On the basis that inviting a fresh pair of eyes to mull over an investment strategy is never a bad idea, I had lunch with a trusted financial advisor last week.

Actually, we were not scheduled to discuss a new strategy, merely to tweak, if necessary, an existing one.

All investment plans are an aggregate of assumptions, ideas, theories and, most important, hope — that they are accurate and that you live long enough to benefit from your prudence.

In this respect, they resemble the ultimate ‘domino effect’ because to work effectively, B must follow A and C must follow B and so on.

I am probably around letter S by now and, as I have turned 50 (difficult to tell from my photograph, I know), the dominoes are getting heavier and it’s becoming more important that they fall in the correct sequence.

My lunch companion knows I am a big fan of equities and that most of my pension planning — for this is what we were discussing — is based upon the assumption that, provided quoted companies continue to pursue profits, there is an excellent chance their respective share prices and dividends will continue to grow.

Nevertheless, my pal asked whether it was time to maybe “reduce your equity risk”.

His response took me aback: wasn’t he being ultra-cautious? He explained his position, which made for a lively lunchtime debate, and left me wondering whether his caution was well-founded.

I mulled over the topics we had discussed, wondering if my natural penchant for risk taking should be curtailed, at least for a while.

A few days later, I watched a pensions-related debate on BBC’s Newsnight.

One contributor thought it completely unfair that, when he reaches 65 in around a decade, the pension age will have risen, which means he will have to work for another year after already working for half a century.

It was impossible not to have sympathy with the guy — all he wanted was to draw a line under his working life and go off and enjoy retirement.

Other contributors argued, rightly, that the State is barely able to support pension payments now, so there is very little chance it will be able to support the millions of baby boomers expecting to retire over the next ten to 15 years.

And there’s the rub. I do not expect to retire when I am 65. In fact, I do not want to retire in 13 years — quite the opposite.

I believe there’s been a sea-change in retirement thinking over the past few decades. Our grandparents and parents set their sights on clocking off at 60 or 65, but most 50-somethings no longer think this way.

Improvements in healthcare mean we have every chance of surviving well into our late 70s or early 80s.

Furthermore, accumulating a sizeable enough pension pot between the ages of say, 25 and 65 to support you for perhaps another 20 years is extremely difficult.

Mindful of this, apart from genuinely wanting to work well beyond the age of 65, I have concluded that I am not ready for ultra-caution just yet.