Can you afford a 40 year retirement? More people than ever live to 100 - here's how to make your pension last

The number of centenarians has soared by nearly 90 per cent over the past two decades, new official figures reveal.The total of people aged 100 years and over remains small at 16,400, but the trend has big implications for personal finances, inheritance, the state pension and care costs.Living into your nineties has also become more common, with a 55 per cent jump to 645,000 since 2005, according to new data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).Meanwhile, it found the number of male centenarians has increased faster than among females, up by 47 per cent between 2015 and 2025 to almost 3,100, compared with a 15 per cent rise over the same period to just over 13,300.The highest rate of centenarians in the UK was in Wales, at around 26 per 100,000 people, but the rate has increased in all four UK countries since mid-2024.The ONS says: 'The population of centenarians rapidly increased in 2020 and 2021, following a decrease in the population in the years immediately before. Longer lives: Money experts offer tips below on making your money stretch further if you are in good health and might live to 100'This is in part explained by a decrease in births in England and Wales 100 years earlier, during World War One, followed by a rapid increase in births after the war.'The post-World War One "baby boom" generation, born 1919 to 1920, reached age 105 years in mid-2025. This caused the population aged 105 years and over in the UK to increase by nearly a third between mid-2024 and mid-2025, from 570 to 760.'The ONS has a tool to check average life expectancy for someone of your age here. Could your pension stretch until you are 100?'A retirement lasting 30 or 40 years is no longer unusual, and people taking an income from their pension should think carefully about whether their plans would still work if they lived to over 100,' says Clare Moffat, pensions and tax expert at Royal London.'Many retirees understandably want to help children and grandchildren financially, but it's important not to gift away more than you can comfortably afford, particularly when retirement could last several decades.'People should consider whether a blend of solutions could provide greater security, for example using part of their pension to secure a guaranteed income through partial annuitisation while leaving the remainder invested through drawdown.'Lucie Spencer, financial planning partner at Evelyn Partners, says: 'A hundred years old is a milestone that we often focus on, and the 20 per cent increase in centenarians in just 10 years is remarkable, but hundreds of thousands more people are living beyond 90.'The problem is, we don’t like to think about getting old, and we tend to discount the importance of future needs.'Now, even someone waiting until the state pension age of 67 or 68 to retire could quite easily need 25 years of pension income and often more.'While some lifestyle outgoings might moderate in the later phase of retirement, these could be replaced by other costs such as domestic, residential or nursing care, medical and heating costs.'How to manage pension withdrawals over a longer life 'Planning for longer lives starts with building a big enough pension pot,; says Sarah Coles, head of personal finance at AJ Bell.'It’s also worth considering how you’ll take an income from your pension. Drawdown offers flexibility and means you can leave the pot invested for more potential growth.'However, as retirements get longer, it will be essential to ensure the money doesn’t run out if you make it into your 90s or beyond.'You will also need to be aware of sequencing risk – where disappointing investment performance in the early years, coupled with larger withdrawals, can mean your pension doesn’t last as long as you had expected.' Coles says options include using a variable withdrawal strategy, keeping fixed percentage withdrawals under regular review, taking just the 'natural yield' – the dividend income – from pension investments, and buying an inflation-linked annuity.She adds regarding providing for a longer-lived spouse: 'If you have a defined benefit pension there’s likely to be survivor benefits. If you have a defined contribution pension and use drawdown, you can leave your spouse the remainder of your pension pot.'If you opt for an annuity, however, you will have the choice of either a single life annuity, which pays until you die, or a joint life annuity, which pays until you and your spouse have both died.'Worryingly, two thirds of policies taken out are single life, and if the person with the bulk of the income takes out a single annuity and dies first, it can leave their spouse in dire straits.'Care costs can easily be £50k a year Marianna Hunt, personal finance specialist at Fidelity International, says: 'Living longer is something to celebrate, but it also brings some significant financial challenges.'Someone retiring at 65 could potentially need their pension to last another 30 or even 40 years. That's a long time to eke your money out, particularly when you factor in the effects of inflation.'Another challenge is the potential cost of care. As we get older, we're more likely to need additional help and support, whether that's in our own homes or in a care home.'Care home costs for a self-funder can easily be more than £50,000 per year and could put significant pressure on retirement savings, particularly if someone needs care for several years.'Hunt goes on: 'Increasing longevity doesn't just affect retirees themselves. As parents live longer, their children may not receive an inheritance until they're in their 60s or 70s, potentially long after the point when that money could have made the biggest difference to their lives.' Protect Your Money - sign-up to our six-week plan If you want the retirement you hope to enjoy then understanding pensions, investing and saving is essential.In our new six-week Protect Your Money plan, Simon Lambert explains everything you need to know, from Isas to pensions and tax. If you're an M+ subscriber, it's completely FREE. 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