I spent yesterday at Lincoln University offering students cake in exchange for taking a survey on the impact of social influencers on their attitudes to retirement. Students are very easy to bribe with cake, and the last trays went to three young women who said they would quite happily have them for dinner.
What stood out was how unfamiliar the idea of retirement felt to them. Most repeated the word back to us with a puzzled expression. It was not rejection; it was distance. But when the discussion moved to the things they cared about—graffiti, Dungeons & Dragons, sports—the conversations became lively and detailed. They could explain the structure of a D&D campaign, the roles within a party, how characters progress, and why certain decisions shape the narrative. These interests have rules, communities, aesthetics and a sense of direction. Retirement has none of that. It sits at the other extreme: an idea without structure.
Many young adults have not yet begun pension saving, and those who do tend to prioritise near-term goals (MaPS). Survey data from YouGov and the IFoA shows uncertainty about when they might retire or how much money they will need. These findings are often interpreted as indifference, but they are also a predictable response to something that is difficult to imagine. People rarely engage with systems that have no clear storyline.
The Young Money report by MRM shows that many young adults rely on financial influencers and tend to trust what they hear. The guidance they encounter is immediate and practical—budgeting, spending choices, short-term saving challenges. Very little helps them picture a long-term financial journey in the way a D&D player can picture a campaign arc. The issue is not a lack of motivation; it is the absence of a visible frame.
Reflecting on yesterday’s conversations, I was struck by how much of this stems from the way the pension system presents itself. It operates behind specialist language, administrative processes and shifting rules. There are few landmarks to orient someone approaching it for the first time. Young adults are not avoiding retirement; they are responding to a system that offers almost nothing to hold onto.
If we want people to prepare for later life, we may need to give retirement clearer contours. That could mean tools that show the path from early contributions to later outcomes, examples that illustrate real-life journeys in a recognisable way, or communications that focus less on rules and more on what life in later years might actually look like. In short, retirement needs something closer to a narrative—something with characters, choices, progression and consequence.
People engage when they can see where they are going. Yesterday’s conversations made it clear that the challenge is not persuading young adults to care about retirement, but giving them something concrete enough to care about.
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