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Bestselling author Pam Howes is rewriting retirement – one of many embracing a second career in their "third quarter" of life.
10 September 2026 | 6 minute read
Liverpool, 1943. Behind the blackout curtains, Bella and her sweetheart Bobby are seated at the piano, preparing to lift their spirits with some rousing tunes before the screech of falling German bombs becomes too loud for them to play. In Bella’s past lies shame and heartbreak; in her future, redemption and happiness.
That scene is drawn from one of author Pam Howes’ wartime sagas, the creation of which was an opportunity to combine her greatest passions: storytelling and music. But Howes discovered her talent for writing fiction in her third quarter, only after retiring from a successful career in interior design.
“I never thought about writing as a profession,” she explains. “I worked in the music business before I got married, then had three children and moved to Canada with my husband. I did an interior design course while my kids were at school, then started my own business when we returned to the UK.”
Your third quarter is the chapter where your focus moves from striving to choosing – when you have the resources, the perspective and the experience to make the choices that matter to you.
Howes’ business grew and flourished. “It was all floral curtains, swags and things back in those days,” she remembers. “Installing them in massive barn conversions was challenging work! After my divorce, when I was approaching 60, I felt it was time for a change. I started reading a lot and I thought, ‘I can do this.’ I tinkered around, wrote some articles for a music magazine, then my partner suggested I try writing a story.”
Howes dived straight into this new project, writing and self-publishing five novels set around the Manchester music scene in the swinging sixties. She was surprised and delighted to find that people wanted to read what she’d written. “They started flying off the shelves,” she remembers.
Howes’ story is a familiar one for Annie Coleman, ambassador for the Stanford Center on Longevity in Stanford, California, and founder of Realise Longevity, a strategic consultancy that seeks to change how the world sees ageing.
“I left the corporate world without knowing what I was going to do next,” she says. “I’d planned to travel, but then COVID-19 hit. I still felt I had a lot to offer – my mum lived to 98 and I thought if I was going to live that long myself, I’d need something to do.”
Annie quickly realised the challenges and opportunities an ageing population presents to individuals and corporations. “Demographics are fact, not fiction. The systems that society has in place are based on shorter lives – for example, the state pension came into being when the average life expectancy was 68. Longer lives are an extraordinary achievement, but systems weren’t built for them.”
For those working in physical jobs such as construction – and indeed Howes’ former career, which saw her climbing up and down ladders carrying heavy bolts of cloth – stepping back and slowing down is a necessity. “But you still have years of life,” Annie says. “You still need healthy finances, social connections and something with meaning that makes you feel your life matters. It’s a new life stage that previous generations didn’t experience. There are no road maps and few role models.”
Howes’ big break came in 2016, when the fledgling digital-first publisher Bookouture offered her a contract. “But they told me they wanted wartime sagas, and they needed to be set in Liverpool, not Manchester. ‘Liverpool sells sagas and Manchester sells crime,’ they said.”
Undaunted, Howes got stuck in, drawing on her parents’ experience of wartime life as well as online research and films. Her first novel, The Lost Daughter of Liverpool, set in World War Two, was released in 2017, and she now has 20 titles published in ebook, paperback, audio and large print formats. But financial success didn’t come overnight.
“Selling the business wouldn’t have provided me with enough income to live on,” she says. “I had a small private pension, but I still did shift work for the AA for a year before the books started doing well enough that I could stop. Now I’m one of the best-off pensioners I know. Many of my friends are full-time retired and on basic state pension, but I don’t know how anyone manages just on the basic state pension.”
Sufficient funds to live comfortably in later life is a huge concern for those nearing retirement age, agrees Annie. “Most people realise they don’t have enough money to leave the corporate world altogether. We’re seeing a huge growth in entrepreneurship and side hustles among people in their 50s, who have wisdom and experience and want to do something for themselves.”
But within corporations, the needs and value of older workers are also being increasingly appreciated. Companies such as easyJet, Unilever and L’Oréal are actively pursuing strategies to recruit and retain older workers, often offering more flexible working for those looking to downscale, embark on a portfolio career or undertake caring responsibilities.
So, what advice would Annie give someone looking to launch the next phase of their working life as Howes did? “Older workers sometimes feel like they’re treading water. Have a conversation with your employer about opportunities to reskill and get out of inertia. But if you’re sure you’ve had enough, think before you leave. What are you good at? What do you love to do? Those are the strengths you’ll use to feel fulfilled.”
For Howes, her unexpected career shift has led not only to financial security and the immense satisfaction derived from having a creative outlet, but also to an improved quality of life. And with her best years still ahead of her, she doesn’t see herself slowing down any time soon. “I’m writing two books a year at the moment,” she says. “I don’t have to sit in traffic. I can get up, have breakfast, sit in my dressing gown and write. It’s lovely. People say I never stop talking, so words come easily to me. I see stories wherever I go – I’ll need to live to be 100 to finish what I’ve got in the pipeline!”
Your third quarter is a chapter rich with possibility, with the resources, experience and perspective you’ve spent decades earning. But most second careers don’t generate bestseller-level income. It may take several years to become profitable and some never achieve it. That’s why wealth planning is crucial, and we can help you plan the financial runway your next chapter deserves. Talk to us.
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