As my week at Pensions Age draws to a close, I have become aware of topics that when I arrived just five days ago, I didn’t have the vaguest idea about. For example, at first I thought the issue of financial education only affected the younger generation. However, after attending a conference at the House of Lords on Thursday afternoon, one of the points I managed to understand was that if adults began paying for financial advice, the benefits would be extensive.

Despite these benefits, many people are discouraged from taking financial advice because of the price. I thought an alternative that should have been emphasised more is to look at websites dedicated to financial advice for free. Unfortunately I didn’t quite have the courage to put my point forward at the time, but I do believe it’s something to consider when a lot of talk about financial advice is directed only to people with the money to pay for it.

Another issue I covered in an article this week, which I found interesting, was the idea of ‘pretirement’. Research revealed that over a quarter of people do not like the idea of retiring and being at home all the time. Personally, the idea of having around 20-plus years of free time made me consider all those mornings I could happily stay in bed without any responsibility dragging me out, how could anyone not want that? A closer look at the stats, however, showed many people opt for ‘pretirement’ not because they do not share the same idea as me, but because they either cannot afford to retire or want to save more into their retirement fund.

It seems unfair that when someone has worked for the majority of their lives, upon reaching 65 they make the choice to carry on working because of money issues. It feels like a lot of people are losing out on time they have rightfully earned to complete their own list of things to do in retirement as a result of the way they previously managed money.

To conclude, a lot of this comes back to financial education. If you effectively learn how to manage your money at a young age, then whether you are aiming for a quiet retirement like me, or the new ‘pretirement’, you have the money to make that choice.

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