These things creep up on you, I thought to clip my blog stats to capture the moment this blog passed 8,000 posts (with this post).
With the average post 800 words , that represents 6.4m words read nearly 4m times over the past 15 years.
What started as a public diary has become a public statement of intent – not just from me – but from a larger group of people willing to put their thoughts into a word document and send them to me for publication.
Some people phone or message me some ideas but for the most part , I react to what I see around me, usually in real time.
Many times, first drafts of blogs need to be changed to correct data or spelling and sometimes blogs have to be taken down as they are doing active damage to a cause or idea I support.
But in the 15 years, I have yet to be taken to court and though there are many people who prefer me not to publicise my views, it is a testament to the free speech that operates in this country, that I have not had official censure!
The history of my blog comes back to haunt me, in the AI created suggestions that appear at the bottom of each post. They remind me of how my ideas change over time and how times change too. When I started blogging, auto-enrolment, pension freedoms, Nest, LDI and buy-out would not have been understood by any but a few specialists.
In 2009, DB pensions were moving inexorably to a denouement and that denouement had been accelerated by the financial crisis which was still dominating thinking. We were in the final years of a Brown Government as the great New Labour experiment came to a sad end.
Today, 15 years later, the wheel has turned, we are contemplating a new Government , a new strategy for pensions and a new set of actors to deal with. We will say goodbye on Thursday to our pension minister (he will I am sure stay happy whatever he does). We may also see our current Chancellor out of not just a ministerial job but a role as MP.
Of the pension ministers we have had this century , only Laura Trott and Stephen Timms looks likely to be an MP going forwards. I suspect that Laura Trott may be a future prime minister if she stays the course, Stephen Timms is the polestar that remains constant.
As for my work, I started this blog when I was at Investor Solutions (now Mobius). I left it before it adopted its current strategy, because it would not adopt its current strategy. It is good to see that strategy now core to DC funds administration
I then had 10 happy years with First Actuarial that ended only because I wanted Pension PlayPen and AgeWage to do more. I have the fondest memories of First Actuarial.
The last six years have seen me building AgeWage in particular to be an organisation that promotes and delivers wage for life pensions. I had initially thought this wold be through CDC, but I am now considering the guarantees of DB pensions essential to the working person as they think about their post-work future. Hence my championing of Edi Truell’s Pension Superfund.
The blogs are not stopping. This year looks to be shaping to be a record one with over half a million readers projected. The blog does not accept advertising nor is it sponsored by subscription. Its 11,000 regular readers aren’t known to me and aren’t in any danger of being monetised.
The AgeWage and Pension PlayPen linked in group is close to 17,000 strong and while twitter, Facebook , Tic-Toc and Instagram are less productive than of yore, the organic pick up of the blog from google is its main attraction. This is the reward for persistency.
On which subject, I ask only your tolerance and your continued attention. It is fun to blog and so long as there is a connection between my brain and my fingertips, I will carry on!
Where I’m read. I so crave a Greenlandic and North Korean follower!