Despite having spent more than 25 years in the business Peter Nicholas realises it was time to consider his own retirement. 

I should have prepared myself better when I first noticed that things were running off track. Woken way too early by a sick child, tripping over the dog while trying to play Daddy to the rescue, suffering a cold shower because of my ineptitude with the idiosyncratic heating system and finally blowing an electrical fuse as I tried to microwave my instant porridge – it was definitely one of those days!

Fortunately they are relatively uncommon, but this one was notable. My run of challenges continued and the biggest and most confronting was yet to come. I had a meeting with the bank to discuss a mortgage to purchase a house in York.

I thought I was reasonably familiar with the process, having been through it a number of times previously in Australia. To familiarise myself with the UK processes, I'd read up on the MMR (Mortgage Market Review) and all the changes that had come into effect on 26 April this year. But what I hadn't expected were the words, "Of course at your age, we'll need to look at shorter term mortgages. When are you planning to retire?"

For the first time in my life I was confronted with the reality of my own impending retirement. Never before had I felt age-constrained; never before had I felt the need to check on my retirement readiness with a sense of real consequence. I, like so many others, am hurtling towards a future for which I am not emotionally prepared.

If all I can get is a ten year mortgage, I'll have to pay it back in 120 monthly instalments. The maths makes sense, but it also suggests I only have 120 monthly pay cheques left. Oops, there goes October: make that 119 pay cheques left.

How did this happen? How did it happen so fast? How did it happen to me? I've been in the retirement savings industry for over 25 years and spoken to audiences around the world about the challenges and opportunities in preparing for retirement. Still, I was impacted by the emotional realisation that time is finite and now some choices are no longer available to me. Frighteningly my savings runway is rapidly reducing.

In a world where DC thrusts responsibility onto the individual to take responsibility for their own retirement, time is our greatest enemy. The importance of communication that conveys this message is vital: communication that connects the right message to the right member at the right time and drives the right action.

My day did improve. As I sat on the train to London that evening I reviewed a range of retirement-readiness communication. I reviewed it with the perspective of a member, customised it to me using the online modellers and calmed myself by watching some great videos. In reality our work is highly relevant and has impact - and the time is right for me to receive it.

My final challenge of the day was a lost rail ticket. I'm not sure if this is good or bad. The ticket inspector allowed me to buy another ticket on the train, and he gave me a senior's discount!

Written by Peter Nicholas, Managing Director/CEO at AHC.