Category Archives: happiness

Pensions Victorious, Happy and glorious!

The image is of the transit of Venus taken from deep space (more here). “In the gloom the gold gathers the light about it” The British weather didn’t do us many favours over our long weekend but as we got … Continue reading

Posted in defined aspiration, happiness, mallowstreet, pension playpen, pensions, Public sector pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Is your company good to retire from?

Is this a stupidly obvious or obviously stupid question? If you fall into the “stupidly obvious” camp you are one of a dwindling band of devotees of the paternalistic culture that believes that a lifetime’s work with an organsiation should be rewarded … Continue reading

Posted in annuity, customer service, dc pensions, de-risking, defined aspiration, happiness, Henry Tapper blog, Popcorn Pensions, Retirement | Tagged , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

How to buy a pension

Buying your pension is one if not the biggest financial decisions you will take (or have taken). It’s fearfully difficult and most people take it with little help and – worse-information. Almost everyone is going to have to do it and that so … Continue reading

Posted in annuity, Bankers, Change, Consolation, dc pensions, defined aspiration, happiness, pensions, Public sector pensions, Retail Distribution Review, Retirement | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Top News! – Scrap national insurance on your pension payments!

 There’s plenty reasons to feel depressed if you run a pension scheme for your staff. Investment returns – depressed, annuity rates – depressed, you and your staff – depressed! NEWS*** GOOD PENSION NEWS*** Ah that “good pension news” oxymoron! – I … Continue reading

Posted in auto-enrolment, Change, dc pensions, defined aspiration, happiness, pension playpen, pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Auto-enrolment ; winners and losers.

Tesco doesn’t seem to be getting too much credit from the DB aficionados who have been perturbed by its attempts to push back retirement ages as part of the new deal.

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Posted in annuity, auto-enrolment, Change, dc pensions, defined aspiration, happiness, infrastucture, pension playpen, pensions, Popcorn Pensions, Retirement | Tagged , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

All the Queen’s Men (overtime at Romney Weir)

What do you do when you come back from Church on a wet April Sunday morning? If you live opposite Romney Weir in Eton, you can enjoy watching eight engineers monitoring how the largest archmides screw in Europe is coping with the extra flows … Continue reading

Posted in Change, happiness, Henry Tapper blog | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

How shares work (for us and our pensions)

Shares haven’t worked well for us over the past twelve years. World stock markets, especially the mature markets in Britain , Japan and the US, are worth less today than they were at the turn of the millenium. While some company’s shares … Continue reading

Posted in auto-enrolment, Bankers, Change, corporate governance, customer service, dc pensions, defined aspiration, FSA, happiness, Henry Tapper blog, Retirement | Tagged , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Steve Webb needs hard cash for his defined ambitions.

Steve Webb needs more than “ambition” to sort out disillusion with pensions. Continue reading

Posted in Financial Education, happiness, NEST, pensions | Tagged , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Snow business

On Monday evening the Tapsmobile set it’s wheels in a northerly direction and the following morning rolled into the little Perthshire village of Kinlochrannoch. We left in a balmy 17 degrees of sunshine and arrived in a snowstorm. Such changes in climate … Continue reading

Posted in happiness, Henry Tapper blog | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

SHOULD INVSTORS BE PREPARED TO PAY FOR CORPORATE ENGAGEMENT?

This is the question we’ll be debating at today’s pension play pen lunch. I’m a little daunted . I’ve read Professor John Kay‘s excellent paper about how equities work, should work and why they could work better. He’s in the middle … Continue reading

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