of your retirement.

You might also like to look at our 'real world' Planning Retirement workshops and then ask your employer to pay for you to attend one. You will be able to spend the day thinking, planning and discussing your retirement and gleaning ideas from others about how to best enjoy the rest of your life. It's well worth spending one day to make the most of the next 10,000!

Try our FREE

'How ready are you to retire' self-assessor.