On the fiddle?

At a time when many people ought to be saving in one way or another and yet aren’t owing to lack of financial literacy, lack of funds or a basic mistrust of the financial services industry and the long term cost of the advice of financial advisers it is interesting to take a quick snapshot of what is going on.

The cost structure associated with using a financial adviser is going to change in 2013 to make it more transparent and, hopefully, perceived better value for money. Unsurprisingly, surveys suggest that this will lead to a significant exodus of financial advisers from this kind of work. For more on the changes see a Which? summary:

(http://www.which.co.uk/news/2011/09/60-second-guide-to-the-future-of-financial-advice-264445/)

Financial advisers are people qualified in their field and are allowed to sell/advise specific products. OK so far.

But the overwhelming need is for people to understand what money is all about in a much more basic sense. Hence, amongst other things, the very laudable campaign by Martin Lewis of Martin’s Money Tips fame to start at a very early stage and bring such education into schools.

Another initiative is the Money Advice Service. Here are a few extracts from their site:

“Our vision is to enhance people’s lives because they take control of their money as a matter of course.”

“The Money Advice Service is here to help everyone manage their money better. We do this by giving clear, unbiased money advice to help people make informed choices.

We believe that the right money advice can make a difference to people’s lives. And when people take steps to manage their money better, they can live better too.

The Money Advice Service is a free, independent service. We were set up by government and are funded by a levy on the financial services industry.

Because we’re not selling anything ourselves, or for anyone else, you can trust our advice.”

Again, a very laudable idea, but in my opinion an underwhelming, low profile service which still does not attack basic financial illiteracy.

But that’s not the fun part. As can be seen above the service is funded by a levy on the financial services industry that is, in part, financial advisers who see this as a threat to their existence that they are having to pay for, adding insult to injury.

And, so, while the British population struggles with problems like “shall we do without heating to pay for food?” what debate is taking place between Financial Advisers and Money Advice Service? It revolves around the difference between “financial advice” and “money advice” and when does “advice” become “guidance” or, indeed, “education”.

The words “burns”, “Nero” and “Rome” spring to mind.

 

“The Third Way” – now I understand it

After many years of listening to the soundbites and wondering what precisely “The Third Way” was I think that I am beginning to understand.

A number of surveys and pieces of research have come out this month, notably from Prudential and from LV=, which by coincidence have led to headlines all revolving around a third.

Here are a few to whet your appetite.

“One in three workers are without a pension

One in three workers in the UK does not have a private or company pension, meaning that around 15 million will have to rely on the state pension or personal savings when they retire, according to stark new research.”

And another

“A third of Britons stop pension payments

A third of working adults have stopped paying into their pension schemes as they can no longer afford to, according to new research.“

And another

“Home is pension for a third of retirees despite falling house prices

Rise of the HIPpies (‘Home is Pension’) generation: two million over-50s are planning to use equity in their property to help fund their retirement^“

 

So this is the legacy that people are now having to deal with – pretty worrying really.

And why a third? Well obviously the numbers all came in at around that level. But what makes it such an intriguing headline? I suggest that, while stopping just short of apocalypse and complete meltdown, it is still a pretty horrifying number.

 

 

Reinventing not rusting

I was delighted to come across the following slogan describing the new approach to active, productive retirement: “If you rest you rust”.

In a few succinct words it exactly describes the perils of slowing down, giving up and ceasing to be active in later life.

Ageing and retirement shouldn’t represent a ‘more of the same’ scenario for anyone. While it’s understandable to want to take a somewhat more measured pace to life and work than in the past, retirement today should focus more on reinvention than rest.

Doing something enjoyable is stimulating and energising. Finding and pursuing what that is in order to avoid the physical and mental symptoms of slowly rusting away must be our number one priority in later life. 

Past our sell-by date?

Last week’s news that the government is advocating removing sell-by dates from food packaging in order to cut waste and save shoppers money (apparently the UK throws away about £12bn of edible food each year) resonated strongly in terms of how we treat older people.

“Past your sell-by date” is now a common term for older people who are no longer considered to be at the top of their game.

Obviously, like food, outer packaging plays a great part in decisions about them/us too. No longer looking young can be detrimental in terms of how older people’s performance and skills are perceived regardless of their inherent abilities.

In effect, the government removed the sell-by date for workers by removing the default retirement age. However, what we all need to tackle now at an individual and societal level are perceptions around declining usefulness and lack of value simply based on ageing packaging.

At the moment far too many older people are being thrown on the scrap heap when what’s inside them is still as good as it ever was.

A quote from BBC Radio 4′s Today programme on the topic of date stamping on food said: “I can understand when people – particularly young people starting out with shopping – look at these dates and say ‘I’m not sure about this; better throw it away’.”

Seems as though that reflects what is often thought by younger managers about older employees

 

Being older in our time?

Who remembers the TV documentary series Seven Up, arguably one of the first reality TV shows? The idea on which it was based was simple but radical: to follow 14 children from across society from their first appearance at age seven, revisiting them every seven years as they progressed through life.

Launched in 1963 by Granada Television, the first programme was followed by 7 Plus Seven in 1970, 21 Up in ’77, 28 Up in ’84, 35 Up in ’91, 42 Up in ’99 and 49 Up in 2006.  

The series asked the children (and later their adult selves) about their lives and their dreams for the future and examined how these developed or changed every seven years.

The reason for making the initial programme, according to the series’ director Michael Apted, was that “the early sixties was a time of radical social change when there were all these questions about whether English society was going through serious volcanic changes with the Wilson government and the cultural revolution as it were, you know, with The Beatles, The Stones, Mary Quant and all that”.

Over the years the changes that occurred to the original 14 (some of whom dropped out of the project) were fascinating and often tragic. Success, failure, marriage and childbirth, poverty, illness – almost every possible facet of the human experience was revealed.

Now, as longevity, technology and globalization are arguably heralding a new period of social change, it would be great to repeat the experiment starting with a group of individuals aged 49. Not the same ones as in Seven Up (their life experiences will have been affected too greatly by their involvement in the programme), but a new and diverse group of individuals representing all facets of contemporary British society.

Such a programme would be a fascinating way to explore what it means to be older in twenty-first century Britain and to see how people’s views of what their old age will be like and what they would and wouldn’t like to see happen actually develop.

At a time when our society still lumps together “older people” asone fiftyyear cohort, it would be a hugely enlightening way of examining the intricacies of ageing.

 

Starting a business in later life – eyes wide open

(by Dr Dianne Bown-Wilson)

I was delighted to be on Radio 4′s Woman’s Hour today talking about starting a business in later life. My role was to point out some of the perils and pitfalls – not easy in the few short minutes you get to give a soundbite or two.

However, the woman from Ely who they were featuring as a case study (having set up a wool shop after a career in nursing) was a great example of how to do it. Planning, focus, understanding her market – she has got off to a great start and has realistic expectations for the future. In short, she’s a great role model for older people (particularly older women) whatever their business aspirations. What was especially good was how much she seemed to be really enjoying it…

While starting a business in later life is no different in essence to doing so at any age, it would be helpful to see positive role models like these more widely publicised and to have some sort of forum where olderpreneurs could share their experiences - good and bad.

The government has highlighted self-employment as an option for keeping older people in the workforce. However, it’s far from the simple panacea it seems. The problem is that starting a business is really very easy; sustaining it and turning a profit can be extremely difficult and that’s really where help and advice is needed.

At in my prime we have a few case studies on our website of people who’ve set up businesses   (http://www.inmyprime.info/examples.html).  But we’re always looking for more. If you’ve started a business in later life or are thinking of doing so - please contact us at enquiries@inmyprime.info . We’d really like to hear about it.

Thinking of starting a business?

Hear what we had to say on BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour

Click Here to listen

When good news feels like bad news

The winners of the US AARP’s Best Employers for Workers over 50 Awards have just been announced.

Representing the UK the worthy recipients were Centrica, Marks and Spencer, The Co-operative Group and BMW. No BT, MacDonalds or B&Q? Well never mind, they were probably in the runners-up list.

Whilst not wanting to denigrate the efforts of the winning companies who as large UK employers are leading the way in terms of decently managing an age diverse workforce in difficult times, these winners were a racing certainty.

Knowing that only a very few organizations such as these win, time after time, is depressing mainly because it underlines that most organizations are still doing very little. Certainly very little that is innovative or genuinely helpful to older people.

Where are the public sector employers? Where are the entrepreneurial organizations? Where are the academic employers, or the charities or those whose market is the over 50s?

The day that the AARP awards (or any others in the UK itself) reveal a list of new and unexpected names will be a great day indeed.

http://www.aarp.org/work/on-the-job/info-09-2011/aarp-best-employers-international-winners-2011.html

Life after work – start saving if you want one

Last night’s ITV programme The Working Life – Life after work was a well-meaning attempt to remind the great British public about the need to save money for retirement. Although masquerading as a shock/horror exposé, in fact it had little new to say.

Yes, we are all living longer (a third of our life in retirement); no, people aren’t saving to provide for it (numbers enrolled in pensions are at an all time low); yes, people don’t trust pensions but guess what, if you don’t have one you have a problem because getting a job over 50 is well nigh impossible.

However, it was a useful reminder of the problem and that it’s never too late (if you’re still working) to start saving in some form or another.

That said, the call to young people to enrol in pensions was unconvincing; the evidence presented about pensions in general seemed more inclined to encourage them to opt out of the new NEST system when it is introduced next year, rather than seeing it as a good thing.

Overall, there was far too much crammed into one thirty minute programme. Just touching on every issue relating to pensions and retirement in one hit isn’t really the answer to improving general financial education. Let’s hope we see the emergence of more detailed and motivational analyses on a regular basis in the near future.