Are you ready to step off the ladder?
And, in The Times: We means-test the state pension in Australia — the UK should too
What’s in the newsletter?
Feature: Are you ready to step off the ladder?
From Bec’s Desk: Happy New Year and all the good things that lie ahead
Read my article in The Times: We means-test the state pension in Australia — the UK should too
A community member’s reflection: “Am I ready to step off the ladder?”
One of the things I love most about the Epic Retirement community is how honest people are willing to be about the real stuff. Not just the numbers or the strategies, but the feelings that sit underneath their decsion to retire.
This week, a community member shared something that stopped and made me want to share it. They’re approaching 58 and trying to make sense of what retirement actually means - not just financially, but emotionally. Today I want to share part of their reflection, because I suspect it will resonate with many of you.
They wrote:
From the moment we are born, life is about moving forward. Every day is about the next step. School years, exams, further study - there’s always something ahead, something to work towards.
That feeling only grows stronger once you start working and building a career. You give your time, your energy, often yourself, to climbing the ladder because that’s what you’re conditioned to do. Even when there are setbacks, the goal is still progress. Still forward.
Then one day, something shifts.
You wake up and the engine doesn’t feel the same. It’s not broken - just quieter. Slower. Maybe it’s starting to run out of fuel. And suddenly everything you’ve spent a lifetime working towards feels uncertain, even questioned.
What struck me most was how clearly they captured something I hear again and again: retirement isn’t scary because people haven’t planned for it. It’s scary because it asks you to stop doing the thing you’ve spent decades being rewarded for. And that’s something that becomes almost hard-wired into us.
They went on:
Deciding to retire - choosing to call it a day - is probably the biggest conscious decision a person makes. It’s frightening in ways that are hard to explain.
Can I really afford it?
What will I do with all that time?
And perhaps the hardest question of all, “Am I ready to no longer feel needed, relied upon, or wanted?”
That last question hit me hard. Because money questions are solvable - you can do the sums and negotiate your standard of living using factual information. Identity questions are messier and harder to work through - and they require introspection.
Their reflection ends not with a neat and tidy answer, but with a pause:
I think I’ll probably carry on until 60. Two more years to save, to top up my super, and to prepare myself mentally and emotionally. Two more years to get my head into the right place, so that one day I can walk into work, take a breath, and say, “I’m off,” knowing it’s truly the right time for me.
I wanted to share this because it captures something important about this phase of life. Retirement isn’t a switch you flick or a finish line you run over, and suddenly you’re in paradise.
It’s a phase of transition you arrive at and decide to pursue (or frankly someone else decides it’s time for you if you aren’t proactive). And sometimes the most sensible, self-aware decision isn’t rushing forward into an early retirement or clinging on for a late one at all. It’s simply giving yourself permission to sit with the question for a while and see how they feel - and what decisions feel right for you.
What other people are doing or thinking about for their own retirement can be completely irrelevant. This is your next best phase of life, and I want it to be something you enjoy - so it has to be about what you want.
If this reflection resonated with you, you’re certainly not alone. Many people in their late 50s and early 60s aren’t asking “Can I retire?” — they’re asking “Am I ready to stop climbing the ladder?” and ‘“What else could I do that would be more suited or more enjoyable’“.
And those questions deserve time, honesty, and a bit of self-compassion in my opinion.
If you feel like sharing, I’d love to know:
Our community loves to talk - if you have your own views, leave them in the comments.
Welcome back, and Happy New Year.
I’m back at work on Monday, but this time working from the UK as we formally launch the Epic Retirement Institute over here too. It’s pretty exciting to see what started as a small idea to help people better understand retirement and make more informed pre-retirement and retirement decisions now rolling out in the UK, where around five times more people retire each year than in Australia and New Zealand. And I plan to make regular visits to the UK and New Zealand in 2026, as we do more and more retirement education to help people.
I’ve just had three really good weeks off, and we closed the Epic Retirement Club for 12 days as well. I’ve loved the digital detox, the content-making detox, and spending a rapturous amount of time with my family.
We’ve been up in the hills of France on a proper adventure. Each year we try to take the family somewhere we haven’t been before, so we’re all discovering it together. It’s especially fun now the kids are almost adults and we’re basically travelling with our favourite drinking and dining buddies. My nearly 80 year old parents came too and we’ve just finished celebrating my fiftieth birthday. I don’t feel old enough to be fifty! 😁
Now, on the UK front, I’m excited to announce that we have appointed the wonderful and well-respected Charlotte Gibson to be the UK Lead of the Epic Retirement Institute. Charlotte has many skills in finance, and in retirement coaching. She has worked right across the pensions sector and has even worked as the Head of Retirement for one of the widely respected pension funds! This week in London we are recording several modules of the How to Have an Epic Retirement six-week Flagship Course for the UK. This is a program that we are planning to launch in Q2 2026. You can register your expression of interest via the link here and we’ll notify you once the course is headed into pilot. Our pilot students get a once-in-a-lifetime discount.
I’ve also opened a healthy can of worms in the week leading up to Christmas in The Times where I am the retirement columnist. You can read it here.
In the week just gone I celebrated turning 50! Yep! That was a great reason for a fancy dinner out with my kids and my nearly 80-year old parents who have made the trek to France to celebrate with me. Three generations travelling together - aren’t I a lucky duck! See my 50th birthday pics on Facebook and Instagram here:
Facebook: facebook.com/becwilsonepic
Insta: instagram.com/epicretirement
Plenty more to come, but as I’m still on holidays for a day more as I write this, I’ll keep it tight. Know someone who’s thinking about retiring? Tell them about the book, my column in the Times and the newsletter. Let’s make everyone’s retirement more epic!
And thank you for all your support!
Cheers - Bec Xx
Author, podcast host, columnist, retirement educator, and guest speaker
We means-test the state pension in Australia — the UK should too
Times Money’s retirement specialist says there’s a reason this unpopular idea refuses to go away, and that’s because it works
Pressure is building on the UK’s state pension, and most people know it. Something has to give. The uncomfortable question is what. There are about 278 pensioners for every 1,000 working-age people in the UK. That’s a ratio of just 3.6: 1. Back in 1948 when the basic state pension was introduced there were about five workers for every pensioner.
In simple terms, there are fewer workers supporting more pensioners, and for much longer. As life expectancies increase, the cost of funding the state pension is only going one way: up.
Retirement is now expected to last close to three decades for many people. It’s no surprise that younger and middle-aged workers worry about whether the system will still work by the time they get there, while older workers wonder whether the rules will change just as they reach the finish line with fear.
This article continues in The Times. Read it here.
Get your copy of the new UK Bestselling pre-retirement guidebook, How to Have an Epic Retirement: Your ultimate guide to living well, loving life and retiring with financial confidence.
I have to say I would be fuming if they means tested the state pension and would create an action group to challenge it legally. I am in a group that probably doesn’t need it to retire simply because I have worked hard and saved hard throughout my life. Once again though I would be subsidising those who haven’t, having already done that with the tax system throughout my working life
Despite the fact that the govt have squandered the proceeds of the NI “fund” by not setting aside the required monies as part of the contract with the worker, the moral deal is that they are obliged to pay a pension. They instead have disgracefully re-designated what should have been a fund as a benefit.
I have already been robbed of 2 years of contractual entitlement but won’t accept any further state theft without legal challenge.
You're no barrell of laughs either. You bang on bout the state pension whilst claiming it isn't necessary for your retirement whilst simultaneously using the opportunity to bash the plebs, then you don't like it when someone challenges your holier than thou attitude.
Given you don't actually know anyone getting 'handouts: I suggest you get on with your life, spend your pension that you don't need and leave everyone else to theirs. It doesn't cost anything to be nice.