How is your retirement looking?
When we think of retirement many of us imagine spending our days soaking up the sunshine in a retirement home in Spain, travelling the world and seeing the sights we never had time to enjoy before, or even spending time with loved ones and enjoying the chance to spend both time and money with family and friends. However, in reality this is something that many of us will never see or experience, because a recent report suggests that many people will still be well in the red when they hit retirement age.
In fact, the report indicates that because of the soaring cost of living in the UK British consumers will collectively be around £66 billion in the red by the time that they retire, which is a frightening thought and not at all like the cosy, rosy, retirement future than many of us hope and plan for. Other recent reports have already indicated that many of the people nearing retirement age at the moment will still be in debt and may even still owe money on their mortgage by the time they retire, and with living costs soaring so high things are set to get worse.
One company has reported that its findings showed that one in every three people aged fifty five or over had unsecured debts averaging around £11,000. Almost one quarter had outstanding loans of close to £9000, and a fifth had outstanding credit cards debts and owed around £8,300 on average. For this age group the outstanding mortgage debt averages around £37,316.
One industry official said: ‘As the cost of living is on the up, these figures, even if they are only part reflective of pensioners as a whole, are of real concern. Retirement should be a time to enjoy yourself after all those years of hard work, yet one in 20 people in their 60s, 70s and 80s admit to constantly struggling to keep up with financial commitments or having fallen into arrears. The cost of living for the elderly has surpassed inflation over the past decade therefore it is more important than ever that consumers are aware of the dangers of approaching retirement with such large amounts of debt.’
The ongoing financial crisis in the country has not helped matters, as research shows that over the past twelve months voluntary pension contributions by adults in the UK have almost halved and this means that consumers will be savings even less towards their retirement making the situation even more difficult.
Tags: retirements, Aging, plan, thought, time and money, fifty, recent reports, cultureOne credit charity worker stated: ‘In recent years there has been a ‘buy now, worry about it later’ culture in the UK when it comes to borrowing, particularly on unsecured forms of credit. For many pensioners today these figures show it’s a case of ‘bought then, worrying about it now.’
