Young people 'start retirement planning 14 years earlier than their parents did'
Today's young adults start their retirement planning 14 years earlier in their lives than their baby boomer parents did typically, a study has found.
On average, people aged 34 and under said they started to think about their retirement plans when they were aged 27, according to the research by charity the National Skills Academy for Financial Services (NSAFS) and Axa Investment Managers.
By contrast, people aged over 55 typically said they did not start thinking about life after work until they were aged 41 - a 14-year difference.
The launch of automatic enrolment into workplace pensions in 2012 has been seen as helping to develop a greater pension savings culture across the UK, with previous research suggesting that younger people in particular are keen to save.
In 2014, pension scheme Nest said that people aged under 30 are more likely to embrace automatic enrolment than any other age group, with just one in every 20 workers aged between 22 and 29 choosing to opt out of their workplace pension scheme.
Nearly half (47%) of people wished they were educated about retirement options at an earlier age, according to the findings from the new survey. Nearly 60% of 18 to 34 year-olds said they needed more financial education to help get them ready for retirement.
Axa IM and the NSAFS have launched a free learning tool called "get ready", which helps support companies in answering employees' questions about pensions.
Stephanie Condra, a retirement market strategist at Axa IM, said: "We are offering companies a free, practical and interactive learning tool that supports their efforts to get employees thinking about their pension.
"The tool was designed to complement the other resources that are available across the industry, highlighting the message that it's never too early or too late to get ready for retirement."
Companies can find out more about how to get the tool at www.getready.net.
More than 2,000 people took part in the research.
