New research among 45-65-year-olds by Standard Life reveals having children living in your household can have a big impact on your retirement decisions. Almost half of respondents (49%) with two children in the household have no financial plans to provide for the future, compared to just over a third (35%) without children.

Children also impact decisions on when to stop working and retire. You are more likely to retire later if you have children in the household, with 10% of adults who aren't retired not planning to retire until 71-75, compared to only 2% who don't have children living with them.

Taking a career break or deciding to work part time can have a significant impact on your pension fund at retirement. A female saving £150 a month, increasing annually in line with price inflation from age 20 to age 65, could have a pension fund of £559,000. Taking a 5-year career break from age 30 during which pension contributions stop reduces the pension fund to £480,000 - a decrease of over 14%. If you work part-time and half your contributions from age 30 onwards this reduces the pension fund to £380,000 - a decrease of over 31%.

Other findings from the research of 45-65-year-olds include:

• 34% of those with two children in the household will make up for lost time and travel the world in retirement,
• 63% with two children in the household are looking forward to spending their time with their children and grandchildren in retirement, and
• 44% of those questioned without children in their household and who haven't yet retired intend to stop working completely. In households with one child, 42% intend to stop work completely, but if there are two children, only 27% intend to stop working completely.