Sally Bridgeland – an imposing presence

I admit to being a little intimidated by Sally Bridgeland whose presence is as impressive as her intellect. Credit to Darren and Nico for creating this podcast.

The second half of Sally Bridgeland’s podcast with Nico and Darren is one of the highlights of this extended series.

Sally and Nico clearly connect via maths and their love of actuarial science. Darren admires Sally’s speculation of harvesting energy from outer space , Sally enjoys rehearsing her childhood experience of growing up a nerdy maths swot whose career counsellors can do no better than have her teaching maths.

We learn that it wasn’t till she went to work in Switzerland that she fully understood how career opportunities are stacked against women, but for the most part, the first part of the podcast is fun and games.

The knockabout stuff goes on a bit  and frankly the pod goes a bit flat as we discuss the intricacies of  State Street’s green credentials, But that’s before Darren lights the blue touch paper when he asks Sally “how did you get into pensions”

The second half of the blog has Sally at her best and her best is rather better than anything else we’ve heard so far.Sally talks us through her childhood and education, her aborted PHD , exchanged for actuarial qualifications, her service to indices , het time at BP and most recently her portfolio career with RSA, PIC, IMPAX and others.

She so overwhelms her hosts that they forget to ask her what she sees as Value for Money. She launches into an explanation without prompting.

Abandoning any general definition of value for money, she suggests that it is what each person wants it to be, For her, value is in knowing her pension is flexible as she suffers from a medical condition that could wipe her out in a few years or leave her to enjoy a long retirement.

She urges each of us to think about what matters personally and establish what value we want for our money. I can’t say that flexibility is my priority, and Sally and Nico and Darren and I probably over-think what our retirements will be like.But encouraging us all to think what we want in retirement is certainly one use for the VFM project.

But I’d push back on it being the only use. If God was anything you wanted him/her to be , then we would have no comfort from religion We do need some common standards , just as we need common books of prayer. We need a common definition of value for money because we cannot all be as bright as Sally Bridgeland.

But as with most things, it is easier to understand your position when someone can articulate theirs and this is what happened to me when listening to Sally work this through.

More widely

Sally is someone to follow on Linked in. Her posts are as varied as her interests and her compassion and interest for all around her are impressive.

There is something about Sally Bridgeland’s piercing intelligence that transfers very well to the pod. She is such an imposing personality , physically and mentally , that this format enables us to to consider her ideas without distraction.

Put in your plugs, go for a walk and play this to yourself for the last thirty minutes.