New research from The Nottingham Building Society has revealed that 39% of retired people in the UK claim that they are having the best time of their lives since they stopped working.

Although YOLO (you only live once) is a phrase and attitude most associated with millennials, older generations are adopting some of the YOLO personality traits later in life instead, the building society claims. 

One of the key reasons that so many retired people feel so positive about life after work is that 46% claim to have more disposable income than ever before thanks to being a generation of frugal young savers. 

The Nottingham believes this is, in part, down to this generation saving earlier on in their lives. 

One in 10 claimed they started saving for their retirement when they were 18 and 45% did this when they were 30 or younger. 

Despite this, 45% wish they had actually started saving earlier than they did - with just over one in four (26%) saying they would have started saving 10 years earlier if they had their time again.

Tina Hayton Banks, director of member services at The Nottingham, said: “Younger generations can learn a lot from their parents and grandparents, and this is particularly true when it comes to saving. 

“Our research shows that many people from older generations started saving much earlier in their lives than those in their twenties and thirties do today which has helped them enjoy their retirement to the fullest.

“However, we recognise this can be more challenging for younger people today who have more debts from studying, face higher house prices and have less-favourable state pension schemes.

“To live like YOLO pensioners, today’s generation will need to start a savings habit as early as possible. 

“If they start saving and investing smartly over a long enough period, they can build up a tidy nest egg to fund their lifestyle when they stop working.

“This is why we did this research because although it seems like a long way off, younger people need to envisage the sort of lifestyle they want in later life and understand how soon they need to start making allowances to enable that.”
 
The life of the ‘YOLO pensioner’ as revealed by the survey: