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It’s not uncommon to leave thinking about a pension until later. Most young men would probably not think about looking into a pension until they are around 30 – or at least, that’s what you would think.
A survey by the National Associate of Pension Funds found that more than half of male employees between the ages of 25 and 34 said they were planning to pay into a pension this year. In fact, the figures showed that 53% of 25-34-year-old employees were planning on paying into a pension fund.
Contrast this with the fact that the same report found that only 26% of employees between the age of 45 and 54 said they were going to do the same. According to the US Census Bureau men are starting to work into their 60’s; past the normal retirement age.
So it appears that younger men are more interested in pensions than their older contemporaries. Why the sudden interest?
Battle of the sexes
Statistics collated by HMRC have found that in 2010-11, men were contributing a significant amount more to their pension then women in every age bracket.
The biggest difference in contributions between the sexes was seen in the 45-54 age bracket – while 600 thousand females were contributing their personal pensions, more than 1,100 thousand men were regularly contributing to a personal pension.
Overall, the gender split saw about 35% of women contributing across all age ranges, with 65% of males doing the same. This is a remarkable difference – and shows that men are thinking more about their financial future than women.
That said, the number of younger men applying for pensions paled significantly with the number of men between the ages of 34 and 44.
Only around 100,000 men under the age of 24 contributed to personal pensions. That number, however, jumped significantly in the next age bracket – young men between the ages of 25 and 34 were remarkably more interested in pensions. More than 500,000 men in this age bracket paid into a pension.
Preparing for the worst
With the rise of the retirement age, a level of uncertainty over state pensions and the current state of the UK economy, saving up for retirement has never been more important. Low interest rates and fixed salaries could well be why younger men are thinking of saving up sooner rather than later.
And it’s a move that’s backed by experts in the field: According to a spokesperson from mypensionexpert.co.uk:
“Starting saving for retirement at the youngest age possible is always advisable and beneficial. Saving over as many years as possible will no doubt help boost the funds available at retirement and will take the burden away from the later years of working life.
“These figures are therefore encouraging and could be down to the increased media activity surrounding one of the biggest financial services shake up, auto-enrolment. The new switched on generation cannot fail to notice the coverage of these changes.
“The increased awareness could also be coming from their parents who are facing record low annuity rates and low retirement income and are therefore warning their children in advance”, they concluded.
What do you think? When did you start investing for retirement?
Featured image by http://dribbble.com/anthony_casey
This is a guest post. If interested in submitting a guest post please read our guest posting policy then contact us.