MIDLIFE CRISIS

A 50-year-old has to wait 17 years before retiring, maybe more if Liz Kendall has her way. The numbers just don't add up for Gen X in the workplace, writes Jacquie Duckworth

- By Jacquie Duckworth

It's always interesting to hear the answer to that time-honoured question: “What advice would you give to your younger self?” The answers range widely. My current favourite? Dame Helen Mirren, who emphatically recommends: “Tell more people to fuck off.” Am with you there, Dame H! But I doubt many would say: “Dump shedloads of extra money into your pension pot every month without fail, because if you don't, by the time you need it, it'll be worth precisely sweet FA.”

Not very inspiring? Too far in the future? Why not just enjoy life while you’re young and carefree? Indeed.

For too long, society has clung to an outdated vision of work and retirement: education, career, then a golden age of leisure. For Generation X - my generation - that dream has evaporated like some cheap perfume, replaced by the harsh reality that dignity in retirement is a luxury many of us simply can't afford. It's time for a radical rethink.

By midlife, most people’s first careers are fizzling due to burnout, redundancy and boredom. Or maybe a combination of all three. A second career isn’t optional - it’s a necessity, a strategic imperative, and frankly, it makes business sense.

Gen X were the latchkey kids, the MTV generation, the first to navigate the digital revolution. We’ve constantly adapted and reinvented. And yet, despite our agility, we’ve been failed by a system that hasn’t kept pace.

We entered the workforce just as defined benefit pensions were disappearing, replaced by volatile defined contribution schemes. We’ve weathered multiple recessions, a financial crash, a pandemic, and now face crushing living costs - all while our pension pots shrink and the official retirement age recedes into the mist.