When people move home, only around one in 25 actually remember to tell their pension providers their new address… which might explain why there are now £19.4 billion worth of pensions pots waiting to be reclaimed – averaging £13,000 each. By Tony Watts OBE Sunday October 31 marks a new event in the financial calendar: […]

Research shows cost of a comfortable retirement soars in last 12 months to £50,000 a year for a couple Exactly how much do you think you need to retire comfortably? There’s no need to wear out your calculator batteries finding out, as the latest UK Retirement Living Standards have just been published by the Pensions […]

Discrimination stalks the land in many forms; and it’s not just gender, orientation, faith or ethnicity that routinely negatively impacts different minorities… but a condition that will (eventually) affect almost every one of us. Our age. By Tony Watts OBE Plan to work late? Even if you need to carry on earning a crust into […]

One of the lessons learned during the pandemic is that it is perfectly possible for a large swathe of us to work from home. Will this lead to those currently in their 50s and 60s extending their working lives and securing a more comfortable retirement… or negotiating a better work/life balance with their employer? By […]

On current lending trends to homeowners over the age of 55, over half will still be paying their mortgage after their 65th birthday, putting “the dream of retirement under threat” according to one financial commentator. UK Finance, the trade association for the UK banking and financial services sector, says this is the first time the […]

A new report shows that fewer than 15% of divorces lead to women receiving an equal share of the pension wealth accumulated. Researchers from the Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing and the Pensions Policy Institute analysed the pension wealth of almost 30,000 people over the age of 30. They found that married men have the […]

Tony Watts OBE reviews “YOU: Part Two”, an insightful (and entertaining) new book on “thriving in the second half of your life” by Campbell and Jane Macpherson.  “Be yourself; everyone else is taken” Oscar Wilde was famous for many things, not least his memorable epigrams; and the one above is quoted in a new book […]

New research shows another barrier being out in the way of older workers continuing to advance or switch their career: good old-fashioned bias. By Tony Watts OBE, co-author of The Midlife Review I’m not sure where you are with your own career plans, but if they include going for promotion, switching employers or changing roles […]

A full State Pension might well be worth north of £10,000 a year if the “triple lock” is applied from next April – an important and often vital component of many people’s retirement income. But is the ground being prepared by the Treasury for a lower cost alternative…? By Tony Watts OBE Covid has had […]

In a fast-moving world, many of today’s jobs may well have vanished within the next decade. That makes access to retraining vital. But the older generation of workers are finding themselves at the back of the queue – threatening their future livelihoods. Enter the renaissance career… By Tony Watts OBE, co-author of The Midlife Review […]