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One of our longstanding clients recently sent us something rather remarkable. Nick, a bp lifer who retired in 2013, had been doing what he calls his “sad individual with too much time on his hands” analysis of the bp Society magazine. Over 12 years, he’d tracked the deaths of 2,340 male bp colleagues, creating a graph that showed the average age at death was 85 years and 5 months.
At first glance, this might seem like grim dinner party conversation. But Nick’s graph reveals something profoundly hopeful: if you’re a bp employee today, you’ve likely got more time ahead of you than you think.
The maths of mortality
Nick’s data shows something the actuaries have been telling us for years – we’re living longer. The average bp male who makes it to retirement age (67) can expect to live to around 85 years and 11 months. That’s nearly 19 years of post-bp life.
For context, that’s roughly the same amount of time many of you have already spent at bp. Imagine starting your career all over again, but this time with financial security, decades of experience, and the freedom to choose exactly what you want to do with your days.
Current bp employees are younger than ever before – the average age across the company is now around 42. If you’re in your late 40s or early 50s, reading this over your morning coffee in Canary Wharf or wherever bp life has taken you, the maths is quite something: you potentially have 30-40 years ahead of you. That’s not just retirement – that’s entire decades of life.
The planning disconnect
Here’s where it gets interesting. bp has always been brilliant at long-term planning. The company thinks in decades, not quarters. Projects are planned 20, 30, even 50 years into the future. Yet many of us approach our personal lives with surprisingly short-term thinking.
We know the oil and gas industry better than most. We understand that nothing lasts forever, that transformation is constant, and that the smart money is always on planning for what comes next. So why do so many of us sleepwalk towards retirement without applying the same strategic thinking to our own lives?
Perhaps it’s because we’re too busy. Perhaps it’s because bp takes such good care of us that we assume it always will. Or perhaps it’s simply easier to focus on the next project, the next promotion, the next quarterly results, rather than grapple with bigger questions about what we actually want from life.
The compound effect of time
Nick’s research reminded us of something Albert Einstein supposedly said about compound interest being the eighth wonder of the world. Time has a similar compound effect on life satisfaction. The earlier you start planning for your post-bp life – not just financially, but emotionally and practically – the richer those future decades become.
We’ve seen this with countless bp employees over the years. Those who start thinking seriously about life after bp in their late 40s and early 50s don’t just retire more comfortably – they retire more purposefully. They’ve had time to develop interests beyond bp, to nurture relationships, to figure out what actually makes them tick when they’re not working.
What the data doesn’t capture
Of course, Nick’s graph can’t measure everything. It can’t capture the quality of those 85-plus years, the adventures taken, the relationships deepened, or the grandchildren spoiled.
But what it does tell us is this: you probably have more time than you think. The question isn’t whether you’ll have years ahead of you after bp – it’s what you’ll do with them.
Here’s the thing that might surprise you: many bp employees could afford to retire earlier than they think. Not at 50, perhaps, but certainly before the traditional retirement age. The combination of bp’s pension schemes, share options, and property appreciation means that many long-serving employees have more financial security than they realise.
The question isn’t always “Can I afford to retire?” but rather “What would I do if I could?”
It’s a question worth asking yourself now, while you’re still energised by bp life, not when you’re already planning your leaving do.
Making time count
Nick’s mortality graph is, in its own way, a celebration. It’s evidence of lives well-lived, of bp employees who made it through demanding careers and enjoyed substantial time afterwards. It’s proof that the equation works: challenging work plus financial planning plus good health equals decades of freedom.
But freedom without purpose can feel empty. The bp employees who transition most successfully aren’t just those who’ve saved enough money – they’re those who’ve saved enough time to figure out what comes next.
So perhaps Nick’s homework assignment for all of us isn’t just about mortality tables. Perhaps it’s about making sure that when our names eventually appear in the bp Society magazine, the years between retiring and that final entry are filled with exactly the kind of life we want to be remembered for.
After all, if you’ve got 30 or 40 years ahead of you, you might as well make them count.
Can you think of a colleague in their 50s who might be wondering about life after bp? Share this article with them – Nick’s research might just inspire them to start planning for those decades ahead.
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