What will you do when you turn 65? Maybe you see yourself on the golf course, in the sun, minding grandkids or just taking the time to do as little as possible. Or maybe you have no intention of retiring, and will continue working until the last possible hour.For others, however, leaving work is more of a long goodbye – you take on work where you can, and while you want to. As you get older or your ability to work – or demand for your skills – starts to decline, the amount of time you spend on work reduces, and you start to rely more on your pension to fund your lifestyle.It’s a balancing act and will require careful planning to ensure your new post-65 portfolio career does what you want it to.65 is the new 55Working into your late 60s is undoubtedly a growing trend. According to Central Statistics Office figures, in the fourth quarter of 1998 there were just 33,200 people over the age of 65 working. By the same period in 2018 this had jumped to 78,100 – and by 2025 it had jumped again to 137,100, representing a 76 per cent increase over the seven years. While population growth over the period is one factor, it also shows a growing trend towards working past the age of retirement.More women are working into retirement also. In 1998, the vast majority of workers 65 and over were male, at about 80 per cent. By 2025, the proportion had fallen to 69 per cent. In 1998, people in this age cohort accounted for about 8 per cent of the workforce. By 2025, the figure had risen to almost 16 per cent.Next year, the number of people aged 65 and over will be 915,800 but by 2057 this will have more than doubled to 1,879,400. What are your legal rights?There are now greater protections for older employees who want to work. Due to come into effect on June 29th, the Employment (Contractual Retirement Ages) Act 2025 will mean you can tell your employer you don’t want to retire when your contract says so, and that instead, you want to work until the State pension age of 66. According to Barry Reynolds, a partner with law firm Littler, the Act will be commenced “hand in hand” with a new code of practice.“It will be a welcome development in terms of employees who clearly want to work longer,” he says.“[But] I’m not sure it’s going to be hugely impactful.” This is because, first of all, your employer doesn’t have to agree to your request. An employer can say “no”, says Reynolds, adding that their decision “must be justifiable”.Secondly, it’s only intended to “bridge the gap” between a typical occupational pension age of 65 and the State pension age of 66, says Reynolds. So, if you want to keep working beyond the age of 66 with your employer, this will still very much depend on them. What work can you do?Most people in this age cohort might opt for part-time or consultancy work.After Covid, Karin Lanigan, executive head of member experience with Chartered Accountants Ireland (CAI), says more people are looking to keep working into the typical retirement age, be that for certain months of the year, on a part-time or consultancy basis or as a non-executive director. Lanigan recalls a call she got from a CAI member who thought they wanted to be retired but found over the winter the “walls were closing in” on them so they wanted to get back to some form of work. She says the reasons can be “quite varied”. Some are financially driven and need to keep working, some want to maintain social connections, while others “decide to do so because they want to”, she says, adding that this cohort often wants to keep making a contribution to the business world.Is it also the case that 65 is no longer perceived as being as old as it once was?“100 per cent,” says Lanigan. So, what do people in the accountancy world do?“Some will find it difficult, and there is usually a reason for that, such as you haven’t put in the groundwork beforehand or you haven’t kept your skills up to date,” she says.Typically, partners in the larger firms retire at the age of 60, but Lanigan says “quite a lot of them” will keep working in some capacity. She points to an increasing uptake or interest in interim management. “It might mean someone would take on a contract role for a specific purpose for six-nine months,” she says, and then take the next three to six months off. An obvious move for many retired professionals is to seek out non-executive director roles. Research from the Institute of Directors shows non-executive directors in financial services can earn about €60,000 to €70,000 a year, or between €30,000 and €35,000 in other businesses. However, this might take some planning to achieve and that is true regardless of what career you had before turning 65.“It’s difficult to come out at [age] 65/66 and then start building a portfolio from scratch. It takes time to build it up,” says Lanigan.“Our advice is to start looking at that in your late 50s/early 60s and build experience at a board level,” she says, adding that a good route is on the charity or pro bono side, such as credit unions. “You can then use that as a platform to look at other, paid non-executive directorships,” she says.From her experience in talking to people still working into their “third age”, Lanigan says it’s typically “100 per cent” a positive thing to keep working.What about the State pension?If you do keep working, this will probably have an impact on your pension planning. The first thing to consider is the State pension and, if you’re entitled to it, when you should start receiving it.While you can start drawing it down from the age of 66 – whether you stop working or not – you can also opt to defer it. You can do this between the ages of 66 and 70.One downside of deferring the pension, however, is you will have to pay PRSI (typically at the rate of 4.2 per cent) until you turn 70 or draw down the State pension. Until 2024 you were exempt from PRSI after the age of 66.This means that someone earning €60,000 a year, who would previously have avoided annual PRSI payments of €2,520 a year once they turned 66, will now be levied with a charge of €210 every month. Opting to draw down the pension at 66 means this charge can be avoided. So why defer the State pension? It may make sense for some people – those who may not have enough contributions to qualify for a full State pension, for example, and so need to keep paying PRSI to make up the shortfall. Others might want to wait for a higher rate of payment. For example, if you draw the pension down at age 66 and are entitled to a maximum contribution, you’ll get €299.30 a week. Wait until you’re 70, however, and you’ll get €363.90 a week (of course you will have missed out on four years of contributions over that period, while you will also have been paying PRSI on your earnings).And your personal pension?And what should you do about your personal pension? Do you have to draw it down or can you keep it intact until you really need it?“The answer depends on the type of pension arrangement you hold and whether the pension relates to a previous or current employment,” says James Mullane, director of PPS Financial Planning in Limerick. With a PRSA, for example, benefits have to be taken before the age of 75 but with a buyout bond, benefits will be taken at the “normal retirement age” (NRA) stated on the contract. This NRA will also determine when you can access your occupational pension, but it will be between 60 and 70.“It may be possible to work on past the NRA without accessing benefits, but that would have to be negotiated with your employer,” advises Mullane.The other option is to segment your pension into different pots, so you can access them at different ages. The feasibility of this will depend on the structure of your pension.The advantages of this approach include tax planning. If you transfer all your pension into an approved retirement fund (ARF), for example, this becomes subject to the imputed distribution rules, of between 4 and 5 per cent a year.And leaving your money to grow longer can be a good idea.“Funds that remain uncrystallised can continue to benefit from investment growth,” says Mullane. “If these funds increase in value before being accessed, a larger tax-free lump sum may be available when those segments are eventually drawn down.” Bear in mind that the maximum lump sum is €500,000, with the amount above €200,000 taxed at 20 per cent.In addition, it can be beneficial from an inheritance tax perspective, as Mullane notes, if you have a series of PRSAs. Those that have not been drawn down would pass to your spouse tax-free if you were to die, whereas funds in an ARF would be subject to income tax on drawdown.