How to avoid a miserable retirement

The trouble with the UK’s private pension system, says Merryn Somerset Webb, is that it leaves most of us at the mercy of the markets. And the outlook for the markets is miserable.

Man sitting alone looking out to sea
A lot of us could be heading for a miserable retirement
(Image credit: © Getty Images/EyeEm)

Thinking of retiring? Aren’t we all – a survey out this week suggested that more than 20% of those of us in work are thinking about it. And, of course, an awful lot of us have already given in to the giving up urge.

Numbers out from the Office for National Statistics suggest that close to half a million 50 to 70-year-olds have left the workforce since March 2020 and not returned. Not all of those will have left voluntarily, of course, but the most common reason given for leaving is retirement.

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Merryn Somerset Webb

Merryn Somerset Webb started her career in Tokyo at public broadcaster NHK before becoming a Japanese equity broker at what was then Warburgs. She went on to work at SBC and UBS without moving from her desk in Kamiyacho (it was the age of mergers).

After five years in Japan she returned to work in the UK at Paribas. This soon became BNP Paribas. Again, no desk move was required. On leaving the City, Merryn helped The Week magazine with its City pages before becoming the launch editor of MoneyWeek in 2000 and taking on columns first in the Sunday Times and then in 2009 in the Financial Times

Twenty years on, MoneyWeek is the best-selling financial magazine in the UK. Merryn was its Editor in Chief until 2022. She is now a senior columnist at Bloomberg and host of the Merryn Talks Money podcast -  but still writes for Moneyweek monthly. 

Merryn is also is a non executive director of two investment trusts – BlackRock Throgmorton, and the Murray Income Investment Trust.