Abstract: Objective To analyze and understand the connotation and characteristics of self-pension provision at the individual level of community pre-elderly people, and to provide referencefor the construction of urban pension service system. Methods A semi-structured interview was conducted in10community residents aged between 50 and 59 andColaizzi analysis method was used to analyze and summarize the data. Results There were 7themes from the analysis: (1)The closer theretirement, the stronger the idea of self-pension;(2)Don’t want to bring trouble to the children and hope to have self-pension;(3)Self-accumulation of pensionfunds through increasing revenue and reducing expenditure; (4)Self-health management to slow aging; (5) Strong learning need for health knowledge; (6)Manage family and develop friendship foremotionalsupport; (7)Help children to take care of the family especially the grandchildren so as toreduce potential pension burden. Conclusion Community pre-elderly people attach great importance to self-pension preparation through accumulating economic, healthy and emotional resources, which indicates that there are solid foundations for the improvement and construction of self-pension in urban community.

Key words: pre-elderly people, pension provision, community, self-pension, qualitative research