In this week’s edition:
Feature story: What are you really worried about when it comes to retirement?
From Bec’s Desk: A mother of adults
The Times: Here’s how to work out how much you really need for retirement
Take the Real Retirement Survey
We’re launching a big, broad, independent survey to learn about what you really need help with as you head toward retirement. And we invite you to take part.
What are you really worried about when it comes to retirement?
I spend an enormous amount of my life talking about retirement. I talk about it to people who are five or ten years away from it, and to people who are already there. I write books on it, and make courses. And I know lots of stuff. But there’s always more to learn - because retirement is changing pretty fast. And not everyone wants retirement to mean the same thing.
There’s people who desperately want to retire and people who aren’t entirely sure they ever want to stop working. And everyone is trying to figure out how to address it in their own way, at their own time.
Increasingly, I’ve become convinced that we don’t actually know enough about what ordinary people really think and feel about retirement in the UK. And I don’t mean what the pensions industry thinks you should worry about or what a government report says you should know.
I want to know what you worry about and what you want to know more about.
What don’t you understand? What are you afraid of? And do you actually feel ready for the next 20 or 30 years of your life? Because retirement preparedness is about much more than how much money you have in your pension.
So today I’m launching The Real Retirement Survey! And I want you to take part.
This is a survey to explore and understand what you know, and what you need to know, what you worry about and what you don’t.
Do you know how the systems actually work?
Most don’t realise until they get there that the UK retirement system asks you to understand an extraordinary number of things: the State Pension, workplace pensions, defined contribution pensions, final salary pensions, SIPPs, ISAs, tax-free cash, drawdown, annuities AND tax.
Then, at some point, you’re expected to take everything you’ve accumulated and work out how to turn it into an income that could need to last for decades. You might know you have £200,000 or £400,000 in your pensions. But do you know what sort of life that money can actually buy you?
Do you know how much you could spend? When you could afford to retire? Or how all the different pieces fit together?
And what are you actually afraid of?
This is the bit I really want to understand. Are you worried about not having enough money? Or running out at 87? Maybe it’s spending too much too soon? Or making a terrible decision with your pension? Then there’s the cost of care? Your health? Supporting your children?
Or maybe - money isn’t your biggest fear at all. Maybe it’s losing the structure and identity of work. Or being lonely or not knowing what you’ll do all day. Or finally having the freedom to enjoy life, but not having the health to do it.
These aren’t side issues to retirement - They are retirement.
I want to understand how ready people actually are for the retirement they want - financially, physically and emotionally.
And, so today I want to ask you to contribute to our first big piece of research. Help us understand what you need better, and deliver to that! Take The Real Retirement Survey here.
And remember, there are no right answers. In fact, I’m hoping some of yours surprise me. Because if we’re going to help people prepare better for retirement, we need to understand what you actually need help with. Not what everyone else assumes you do.
So - thanks in advance for being part of our study! I promise we’ll give back in spades.
This week, my youngest child turned 18. And once the celebrations are over, there’s a reality in that for me: I’m no longer the mother of children. I’m the mother of three young adults, each making their own way in the world.
My son didn’t want balloons at his party, and he certainly wasn’t going to let me make an “uncool” slideshow. He’s ready to be the leader of his own life now. And my job is to stand back a little, let him make his choices, and watch him become the person he wants to be.
There are some hard lessons in that for a mother, aren’t there? Deep breath - I’m learning - but I have to admit - it’s uncomfortable. If you’ve got advice - please share it in the comments!
This week marks the launch of The Real Retirement Survey - a really exciting program we hope to run annually to learn how you’re feeling about retirement and how everyone can help. I urge you all to get in and complete our short survey (well - it’s not too short - we need it to be solid and useful).
We launched the new UK Epic Retirement Flagship Course two weeks ago. It’s now available to start whenever you like. It takes you through the money stuff, but also lifestyle, health, travel, purpose, housing and later life, because a good retirement is about a lot more than getting your pension sorted.
And we’ve added four live online Q&As with UK retirement experts each year, so even though the course is now on demand, you can still bring along your questions.
The 15% launch offer is still available for the first 50 people to enrol. Just use LAUNCH15 when you register.
Have a look at the course here.
And that’s it from me - have a ripper Sunday! I’ll be spending mine cleaning up from my son’s balloon-less celebrations. Wish me luck.
Cheers Bec Xx
Author, podcast host, columnist, retirement educator, and guest speaker
The Epic Retirement UK Flagship Course
Planning retirement but not quite sure you’ve thought of everything?
The Epic Retirement UK Flagship Course helps you work through the money and the life stuff, so you can head into retirement with a clearer idea of what you want and how you’re going to make it happen.
What you get
Six weeks of guided learning with 14 practical modules covering your finances, lifestyle, health, housing, travel, purpose and later life.
Four live online Q&As each year with UK retirement experts, where members can bring along their own questions.
Three recorded Q&A sessions packed with real questions from people approaching retirement.
The Epic Retirement Conversation Starter Workbook to help you work through the big decisions with your partner or family.
Practical exercises and activities to turn what you’re learning into your own retirement plan.
A digital copy of How to Have an Epic Retirement – UK Edition.
Start whenever you’re ready. The course is available on demand, with new modules released progressively over six weeks.
15% off for our first 50 members
Use LAUNCH15 when you enrol.
Explore the course and get started →
“I have found this really helpful and it has helped inform the next stage of my retirement journey and made me think about things that I had not considered... I am very grateful for the course making me sit down and really think about how to manage my future, financially, emotionally and physically.”
– Angela, UK pilot participant
“I really enjoyed taking this course, even though I have read widely on the subject already and have a financial background. For anyone wanting to create some space to think about their current or future retirement, this is a great course to learn or in my case to challenge your own ideas and either reinforce your outlook or improve it.”
- Andy, UK pilot participant
“Any lingering doubts on your readiness for retirement? Then look no further... A well structured, easy-paced course that covers the retirement spectrum - from finances, to health, to travel, to purpose and then to later life - the course ticks every box. The 6 easy to complete weekly modules are supplemented by live Q&A sessions with industry experts to answer any questions you may have. A must do course for those thinking about, approaching retirement or who are already retired!”
- Michael, UK pilot participant
I am the retirement columnist for The Times, UK. You can read my most recent column here or look through all my columns here. My next column comes out this week. Here’s my most recent article:
Here’s how to work out how much you really need for retirement
Avoid having your pension fund run dry — or working for longer than you need to — with these simple calculations
Ask most people approaching retirement whether they have enough to retire and they’ll respond with a shrug, a “maybe” and some silence. It’s one of the biggest gaps in retirement planning, and it’s stopping people from making more confident decisions about living their life well, winding back their workloads or simply knowing when it’s time to stop.
There are two big groups facing this problem: those who have more than enough, but are working long after they need to because they never sat down and did the sums; and those who retire and are too afraid to spend their hard-earned retirement savings, watching their pension pot like a hawk and living a smaller life than they need to.
If they’d just named their number, and become familiar with an annual process of checking their spending, they’d feel in control, even powerful about driving their own future.
There’s a really simple way to work out how much you need for retirement, and yet nobody explains it simply, because their job is to deliver complex advice. Mine isn’t. So let me teach you how I build a back-of-the-envelope retirement number.
Bear in mind, my goal here isn’t to plan your retirement in detail — it’s to give you enough confidence to explore it in more detail yourself. And let’s face it — 30 seconds with a pen and an envelope might just get you closer to thinking about your retirement than one of those boring calculators you’ve been meaning to use for the past ten years but will never do.
The article was published in The Times, on Tuesday 4th August and is available for reading here.
Got a topic you’d like me to cover? Send me a message
Simply hit reply and send me a note. I’m keen to know what’s worrying you, what is driving you and what you want more conversation and education about.
Why do I write a separate newsletter for the UK?
I write a separate newsletter specifically for the UK, because the financial system here is completely different to Australia, where I’m based. Your retirement is shaped by the State Pension, workplace pensions, ISAs and HMRC rules. Not superannuation or the Australian Age Pension.
If I just sent you the Australian version with a few words swapped out, it wouldn’t actually be useful to you. And useful is the whole point.
The big conversations, about when to step back from work, what you want the next chapter to look like, how to make your money last, those are universal. But the practical detail needs to reflect the system you’re actually living in. So that’s what we’ve built here. Tell your friends - we want to help you make your retirement epic - the UK way.
I see these same worries daily among Indian salaried professionals — medical inflation, children's education, and the belief that a home purchase is retirement planning.
It's rarely the pension system that scares them; it's the unknowns of health costs and family obligations.
Your survey would be fascinating run here.
Our boys are 27 and 28 now and have now “left home” very recently. I am grateful that they have invited themselves to come and stay next week and we will have a laugh with all our in jokes and shared history. We are all navigating the new relationship where they don’t “expect” us to pay for everything and do their washing lol.