I read this with a feeling I wanted to lie on the floor and breathe steadily till the palpitations went away.

gh

If I could see all the pots I ever had (11) on a single board, even it meant clicking through to see them as pots, I expect I’d do the kind of thing that Richard is doing

As I’m sure you know, a pension is a lifetime income that will in future keep pace with inflation. You may chose to opt out and generally 10% of savers opt out of anything that doesn’t do it for you. But that means the other 90% (including me) will be getting the default – as set out above – an income for life that keeps pace with inflation.

But to worry that some of your funds have gone down (and one up) is to give yourself needless sleepless nights. All your four pot managers are supposed to be doing the same thing which is to provide  you with that income and that some one did well and the rest badly is of virtually no import.

I have no interest in checking the relative performance of my pots despite one supposed to be out of oil (fossil fuel free) , one investing in technology and one being Nest’s default. I am waiting for the day when I can have a retirement income from them all which will keep pace with inflation.

If this is what “value for money” testing is about, then it’s just a practical version of the theoretical testing done by TPR and FCA who don’t measure your experience but something made up by them and the people who do performance measurement in actuarial bubbles.

I’m sorry but if what we are saving for is a pension, then what the heck is the up and down of my pot’s value over a week, a month or a year any importance? Why can’t I have a measure that talks about my pay in retirement and the chances of that pay keeping pace with inflation? Why can’t that be the measure of value for my money -it’s what it says on the packet – all these pots are “workplace pensions”!

On my way up to the north, I got a call from my Doctor – Dr Tommy  of the Neumann  Group. He said he was worried that my neurological condition drive me to depression and even suicide.

I told Dr Tommy that I was a cheerful chap but I could be driven to something like the state he described.

We laughed when I explained that I worked in pensions but only saw pots – he knew what I meant.