Richard Smith has made an important point. Many people build up DB pensions, many more build up DC pots and we all build up state pension.

We need to understand how people think about all their retirement saved money whether pot or pension. There is much we have which will not be found on the pension dashboard, our savings and property , shares and many other assets that form people’s estates but can’t we please find a way to help people understand their “pensions” as an age wage.

There is something here about Richard who is a Gen X pensioner, he became when when he lost his wife and she left him a pension. He has a DC pot (several pots actually) and he has a state pension building up to pay to him when he’s 67 (or is that 68?).

Life is not about financial products but what they do, what they pay into the bank account and the certainty people have that they’ll have income now and in the future. Gen X are keen to understand how the ones they have are looked after  (as Richard was when his wife died). We spend so little time thinking about what we call the “age wage” the total amount that comes to us when we need it as we get older.

We have served up freedom from pensions for the last 10 years but now the agewage is what people like Richard want to know about and what they hope they’ll get when they tap into the dashboard. Standard Life are doing their bit to help Standard Life savers save but are they saving pensions or just pots, will the dashboard answer that question?