Oct 22 2008
Pension Woes
Worried about the effect of the credit crunch on your pension? If you’re 50+ you should be. That’s not to say you should be panicking just taking a good, hard look at your retirement provision. Now, we are not going to pretend that we are experts on financial matters but, looking at our own retirement plans, we’ve got some concerns.
How can you get good, reliable information about savings and investments (or indeed any financial matters)? I suggest you take a look at The Fool’s website, there’s loads of information but you can also mail if you can’t find the answer to your question. I found them very responsive and helpful.
While I would never suggest that Independent Financial Advisers are a waste of time 
the best person to look after your interests really is you. You don’t need to be a guru to figure out a reasonable investment that suits you. At 50+ you should be looking for something that is low-risk as you may not have sufficient time to recover from market dips. Low-risk also means low return but at least your money is secure. Most people now know that there is a limit to how much you can hold in any one bank but, with the recent mergers and acquisitions, banks which had previously been separate entities may now be one.
This means that if you have more than £50,000 in two banks you may still only be protected to the maximum of £50,000 as both banks are part of the same group. You can find out which banks are in the same group here.
An increasing number of people are finding they are having to defer their retirement, some have lost a great deal of money in events such as the Iceland bank crash, to avoid this kind of disaster remember, these days if it looks too good to be true it is!
One response so far
I’m not too worried about the amount I have in the bank right now, well not in terms of losses anyway! I’m more likely to take out what little is left and spend it since the interest is so poor.
I’m resigned to the fact I’ll probably have to work until I drop but that presumes that anyone will give me a job anyway.
Pension? Worth bugger all. Financial institutions? Well, the institution part is where they should all be. Financial Advisers? Worth bugger all. Would you trust a bank ever again? Not a chance.