When I'm Sixty-Four
Discussion
...well, when I'm sixty-seven, actually... time moves on.
Are the children of the Sixties heading for a bumpy retirement?
There seems to be three solid cohorts of those retiring in the 2030s:
- ex-civil servant and local council types, who'll be retiring on pretty much what they were earning when 'working'
- powerfully built PHers, who hit the pension cap at 30 and continued to amass wealth thereafter
- normal people. And, I fear, quite a lot of the self-starting, self-employed types who saw the opportunities of the 1980s and grasped them without thinking of the long-term.
But that's not the focus of what's perplexing me: it's about the future cost of being retired.
When I was a kid, old people didn't need much money. All they had to buy was one of those tiny tins of Heinz Baked Beans and a little tin of Whiskas for the tabby. That was it.
But 'tech' has changed all that. Now, I'll be needing:
- a new PC every 5 years
- a new smartphone every 4 years
- a plethora of household 'white goods' which used to last forever and are now programmed to expire every five years [/tinfoilhat]
- subscriptions to Amazon Prime, Netflix and, by the time I retire, the BBC
- subscriptions to Microsoft365, Google One etc
- new-fangled heat and power diktats (and the lousy excuse for plumbing that we have these days)
And as for cars, I can't even begin to imagine what car crash(!) ownership will look like between 2030 and 2050. In fact, the current plan is that my new diesel vehicle will have to see me right through to expiry. But I still dread what punishing taxation regimes will come to bear in later years for those who refuse to 'get with the programme'. Let's face it, we're going to get a real nutjob of a leader at some point.
S'pose I should ask a question... will tech - and the costs of acquiring it and maintaining connectivity - create its own social underclass?
Are the children of the Sixties heading for a bumpy retirement?
There seems to be three solid cohorts of those retiring in the 2030s:
- ex-civil servant and local council types, who'll be retiring on pretty much what they were earning when 'working'
- powerfully built PHers, who hit the pension cap at 30 and continued to amass wealth thereafter
- normal people. And, I fear, quite a lot of the self-starting, self-employed types who saw the opportunities of the 1980s and grasped them without thinking of the long-term.
But that's not the focus of what's perplexing me: it's about the future cost of being retired.
When I was a kid, old people didn't need much money. All they had to buy was one of those tiny tins of Heinz Baked Beans and a little tin of Whiskas for the tabby. That was it.
But 'tech' has changed all that. Now, I'll be needing:
- a new PC every 5 years
- a new smartphone every 4 years
- a plethora of household 'white goods' which used to last forever and are now programmed to expire every five years [/tinfoilhat]
- subscriptions to Amazon Prime, Netflix and, by the time I retire, the BBC
- subscriptions to Microsoft365, Google One etc
- new-fangled heat and power diktats (and the lousy excuse for plumbing that we have these days)
And as for cars, I can't even begin to imagine what car crash(!) ownership will look like between 2030 and 2050. In fact, the current plan is that my new diesel vehicle will have to see me right through to expiry. But I still dread what punishing taxation regimes will come to bear in later years for those who refuse to 'get with the programme'. Let's face it, we're going to get a real nutjob of a leader at some point.
S'pose I should ask a question... will tech - and the costs of acquiring it and maintaining connectivity - create its own social underclass?
If there's one thing Boomers shouldn't be moaning about it's their pension or atleast opportunity to accrue a good one 
How much did your house that you should have bought in the 80's increase in value? 20 times?
Try retiring in the 50's. I haven't even paid my student debt off yet and probably won't until atleast 2030, I graduated in 07.
How much did your house that you should have bought in the 80's increase in value? 20 times?
Try retiring in the 50's. I haven't even paid my student debt off yet and probably won't until atleast 2030, I graduated in 07.
V8mate said:
S'pose I should ask a question... will tech - and the costs of acquiring it and maintaining connectivity - create its own social underclass?
I don't think tech is the problem, as long as you are not obsessed about buying Apple products then tech is pretty cheap as far as I am concerned.I bought my first PC in 1992, a 486SX with 2MB of ram and a 40MB hard drive that cost me £1000. Today I can go on the Dell outlet site and have a really decent laptop for around £350.
My last CRT 32 inch TV cost me £700 in 2002. Today I can easily buy a 55 inch Samsung for £500.
My current phone is an Honor 8X that I paid £229 for 3 and a half years ago and I have a £5 a month Lebara Sim.
Cars, I currently drive a 2007 Megane I paid £1200 for 5 years ago. I have just ordered a £13K Dacia Sandero Stepway that I think should easily last me 15 years at least.
What is really going to screw you over in retirement is everyday living costs, the things you cannot do without. Electricity and Gas will be double what they were in October after the next price cap, Council Tax is £2K+ a year on our band D property, Diesel has effectively doubled since Covid and food costs are going up every time I go shopping.
Buying a £500 TV every 10 years isn't the issue here, it is the cost of energy, food and everyday bills.
Squirrelofwoe said:
As a child of the 80s/90s, things will have gone spectacularly well if the only things I'm worrying about in my retirement is how to afford my Netflix subs and swap my mobile every few years! 
For people your age, workplace pensions were far more commonplace.And it's easy to laugh off the cheapest item on my list, but there seems to be a subscription for everything these days, and they soon add up.
Squirrelofwoe said:
As a child of the 80s/90s, things will have gone spectacularly well if the only things I'm worrying about in my retirement is how to afford my Netflix subs and swap my mobile every few years!
That, I’m going to be 40 next year and I’m more concerned about building a war rig for the fuel wars than saving money for future netflixThe guy that wrote that song is 80 in a couple of days, and there's your biggest problem, longevity. Your tin of beans and cat man would be smoking his pipe merely away and nipping to the pub when he could and as such would have keeled over 5 years after retiring.
Nowadays you've got Paul performing a couple of concerts a month, bouncing about the stage, and while for Paul longevity is not an issue due to his wealth for a lot of people who are not multimillionaires this is a problem if they want to stop working at 64.
As per the poster above, cost of living, not Netflix is the issue.
V8mate said:
Squirrelofwoe said:
As a child of the 80s/90s, things will have gone spectacularly well if the only things I'm worrying about in my retirement is how to afford my Netflix subs and swap my mobile every few years!
For people your age, workplace pensions were far more commonplace.And it's easy to laugh off the cheapest item on my list, but there seems to be a subscription for everything these days, and they soon add up.
Joey Deacon said:
I don't think tech is the problem, as long as you are not obsessed about buying Apple products then tech is pretty cheap as far as I am concerned.
I bought my first PC in 1992, a 486SX with 2MB of ram and a 40MB hard drive that cost me £1000. Today I can go on the Dell outlet site and have a really decent laptop for around £350.
My last CRT 32 inch TV cost me £700 in 2002. Today I can easily buy a 55 inch Samsung for £500.
My current phone is an Honor 8X that I paid £229 for 3 and a half years ago and I have a £5 a month Lebara Sim.
Cars, I currently drive a 2007 Megane I paid £1200 for 5 years ago. I have just ordered a £13K Dacia Sandero Stepway that I think should easily last me 15 years at least.
What is really going to screw you over in retirement is everyday living costs, the things you cannot do without. Electricity and Gas will be double what they were in October after the next price cap, Council Tax is £2K+ a year on our band D property, Diesel has effectively doubled since Covid and food costs are going up every time I go shopping.
Buying a £500 TV every 10 years isn't the issue here, it is the cost of energy, food and everyday bills.
Have to agree with this. Even decent quality Tech products can costs relative peanuts. I had to get a PC that could handle low end gaming. Got a refurbished base unit for around £300. Even less than that for something that can just surf the internet. I bought my first PC in 1992, a 486SX with 2MB of ram and a 40MB hard drive that cost me £1000. Today I can go on the Dell outlet site and have a really decent laptop for around £350.
My last CRT 32 inch TV cost me £700 in 2002. Today I can easily buy a 55 inch Samsung for £500.
My current phone is an Honor 8X that I paid £229 for 3 and a half years ago and I have a £5 a month Lebara Sim.
Cars, I currently drive a 2007 Megane I paid £1200 for 5 years ago. I have just ordered a £13K Dacia Sandero Stepway that I think should easily last me 15 years at least.
What is really going to screw you over in retirement is everyday living costs, the things you cannot do without. Electricity and Gas will be double what they were in October after the next price cap, Council Tax is £2K+ a year on our band D property, Diesel has effectively doubled since Covid and food costs are going up every time I go shopping.
Buying a £500 TV every 10 years isn't the issue here, it is the cost of energy, food and everyday bills.
You can access streaming via some cheap Roku box that could easily last five years.
The issues are all the necessities of life that have grown more expensive, partly due to government policy.
Edited by JagLover on Wednesday 15th June 09:21
Joey Deacon said:
V8mate said:
S'pose I should ask a question... will tech - and the costs of acquiring it and maintaining connectivity - create its own social underclass?
I don't think tech is the problem, as long as you are not obsessed about buying Apple products then tech is pretty cheap as far as I am concerned.I bought my first PC in 1992, a 486SX with 2MB of ram and a 40MB hard drive that cost me £1000. Today I can go on the Dell outlet site and have a really decent laptop for around £350.
My last CRT 32 inch TV cost me £700 in 2002. Today I can easily buy a 55 inch Samsung for £500.
My current phone is an Honor 8X that I paid £229 for 3 and a half years ago and I have a £5 a month Lebara Sim.
Cars, I currently drive a 2007 Megane I paid £1200 for 5 years ago. I have just ordered a £13K Dacia Sandero Stepway that I think should easily last me 15 years at least.
What is really going to screw you over in retirement is everyday living costs, the things you cannot do without. Electricity and Gas will be double what they were in October after the next price cap, Council Tax is £2K+ a year on our band D property, Diesel has effectively doubled since Covid and food costs are going up every time I go shopping.
Buying a £500 TV every 10 years isn't the issue here, it is the cost of energy, food and everyday bills.
ARHarh said:
You don't as suggested need to spend thousands a year on this stuff. My phone cost me £150 when it was replaced last year, does everything I need and the contract is £6 a month. I have never had a netflix, prime or subscribed to any such service and I don'rt get the time to watch all the stuff I want to with out those subscriptions. My pc was last upgraded 3 years ago with a new motherboard, and I am a big user of the PC. My cars are old but perfectly serviceable, and cost very little to own and run.
I think it's important to differentiate 'the future' from 'today'.The generation I'm focusing on has seen amazing shifts in lifestyle during the last 50-60 years and there's no reason to think that change won't continue.
V8mate said:
Squirrelofwoe said:
As a child of the 80s/90s, things will have gone spectacularly well if the only things I'm worrying about in my retirement is how to afford my Netflix subs and swap my mobile every few years!
For people your age, workplace pensions were far more commonplace.And it's easy to laugh off the cheapest item on my list, but there seems to be a subscription for everything these days, and they soon add up.
My mother has an ancient phone (£6 a month) and a £150 Samsung tablet.
Her home phone and internet is cheaper than her old legacy phone only service from BT. She has Netflix which is under £10, and a Roku I bought her for £20 (for YouTube/Netflix) and she has a Humax PVR.
She doesn't run a car as she only goes to the shops once a week. She just gets a taxi which is about £7 each way. It's cheaper than a car.
That's pretty much her entire outgoings other then food and other utilities. She has a tiny pension yet she says she's never felt so financially secure.
If you want the latest iPhone, iPad and a full sky subscription the. Yes it can be expensive, but those are not necessities.
V8mate said:
Squirrelofwoe said:
As a child of the 80s/90s, things will have gone spectacularly well if the only things I'm worrying about in my retirement is how to afford my Netflix subs and swap my mobile every few years!
For people your age, workplace pensions were far more commonplace.And it's easy to laugh off the cheapest item on my list, but there seems to be a subscription for everything these days, and they soon add up.
Regarding the first point however I'd argue that the rampant house price inflation (compared to wages) has had a far greater negative effect on the financial future of the younger generations than will ever be offset by the increased availability of (significantly less generous) workplace pensions.
V8mate said:
...well, when I'm sixty-seven, actually... time moves on.
Are the children of the Sixties heading for a bumpy retirement?
There seems to be three solid cohorts of those retiring in the 2030s:
- ex-civil servant and local council types, who'll be retiring on pretty much what they were earning when 'working'
- powerfully built PHers, who hit the pension cap at 30 and continued to amass wealth thereafter
- normal people. And, I fear, quite a lot of the self-starting, self-employed types who saw the opportunities of the 1980s and grasped them without thinking of the long-term.
But that's not the focus of what's perplexing me: it's about the future cost of being retired.
When I was a kid, old people didn't need much money. All they had to buy was one of those tiny tins of Heinz Baked Beans and a little tin of Whiskas for the tabby. That was it.
But 'tech' has changed all that. Now, I'll be needing:
- a new PC every 5 years Why? 5 years isn't very long - I had my last laptop (albeit a Macbook Pro which do tend to last a while) for 10 years, before it was my idiot ass that spilled water on it
- a new smartphone every 4 years No you won't
- a plethora of household 'white goods' which used to last forever and are now programmed to expire every five years [/tinfoilhat] Buy right, buy once
- subscriptions to Amazon Prime, Netflix and, by the time I retire, the BBC You don't need them all...
- subscriptions to Microsoft365, Google One etc why would a retiree need these?
- new-fangled heat and power diktats (and the lousy excuse for plumbing that we have these days)
And as for cars, I can't even begin to imagine what car crash(!) ownership will look like between 2030 and 2050. In fact, the current plan is that my new diesel vehicle will have to see me right through to expiry. But I still dread what punishing taxation regimes will come to bear in later years for those who refuse to 'get with the programme'. Let's face it, we're going to get a real nutjob of a leader at some point.
S'pose I should ask a question... will tech - and the costs of acquiring it and maintaining connectivity - create its own social underclass?
Who actually uses a PC any more? That is so 2000s to have a big box in the study that you use for your internet needs. I bought my parents an iPad a few years ago (they're 65yo and 61yo) and it's really all they use. They have a PC, but it is only used for my Dad when working from home. I expect the iPad to last at least 5 years with ease, and the replacement cost isn't even that much...Are the children of the Sixties heading for a bumpy retirement?
There seems to be three solid cohorts of those retiring in the 2030s:
- ex-civil servant and local council types, who'll be retiring on pretty much what they were earning when 'working'
- powerfully built PHers, who hit the pension cap at 30 and continued to amass wealth thereafter
- normal people. And, I fear, quite a lot of the self-starting, self-employed types who saw the opportunities of the 1980s and grasped them without thinking of the long-term.
But that's not the focus of what's perplexing me: it's about the future cost of being retired.
When I was a kid, old people didn't need much money. All they had to buy was one of those tiny tins of Heinz Baked Beans and a little tin of Whiskas for the tabby. That was it.
But 'tech' has changed all that. Now, I'll be needing:
- a new PC every 5 years Why? 5 years isn't very long - I had my last laptop (albeit a Macbook Pro which do tend to last a while) for 10 years, before it was my idiot ass that spilled water on it
- a new smartphone every 4 years No you won't
- a plethora of household 'white goods' which used to last forever and are now programmed to expire every five years [/tinfoilhat] Buy right, buy once
- subscriptions to Amazon Prime, Netflix and, by the time I retire, the BBC You don't need them all...
- subscriptions to Microsoft365, Google One etc why would a retiree need these?
- new-fangled heat and power diktats (and the lousy excuse for plumbing that we have these days)
And as for cars, I can't even begin to imagine what car crash(!) ownership will look like between 2030 and 2050. In fact, the current plan is that my new diesel vehicle will have to see me right through to expiry. But I still dread what punishing taxation regimes will come to bear in later years for those who refuse to 'get with the programme'. Let's face it, we're going to get a real nutjob of a leader at some point.
S'pose I should ask a question... will tech - and the costs of acquiring it and maintaining connectivity - create its own social underclass?
I think the cost of technology has reduced over time whilst what it can do for us within that cost continues to increase.
Many currently retired boomers still haven't grasped much of it so us Gen X-ers with retirement on the near horizon will be the first to benefit in a big way, should we so wish. For me, mainly ability to travel cheaply long term / far away / to avoid expensive winters here, with instant free access to things like navigation, banking and also friends and loved ones all through a cheap smartphone.
Many currently retired boomers still haven't grasped much of it so us Gen X-ers with retirement on the near horizon will be the first to benefit in a big way, should we so wish. For me, mainly ability to travel cheaply long term / far away / to avoid expensive winters here, with instant free access to things like navigation, banking and also friends and loved ones all through a cheap smartphone.
GroundEffect said:
Who actually uses a PC any more? That is so 2000s to have a big box in the study that you use for your internet needs. I bought my parents an iPad a few years ago (they're 65yo and 61yo) and it's really all they use. They have a PC, but it is only used for my Dad when working from home. I expect the iPad to last at least 5 years with ease, and the replacement cost isn't even that much...
Can't very well play the latest Battlefield / Call of Duty at 100fps on an iPad! I come to you courtesy of one of these,
https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-...
£100 iss, and my £1500 plus gaming PC sits gathering dust underneath, running something all day that draws that much energy and was quite noisy really seemed overkill for surfing and this works fine, uses minimal electricity and can do everything apart from gaming, plus, it is silent.
https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-...
£100 iss, and my £1500 plus gaming PC sits gathering dust underneath, running something all day that draws that much energy and was quite noisy really seemed overkill for surfing and this works fine, uses minimal electricity and can do everything apart from gaming, plus, it is silent.
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