Do you know how your pension is invested – and what will happen to the triple lock?

This is Money Podcast

This is Money

Business News, Business, Investing, News

4.1 • 650 Ratings

🗓️ 28 August 2020

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A large chunk of workers are unaware that their pension savings are invested in the stock market.

When asked in a recent survey what they think happens to their cash, the most common answer was that they had 'no idea.'

It doesn't make for pretty reading – Lee Boyce and Georgie Frost look at why it matters, and what can be done to get people more interested in their retirement pots.

It comes as a reported rift has broken out at the top of government over the state pension triple lock.

A key election promise, but there is a problem: With it rising on whichever is highest: inflation, average earnings growth or 2.5 per cent, it could go up a huge 18 per cent in 2021 under those rules. What changes could happen?

From next month, your teen could be much richer as the first Child Trust Funds mature. What can your 18 year-old do with the cash?

One option is not to buy private flights. Lee puts his weekly Consumer Trends column in the spotlight to reveal how much it costs to charter a flight, after one company reports a surge of interest.

And what on earth is a hard seltzer? Sales in the US are booming and they have now come to Britain, will they prove as popular this side of the Atlantic?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to This Is Money Podcast, brought to you in partnership with Charles Stanley Direct, the award-winning investment platform trusted by over 40,000 clients. Investment involves risk. I'm Georgie Frost, and alongside me today is Assistant Editor Lee Boyce. And we're asking, do you know how your pension works and what it's invested in? Of course you do. This is money readers,
0:22.3	but a worrying proportion of the population have absolutely no idea. But does it matter?
0:27.9	Talking of pensions, as Boris and Rishi are at odds over the future of the triple lock,
0:32.2	we look at what the government's alternatives could be. Plus, is your child sitting on a 50 grand windfall? It's a private jet just for
0:39.6	the rich and famous and alcoholic water. What the heck is the point? Don't say we don't cover
0:45.3	it all on this pod and don't forget, and stay up to date with all the latest breaking money
0:49.3	news just go to this is money.co.uk or download the app. But first, as a reported Rift breaks out the top of government over the state pension
0:58.5	triple lock, new research has exposed just how in the dark we are when it comes to our
1:04.5	retirement savings. According to Hargreaves, the lands down, just a fifth of women are aware
1:09.7	that their pension savings are invested
1:12.2	in the stock market. When asked what people thought happened to their cash, for those people
1:17.7	that didn't know it was invested, the most common answer was they had no idea. That was
1:23.7	followed by a belief that it may be invested after all.
1:27.8	While many thought the government was looking after their cash, gulp.
1:31.6	Lee, it's not pretty reading, and I'm confident I know the answer to this,
1:36.6	but why does it matter that we don't know how pensions work,
1:42.3	where they're invested in, and particularly I mentioned there about the gender
1:47.0	divide, a fifth of women. What is this research telling us?
1:51.0	Well, Georgie, you know, it's vastly important that you take an active interest, in my opinion, in your pension.
1:58.0	This is going to be the sum of money that takes you into retirement
2:01.7	and you're going to want as much money as you can possibly muster up over your working career
2:06.5	saved in a great way of saving tax-free with pension's tax relief and have that pot of cash
	...

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