Victoria Derbyshire is one of the best presenters on the radio. On one of her Radio 5 programs she came out with a little jewel about her Dad telling her to spend on pensions and not save into them.
I’m no fan of the “pensions” is a dirty word school of thinking that suggests that if we could dress retirement planning up in some woolly counterfeit semantics, we’d go some way to sorting the massive gap between pension saving and pension expectations.
But Victoria was spot on with her suggestion, especially as she pithily explained that spending is a positive decision she takes to commit her hard-earned while saving is a negative expression related to denying more positive actions.
I’m heartily sick of the word “saving” especially as its being applied in the public spending sense.
If one way out of the current dilemma facing this country is to turn negative thinking about saving into positive thinking about spending then three cheers for that.
I am pro investment and against speculation. Let’s spend on long-term projects like abolishing means-testing by bumping up the state pension and let’s spend on satisfactory retirement plans like the excellent pension schemes offered to civil servants, firemen, doctors ,nurses and local authority workers.
Let’s rid ourselves of the speculation culture that looks at delivering short-term profits for institutions by driving wedges into the cracks in the finances of nations, companies and other speculators.
Let’s spend our money on providing ourselves with a great second half to our lives through the new Government pension (NEST) and let’s make good use of the workplace pension schemes which we’ve been developing over the past ten or fifteen years to replace the defined benefit pensions that smaller companies can’t manage and therefore can’t afford.
Let’s adopt a spend mentality to the future that embraces a better Britain for our kids and ourselves.
Related Articles
- New national pension scheme gets the go-ahead (confused.com)
- New pension won’t feather your Nest (independent.co.uk)
- Millions of workers to be enrolled in company pension scheme under opt-out reform (telegraph.co.uk)
- Millions of workers to be enrolled in company pension scheme under opt-out reform (telegraph.co.uk)
- Every UK company to offer pensions under new rules (independent.co.uk)
- ‘Decent’ state pension could be £140 a week (independent.co.uk)
- Radio review: Victoria Derbyshire interviews PC David Rathband (guardian.co.uk)
- Radio head: Victoria Derbyshire on 5 Live and Jane Garvey on Woman’s Hour (guardian.co.uk)
I’m a bit disappointed that “saving” – put another way, “deferred spending” – is seen so negatively but I’m all for the power of positive thinking!
I doubt we can all afford pensions as good as those enjoyed by the fire service – not many in public sector can expect that sort of generosity! Part of achieving good pensions for all is likely to mean a curtailment of the gravy train for some – a genuine fairness rather than the Animal Farm sort some public sector unions want.
Howdy! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that
would be ok. I’m undoubtedly enjoying your blog and look forward to new updates.