Millions of young Brits have zero pension plan despite believing they will retire young and be easily able to travel the world, new research has revealed.

The damning YouGov findings by savings and investment business M&G have shown that more than three quarters of 18 to 24 year olds, alongside nearly half of 25 to 34 year old’s, have not started making a financial plan for their post-work life.

However, a substantial number of the 2,000 young people surveyed said that they still believe they will realistically retire aged 63, five years before the State Pension age of 68.

Meanwhile, two-fifths of 18 to 24 year olds and 49 per cent of 25 to 34 year olds have aspirations to spend their retirement ‘regularly travelling.’

The results appear to suggest a worrying trend of an emerging ‘too little, too late’ generation of young Brits who are struggling to plan ahead for their future.

While a quarter of 18 to 24-year-old participants said that they are ‘too focused on saving or managing their finances’ to think about retirement, 30 per cent said they thought it was simply ‘too early’ to be worried about retirement.

Not only did those polled cite affordability as reasons for abandoning a pension plan, more than half (58 per cent) said they considered retired life to be uninspiring and incompatible with how they envisaged their future.

To challenge young people’s negative attitudes towards retirement, M&G are launching a national campaign that seeks to better reflect the reality of a post-work future, releasing two poignant images.

While the first image, an AI generated bleak depiction, shows what retirement stereotypically looks like in the UK, the second, a more vibrant photograph, shows the rich variety of how individuals can enjoy later life today.

‘Our research shows the reality of later life is radically different today than it was in previous decades, and how people are enjoying their later years is currently misrepresented.

‘If we don’t begin to positively reframe this chapter of life, the risk is that more people will continue to avoid planning for retirement and the ‘too little, too late’ generation will continue to grow.

‘We need to break the cycle, have a cultural reset, change the conversation and inspire people to plan for the future.’

Theo Bertram, Director of the Social Market Foundation, said that the UK ‘needs a cultural reset on how it discusses pensions.’

He added: ‘People are living longer, moving to part-time working and M&G’s campaign shows that people have clear aspirations to lead active lives way past their retirement age.

‘Changing the perception of later life has huge potential to boost saving rates and give people more confidence over their financial future.’

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