Lifestyle, Retirement Pensions & Insurance
Mention retirement planning and many people roll their eyes and say ‘I’ve got plenty of time ahead for that’. Maybe for those under thirty it’s true but, for anyone over the age of fifty, a clear plan of what you expect from your retirement can make the transition much less stressful as well as financially viable.
Skipton Building Society has been carrying out research which reveals the unique ‘DNA’ of tomorrow’s retired generation. The research shows that there are five distinct retirement persona which pinpoints individuals most and least dominant traits which give a profound individual fingerprint.
To discover a person’s Retirement DNA Skipton have carried out an experiment and hooked up pre-retirees to scientific probes. Using Galvanic Skin Response (GSR) they reveal their conscious and subconscious reactions to life after work. They found that people had a dramatic physical and emotional rejection of the traditional views of retirement. The study showed just how bored we are by outdated images of later life and the stereotypical image of retired people.
Dr Jack Lewis, neuroscience consultant and author of Sort Out Your Brain, said “Skipton has broken new ground by using physiological and sensory research, together with traditional methods. By applying this cutting edge new technology, the Society has been able to dig deep into its respondent’s true feelings and combine this with quantitative findings, to give the most comprehensive insight yet into what really makes individual people tick when it comes to retirement”.
The research highlighted there are five distinct types of retiree; however, no one conforms to just one persona. Each person had their own unique ‘retirement DNA’ profile made up of elements of each, with areas of dominance.
Activity Seeker – a person who values physical activity and fitness now and will continue to do so when they retire
Adventurer – a risk taker who continually seeks thrills and is looking for excitement in retirement
Comfort Seeker – the person who appreciates their family, home and garden, who enjoys the simpler things in life
Knowledge Seeker – someone who continually wants to learn new skills, take on new hobbies and activities
Worker – someone whose work is their passion and vocation, they don’t want to stop working and are likely to take on charity work or volunteering
The interesting part of the research is that while most people balked at the suggestion that retirement is synonymous with old age, they responded positively to the idea that retirement is the start of a new chapter, and they want to remain productive despite giving up work. Most people described clear and inspired plans for retirement with everything from wing walking to starting their own businesses.
But in 64 per cent of people, their physiological response contradicted this to some extent, highlighting a degree of confusion about their vision for the future.
The worrying statistic is 22 per cent of people said they had no or incomplete plans in place for retirement. And of those who did, 30 per cent said they have no idea how much money they have put by to achieve them. What is clear is that people’s aspirations and desires for their retirement may be flawed, especially if they haven’t made adequate provision for themselves.
Matching your anticipated retirement with your financial wealth has now got a lot easier as Skipton has used this research to develop a retirement DNA profiling tool which will be available as an app in their branches. This will help you to understand your expectation of the future and get you thinking how to plan for retirement.
Skipton is the UK’s fourth largest building society with over 785,000 customers and has been declared the Best National Building Society 2014 by What Mortgage.
