Ahead of International Day of Older Persons on Saturday 1 October, Carly Stone – from our Careers and Employability team – looks at how to approach changing or extending a career beyond retirement. If you’re considering working in banking and finance in later life, you may want to take a look at the options open to you.
Retirement doesn’t look like it did 20 years ago. Many would-be retirees are trading leisurely golden years in favour of a second career or passion project. The number of people working beyond beyond state pension age in the UK is around 1.5 million.
You may want to enter banking and finance from another industry, move roles within the sector or change your status to part-time or self-employed. Whatever your situation, you these three tips should help you if you’re interested in working in banking and finance beyond retirement age.
1. Redefine your career
If you’re evaluating the sector for the first time, do your research on jobs in finance and the different financial careers. It may be a good time to undertake a career test or consult with a careers adviser. Think about:
- why you’re doing this
- what your goals are
- what you hope to accomplish.
Make sure to consider how your prospective new role may affect your lifestyle.
2. Realign your career values
You may already be working in the sector but feel that retirement offers the opportunity to move into a new role. Career change is rarely linear, so you may want to reconsider your strengths and values and match them more effectively with the right role.
Maybe you crave more contact with people? If so, you want to explore a role in customer services. Or do you feel passionately about the environmental challenges facing the sector and want a role that addresses this?
If so, then retraining might be the best way forward and we have professional qualifications and courses that can support you in this transition.
3. Explore different career paths
Retirement offers many people the chance to move from being a full-time employee to being part time or even self employed. Only 2% of those working beyond retirement age work full time – 66% work part time and 32% are self-employed, compared with just 13% of younger workers.
If this interests you, the simplest form of self-employment is to be a sole trader, perhaps in accountancy, or financial or mortgage advice.
If you take this route, running a business can be extremely rewarding. However, you should bear in mind that it requires careful planning, including keeping detailed records of your income and expenditure.
As you consider which retirement career is right for you, you may want to explore and try different options. The benefit of being retired is that you don’t have to commit to a new career, but when you do find the right thing, you may find the best part of your career is still to come.
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