Today, around 50 Britons will celebrate their centenary: happy birthday to all of them.
In 1926, the year they were born, life expectancy at birth was around 56 for men and 59 for women. At the time, the newly launched contributory state pension kicked in at 65, and retirement was brief and often impoverished.
How times have changed. Now, most people stop working in the first half of their 60s, typically with decades of life ahead of them, thanks to improved medical care and healthier lifestyles.
Today a 60-year-old British man can expect to live another 24 years and has a 33.8 per cent chance of celebrating his 90th birthday. A 60-year-old British woman can look forward to another 27 years of life, with almost half reaching the big nine-oh.
That is all good news. But with increasing longevity comes a challenge: how to make that finite pension pot stretch to the end of the road.
