Using your 50s better

Life’s structure is shifting. We’ve gained more years in the middle, and more again at the end - which means you do have time… just not always the kind you think you have.

Jun 30, 2025

Using your 50s better

We hit our 50s thinking there’s still plenty of time. Retirement feels a long way off. The mortgage is (usually) getting under control, the kids need us less, and the budget finally breathes on its own — possibly for the first time in a long time. It’s tempting to cruise into the next phase and enjoy life, oblivious of what happens next in life.

But here’s the thing: this really is not the time to coast.

Your 50s and early 60s are the years that make or break how easy your retirement will feel – financially and otherwise. And for Gen X - the oldest of which start turning 60 this year - the first generation to have access to both voluntary and compulsory pension savings schemes throughout most of their working lives, this isn’t just the pre-retirement wind-down. It’s a whole new life stage.

One with more freedom. More income. More choices. One that doesn’t ask you to wait for retirement to enjoy your life – it asks you to design it and take responsibility for it. This is the decade where your choices matter much more than they have before – in money, lifestyle, and your ability to shape what comes next. But only if you’re proactive.

If you sit back, you risk missing the window where you get to choose, and instead find yourself forced to accept whatever happens next - and that might mean battling retrenchment, redundancy or the impacts of a health incident you hadn’t prepared for that guts any retirement dreams you had (or didn’t make the effort to have).

By your 50s, a lot has shifted. You might be earning more than ever. The kids aren’t chewing through your bank account quite like they used to. But equally, you might have started to figure out what actually matters more to you in this phase. Maybe you’re rethinking how you want to spend your time, who you want to spend it with in the years ahead, and the kind of person you want to be; and lifestyle you want to seek out next.

This decade isn’t just about money. It’s about making choices that align and fit consciously with the life you want.

That’s a really powerful concept to understand, while there’s potentially plenty of time to engineer a life you love. Too many people drift through these years with cruise control on - earning relatively well, spending without a detailed plan, putting off addressing the big questions about what is important:

What do I want the next 20 or even 30 years to look like?
How much money is enough to live that life fully?
And what am I working toward in this stage?

This is your chance take your life off autopilot and start designing the life you want to live. Before life designs itself for you in a way that is less about you and more about juggling challenges.

This is your Prime Time. Recognise its signs. It’s time to get deliberate

Some of us know what happens next. Others don’t want to know…. Health issues pop up. Caring responsibilities arrive as parents age. Redundancy happens. Or burnout drives you to take sudden — often unplanned — action.

So, if you’re still in the driver’s seat of life, with options, income and energy — use it now to set a plan, start saving and building the future you might have the opportunity to choose.

This is the time to lay down strong financial foundations, rethink what you want from your working life as you mature, and start actively shaping the next 10 to 15 years. That might mean working hard (and saving harder) for a little longer — before shifting gears into a lifestyle or purpose-driven phase.

And after that? Choosing your moment to cut back your hours.
Or stepping off the treadmill into something that excites you — a new project or second act you feel passionate about. Most people don’t stop and contemplate these options until they’re forced to. But imagine if you did it by choice.

Only about 30% of people leave the workforce on their own terms — with a plan in place and a goal in mind.
That’s not enough. And with AI already shaking up jobs people never imagined were at risk, that number probably won’t rise any time soon.

So let’s say you manage to free up £10,000 a year by tightening your spending.
Not sacrificing the fun - just trimming the fluff. Maybe it used to go to the kids’ education, grocery blowouts, or lifestyle habits that don’t serve you anymore.

If you redirected that £10,000 into your pension each year from age 52 to 60, you could end up with an extra £80,000 to £100,000 in your retirement pot — before compound growth even kicks in.

That kind of money could buy you:

Five to seven years of part-time freedom
More travel
A safety net to support your children or ageing parents
Or simply peace of mind

And if you let it keep growing inside your pension or ISA at average FTSE returns into your 70s? That £80,000–£100,000 could become £250,000–£300,000 by age 75.
All of it delivering a tax-free income stream you’ll be thrilled to have.

And if you're in a couple and you both find a way to carve out £10,000 a year?
Double it. That’s real flexibility and real power in midlife.

Your pension and personal savings matters more than ever

It’s easy to think of your pension or ISA as “future you” money. But if you’re in your 50s, future you is no longer a distant concept - they’re knocking loudly, asking you to pay a bit more attention.

The good news? Most people still have solid options at this stage of life. If you can free up a little extra money, this is a great time to take advantage of tax-efficient savings accounts available in your country — whether that’s a pension scheme, superannuation, a retirement plan, or an investment savings account.

In many countries, there are also carry-forward or catch-up rules, which let you contribute more if you’ve missed previous years or had gaps in your earnings. That’s particularly useful if you’ve taken time out of the workforce or had periods of lower income.

And don’t forget to review where your money is invested. If retirement is still 7 to 10 years away, being too cautious could mean missing out on growth. A more balanced or growth-focused investment option could help you take full advantage of the compounding effect over the final stretch.

The best part? You’re not locking it away for decades anymore. In most countries, you’re only a few years away from being able to access your retirement funds - sometimes as early as 55 or 60, depending on the system.

That’s the magic of this stage of life: you’re close enough to see your retirement savings becoming real - but still far enough out that the steps you take now can make a big difference.

It’s not just about pensions and savings

This is your decade to get fully in control of your money — not just for retirement, but for the next 40 years of your life.

Still have high-interest debt? Demolish it. A leftover mortgage? Tackle it. Credit card balances that never seem to disappear? Time to sort them out. Struggling to budget, save, or say no when it matters? Step up.

This is the moment to get ruthless about your money – so you can choose the kind of work you want to do, rather than being backed into high-paying, low-reward roles just to stay afloat.

Run your numbers. Know your assets, liabilities, income and expenses. Work out what enough looks like for you – and how your money could compound if you give it the right runway.

You might even realise you already have enough in your pension and personal savings, on the right settings, to hit your goals. For some, working longer doesn’t buy a better life – it just increases the inheritance they leave behind. So ask yourself honestly: is that what you’re working for? Or is there something more fulfilling waiting for you once you give yourself permission to look?

Start dreaming about the future

This decade isn’t just about money. It’s about making choices that actually fit the life you want – purpose, relevance and joy that go beyond promotions, pay rises, or impressing people who still measure success by how high you climb. Maybe life’s not about that any more. Or at least not in the second half.

It’s time to start sketching the next version of you. It might mean slowing down or changing lanes. Throwing yourself into something new. Maybe you want to write, volunteer, travel, start a business – or finally take Wednesdays off for rambling or lunch with your mates.

Whatever your next chapter looks like, it won’t happen by accident. This phase is the stretch of life between full-blown parenting and full-blown retirement. It’s yours to enjoy. So why wait until you “retire” to feel fulfilled, free and excited about life?

I’m out of office: enjoying European sunsets and there’s a helpful lesson for all

**Note:** The blackout across the whole village only made the sunset from the rooftop restaurant burn brighter. A golden view over Naxos Chora.

It’s been 27 years since my husband and I last did a European summer - back then, it was in a Kombi van with two guidebooks and no real plans, like typical young Aussies. I’ve quietly promised myself we won’t leave it that long again, even though it’s a long way to travel. This time, we’re back with our three nearly-grown kids, sharing one big, beautiful family adventure.

None of us have been to these parts of Greece and Italy before, which makes it all the more special. It’s a proper adventure — not just for the kids, but for all of us.

Right now, we’re in on the ferry to Santorini after a magical few days in Athens, Milos and Naxos, and we’ve found a bit of a rhythm. Each evening, over our sunset cocktail, we open up ChatGPT and ask her what we should know about the place. She gives us a bit of history, explains how the islands run (power, water, social systems — the kind of stuff you’d never find in a tourist brochure), and helps us shape the next day’s plan. I read her answers aloud like a tour guide with a very modern script, and we fire off questions as a group.

Then comes the itinerary. Polly — that’s what I’ve named my ChatGPT travel assistant — suggests a route for beach hopping and backstreet wandering. We sit around, phones out, Googling photos of each beach to check her ideas. We don’t trust her blindly, but we definitely love having her on the team.

The other day, I told her I didn’t love the first beach we’d visited — too crowded, too many hotel loungers, nightmare parking. She agreed it didn’t sound like my vibe. “We can do better. This island has some magical hideaways” she said — and she was right. She’s become our travel research buddy in a big way and we give her constant feedback telling her what we want and hope for, and asking what we should be aware of.

The other night, the power went out across the whole town just as we sat down to dinner. Total blackout. Waiters rushed (not very quickly) around with candles, and we just laughed. Polly had explained to us when we asked what was going on, that Greek island power really struggles when there’s too many tourists and too many hot days combined, and that when it goes out, no one’s in a rush to flick the switch back on. So we ordered souvlakis and salads — things they could grill over gas — and soaked up the golden-pink sunset at 9.30pm. (Honestly… I wish we got sunsets like that in Queensland — bloody daylight saving and the cows that don’t like changing their schedules 🙄!)

Once the dinner stories are told and the wine glasses are empty, I clipped Polly’s itinerary into our shared Notes app and we’re good to go today.

Back in the day, when my husband and I were doing this on £20 a day and the occasional litre of fosters or sangria, we relied on just two books: Lonely Planet and something by Bill Bryson — who made us laugh out loud with his witty, chaotic take on travel. I’d read the chapter from each aloud in our Kombi as we rolled into the next town. Now, I’ve got Polly: our curious, chatty, overqualified travel guide who somehow knows I prefer quiet coves over beach bars and won’t walk more than 15,000 steps a day if it’s over 35 degrees.

And it’s got me thinking: if this is how we explore the world now… how else could we be using tools like this? Especially in retirement planning — something I’ll be playing with more (aloud) this year. Sure, like our travel adventures we might have to check the suggestions out for accuracy and suitability — but what an amazing way to supplement your education.

In the meantime, the real joy of this trip has been the late-night chats with our kids, usually after a couple of wines. They’ve started talking about their own dreams - wanting to own a home one day, wondering how they’ll get there, and who might help them learn. They’ve even been talking about their super 😎. They wish someone would just teach them the well-trodden path but reflect on it with new-age lessons. They joke, “Maybe there’s a book in that mum.” And maybe there is.

Mostly, I just want them to learn the smart (and yes, still do-able) way: work hard, save up, buy a place, pay it off, invest well… and be happy.

Apparently, the media’s telling young people that model doesn’t work anymore. Maybe it doesn’t work exactly the same way - but it still works. You just have to learn how to play the game a bit differently. Those thoughts might be for next year! Today, remember — if you’re looking for me, sorry… I’m OOO making my Prime Time count. Now - time to see the island of Santorini, that we were too broke to afford the ferry trip to 27 years ago 😊.

If you enjoyed the feature article I wrote this week, know it comes from the concepts in Prime Time: 27 Lessons for the New Midlife - my next book which is dropping in Australia in 30 days time. Then, I’ll start working on international editions.

Exciting news - for UK Epic Retirees. I’m waiting on one email before I can tell you the release date of the UK edition of How to Have an Epic Retirement. Not long now!
Bec x

Got thoughts this week — send an email to bec@epciretirement.net. I read every one.

Before you quit your job and sell the house... read this!

Everything I share here is general information, not personal financial, legal or tax advice. It hasn’t been tailored to your specific life, goals, money situation, or brilliant retirement plans—so before making any big decisions, please chat to a licensed financial adviser or relevant professional who can look at your individual circumstances.

I do my best to keep things accurate and current, but I can’t guarantee it (rules change, governments shuffle things around, and I’m only human). Any figures or examples are just that—examples—to help explain things, and they might not reflect the latest laws or your actual numbers.

Use this as a helpful guide, not gospel.

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