We've been talking about it for nigh on a year now, but a report released by the NAPF today paints a detailed portrait of the decision-making paralysis facing many in the 50-70 age group at retirement.

'The Unpredictability of Retirement' surveyed more than 1,200 of these baby-boomers in the latter half of 2014 to find out how pension changes – freedom and choice, shifts in state pension age, and the decline of defined benefit pension schemes – have affected their journey towards or during retirement.

It cheerfully segmented them into three alliterative characters:

  • 'Satisfied Sarah', retiring early with full DB pension, a homeowner with paid-off mortgage and very unlikely to have to work in retirement;
  • 'Malcolm in the Middle', who has a mixture of defined contribution pension and other savings, would have liked to have retired at or before the state pension age, homeowner but still has some mortgage to pay off, facing drop in living standards if he retires fully; and
  • 'Pinched Penny', a factory worker retiring on state pension only at SPA, expects retirement to be hard but no harder than life has been leading up to it.

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