It’s not the kind of headline you want to read as you go back to work (hi- how were your holidays?).

The money managers in question appear to be American and very big. They are becoming even richer by skimming off a  little of our money for “investing” in cash. Some of us with longer memories, remember that money-market  funds can go down as well as up. Fee bonanzas rarely end well for consumers.

In a parallel story we learn that 2023 was a duff year for fund managers, investing our money into the stock market rather than managing our cash

There is indeed a shadow across the London Stock Exchange and its cast by retail savers. The FT tells us

Money has been flooding out of funds in the UK in recent years as soaring inflation and the rising cost of living have pushed retail investors to raid their investment pots — 2022 was the worst on record, with £50bn redeemed on a net basis from funds.

Retail and institutional investors pulled a further £37bn in the 10 months to October 2023, according to data from the Investment Association.

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The rage of uncertainty

People want certainty and dislike being destabilised. Twenty years ago, someone like me would have been going to work  five days a week, taking ski holidays knowing there’d be snow and enjoying the benefits of a pension taken care of, a share scheme taken care of and house prices that made market investment a cosy punt.

Right now , few of those certainties apply, the only things that seem here to stay are higher interest rates and higher bills. House prices are definitely not stable, the pension closed and the regular routine of the commute has been exchanged for a complex world where work is mixed with caring and the boundaries between being at work and on line are confused.

People of my age are angry , because we were looking forward to getting to a certain age and relaxing. Younger people are angry because they can’t see the future as us boomers have it. Our kids envy our capital we envy our kids energy, and in this raging uncertainty we  dig our heels in and “cash-out”.

Well that’s one way of seeing things…

But while yet another “dash for cash” is newsworthy, it doesn’t tell us whether we are cashing out , out of pique or strategically. Being in the market last year (2023) was a good thing , provided you were invested globally and stayed invested in real assets (equities primarily). My pension pot grew by more than I earned last year, mainly because I didn’t invest according to my lifestyle profile.

The idea of giving up on investment for growth at 60 seems as mad as handing back my driving licence and booking into a gated later life community.

William Butler Yeats wasn’t much older than me when he wrote

Grant me an old man’s frenzy,

Myself must I remake

Till I am Timon and Lear

Or that William Blake

Who beat upon the wall

Till Truth obeyed his call;

A mind Michael Angelo knew

That can pierce the clouds,

Or inspired by frenzy

Shake the dead in their shrouds;

Forgotten else by mankind,

An old man’s eagle mind.

An old man’s eagle mind

Biblically, I am well into the final decade of my three score years and ten. Is it really nearly closing time?

Happily, the ref tends to grant us extra time, like you get at the end of football match or an episode of  “In our Time”.

The past ten days of enforced jollity, mince pie and prosecco-dom and sitting on my arse have bored me till I’m stiff. I’m getting out of Christmas and the New Year at speed!

This old man’s eagle mind is soaring over the City of London this morning, I am not in cash, I have sacked “lifestyling”, I’m for growing as I get older!