Why it’s so good to be a retired lawyer in East Anglia...

IF you are brimming with confidence then you are most likely to be retired with a car, no mortgage and grandchildren, a survey claims.

You are also likely to have been an engineer, lawyer or architect, live in East Anglia – and be male. Age, marital status and home and car ownership all play a significant role in our confidence, according to the study for insurance firm LV=.

It asked 2,000 adults to record the number of days a month where they felt confident. Women spend on average a third of their time feeling unconfident – 120 days a year or roughly 27 years of their lives.

Men feel confident more often than not, with only 84 days a year of insecurity.

Women are also much more likely to say they feel tested in day-to- day situations, with 40 per cent feeling unconfident on public transport, compared with 24 per cent of men, and 54 per cent uncertain in busy places, compared with 34 per cent of men.

Among the over-55s, 46 per cent were confident for more than three weeks a month, compared with an average of 24 per cent – and only 10 per cent of those aged 16 to 24.

The East of England was the most confident region, with the South West the least.

The survey’s findings suggest that being married provides emotional stability, owning a home gives financial stability and having a car means more independence. Not working removes a lot of the daily stress faced by younger commuters.

Behavioural psychologist Jo Hemmings said: ‘Many retirees are able to live more confidently once they have paid off their mortgage and have built up a comfortable pension to live off. Added to this, their increased free time allows them to spend more time with family.’