Lovely thought, but not going to happen unfortunately. I’m not sure where our tax & NI payments go to to in the UK but it definitely doesn’t seem to be into state pensions, NHS or any sort of public spending. Sadly under our current government I fear the state pension age will go up if anything.

Of course, there’s nothing to stop people retiring earlier… other than having the money to support yourself in your retirement of course. If you intend to support yourself via a private pension I’d recommend you start investing into it at age 16, preferably earlier. Ideally invest at least 50% of your income every month. In fact this is probably good advise for any young person today anyway - you will need something to supplement the state pension as it’s not going to be enough to live on!