With a recent study of Brits revealing that retirement benefits men’s health, but not necessarily women’s, effective and timely retirement planning is becoming more and more important for the rapidly increasing number of people approaching the milestone.

The research, based on data from 50,000 Brits, was published in a working paper released by the IZA Institute of Labour Economics in Berlin. It revealed that while men tend to believe retirement will result in a decline into frailty and hypertension, the opposite was usually the case, with their health improving overall.

The same statistics for women, however, found no evidence that those who retired were any better off. This could be due to women being generally more health-conscious than men, or because their careers may have been disrupted by motherhood.

Yet other studies, using the same data, have found that retirement, regardless of your gender, can lead to a more active lifestyle and improve sleep.

So with the number of 85-year-olds in the UK expected to double by 2026, making sure people understand the options available to them is becoming ever more crucial.

There is a plethora of information out there related to retirement; the best time to retire, the best time to start planning for it, and considerations over the length and quality of your career, financial concerns and gender.

But the reality is that both men and women approaching retirement should plan for their future as soon as possible, to ensure they can explore all the options available to them.

Retirement is something we all think about at one time or another during the course of our working lives, but it can be a worrying subject for those not knowing where to turn to get the right information on how best to plan for the future.

‘Extra-care’ living offers the financial, health and social benefits that come with downsizing, as well as providing a less stressful and easier transition into life after retirement.

These self-contained properties, recommended by the Department of Health, offer residents a better quality of life by allowing people to maintain their independence for longer, with easy access to onsite flexible care that adapts to their changing needs.

More than 25 per cent of residents living in extra-care developments go on to experience health improvements and, on average, also spend less time in hospital than those living in standard retirement properties. Because of this, most people who downsize into an extra-care property will never need to move into a care home.

In addition to improving physical health, extra-care developments’ easy access to communal facilities can also help tackle depression – one of the biggest causes of ill-health among older people.

Overall, no matter which gender you are or how old you are, it is never too early to start planning for the future. Exploring the financial, social and health benefits of extra-care living, can lead to a more peaceful, stable and secure future when the time comes to enjoy life after work.