The way things were!

Nurse Rebecca is pleased with me. I’ve lost 19 lbs in my first month of recuperation from TapperTubby syndrome.  Regular access, reduced alcohol consumption and a cutting down on high cholesterol and high calorie food are apparently making a difference.

In one month I have, according to Nurse Rebecca, become one year younger. If I continue on this trend I should be back to being a 61 year old (fitness wise) by the time I turn 57 (November)! If I carry on to my targets – I might be 56 again!

Incentives to live

I have an incentive to live, each year I live longer is worth financially around £36,000 to me. Last month, my DB pension from my time at Zurich became £36,000 more valuable to me! I am determined to win back the six and a half years Nurse Rebecca claims I’ve lost from being overweight and under exercised.

A DB pension is an incentive to live longer.

This all became very relevant to me when I was at the Quietroom conference yesterday. I had to leave half way through, but got to heard a great talk from someone who was encouraging people like me to take tiny steps towards wellness as the Marketing Director of Weight Watchers. I nearly jumped up onto stage to testify how right she was (but I’m not using Weight Watchers).

Right on queue, Claudia’s watch went off  (she claimed by accident), it was telling her she’d hit one of her walking targets for the day (she should have used a podium). The reminder of success is precisely what I got from Nurse Rebecca – Kerching – a pound lost a grand gained!

But as I contemplated the good news re my DB pension, I felt a commensurate loss with regards my DC pot, which will now have to stretch further. Most young people – and many of my age – will only have DC pots and the state pension. The state pension is of course DB but we all like to think it’s our private pots that really matter.

If I’d stayed at the Quietroom gig, I could have listened to Judy Parfitt of Vitality. According to my friend John Mather, Vitality now offer you a retirement savings scheme of which the charges rise or fall depending on your fitness. You save faster , the faster you can run!

Because this scheme is DC, you’ll need more in your pot, if you approach retirement

A DC pot is a disincentive to live longer!

Can I have the best of both worlds?

Not yet you can’t! But I suspect that by the time I get to my mid sixties (give it a few years), you may be able to slip into a general pool of people – as a fit person – with a real chance of outliving your peers.

All that time in the gym earning you a cheap Vitality workplace pension will pay off as you put your feet up in retirement.

How- you might ask- can a DC pension do this?

The answer – in my imagination – is for me to switch the DC pot that I have built up into a CDC scheme. A CDC scheme pays a wage for life – for all of my life – not just till my normal life expectancy – or to the point when someone requires me to buy an annuity.

A CDC scheme that allows me to save as I like – that pays me a pension for as long as I live is the best of both worlds for me!

What’s more, if I can swap the job of managing my wage for life with the manager of my CDC – I might have the time and freedom – to enjoy my later years!

I suspect that a stress free retirement will be both healthy and long!

How I want to be (Again)!