Spain faces an unprecedented demographic transformation. Prolonging life expectancy and accelerated aging of the population They are turning retirement into an increasingly longer and more complicated stage.
With more than 12 million people over 60 years of age and the forecast that in 2030 one in four people in the country will exceed that age, the debate on sustainability of the public pension system and the need to guarantee financial autonomy in old age has become a priority.
The consequences of not having a pension plan
This is the case of Montse, a 67-year-old retiree who lives every month “juggling” with the 820 euros she receives as a pension. “It’s not that I didn’t want to make a forecast, it’s that maybe I couldn’t,” he laments during an interview for the program ‘And now Sonsoles.‘thus illustrating the reality of thousands of Spaniards who face retirement without having planned their financial future.
“What I’m doing is surviving. I juggle, thanks to the politicians we have, the functioning of everything and all the pensions,” confesses Montse, stressing that in her environment “many also reach retirement without a plan and depend only on the pension.”
“If the pension doesn’t arrive, it throws you off”
The economist José Antonio Vega, guest on the program, uses the metaphor of the table to explain the need to diversify income in retirement, explaining that the main leg is the public pension, but three others would be necessary, such as personal savings, income from investments or assets, and other alternative sources, such as active retirement.
“The ideal time to plan for retirement was ten years ago. The second best time was today,” warns Vega. However, he recognizes that not everyone has the possibility of building that “table” with several legs. “It’s complicated. If the pension doesn’t arrive, it throws off any time you have in your family budget.”
In the case of Montse, the impossibility of saving during her working life has determined an old age with very limited resources. Given this, he points out that “not everyone can have so much leg of the table.” The lack of financial education and opportunities to plan in time explains, in part, why thousands of retirees depend exclusively on the public pension.
And although the profile of new retirees is changing, since those who are approaching 65 today generally have a higher level of training and a longer and more digital life, the obstacle of financial stability persists, even among those with average incomes.
Thus, experts insist on the need to encourage the habit of saving and consulting professionals, but cases like Montse’s remind us that for a significant part of the population, saving was not an option, but rather an impossibility marked by low salaries and job trajectories marked by precariousness. “I’m late. Now, I just have to survive,” he concludes.