Are we in for a cosmic retirement?

When it comes to what we want from retirement, British people are refusing to let the credit crunch and financial uncertainty dampen their hopes and dreams.

A recent survey of more than 3,000 people of all ages, independently surveyed for MGM Advantage, the retirement income specialist, has shown that countless Britons are reaching for the stars when it comes to thinking about retirement.

For some men, it seems the world is not enough and after a lifetime of toil and work, one in 50 of them have set their sights on a retirement filled with space travel! It seems like Richard Branson might just be onto something....

Unsurprisingly, the most popular retirement dreams for British people involve taking more holidays, with 42% of the British public making plans to travel when they reach retirement. And a further 24% of people are even more adventurous and plan to spend their new-found leisure time travelling the world.

And British women have no plans to grow old gracefully with one in 30 of them aiming to remove the physical signs of work and stress with a touch of cosmetic surgery, setting themselves up for a glamorous retirement in the sun.

Of course, our retirement dreams need to be paid for and that's where many of us are simply not prepared. The Retirement Nation study shows taking independent financial advice could make all the difference, with retired people who have never sought independent financial advice being twice as likely to be forced to downsize and four times more likely to need to go back to work in order to make ends meet, than those who have.

So forget the giant leap for mankind, it seems the first small step towards walking on the moon is making an appointment with an Independent Financial Adviser!