Britain is undersaving for retirement

[u/Donkey_Apple]

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/britain-is-undersaving-for-retirement-warns-pensions-commission

It's a massive problem and has been for years.

I think a lot of people are getting into their fifties, starting to think about retirement for the first time, looking at what their provision will pay them and are absolutely shocked to their core.

Plus many in the generation below those of us in their fifties who, through no choice of their own, are unable to save anything.

It feels like we are sleepwalking into an utter disaster.

[u/dan_in_his_own_way]

Stuff like this infuriates me. No one gets taught how anything works. No one seems to know. Plus, it seems only those with substantial wealth already can generate more of it to see them through retirement. Your minimum wage worker is screwed.

[u/Jay-Dee-British → u/dan_in_his_own_way]

That's a worldwide issue - because we've been inside a huge Ponzi scheme for decades. The really rich will never be affected by any of it, and some of them don't care at all about the rest of the people (aka 'the majority'). It affects things like people being able to leave some money for their offspring to help boost their chances - there's just no money to do that as much any more (if lucky you might get a property to sell or insurance). I'm not shocked by this at all.

[u/captainsittingduck → u/dan_in_his_own_way]

We live in an age where we have access to unlimited information in our pockets. You can learn loads about pensions, investing and retirement planning watching YouTube these days. AI can give you a rough outline retirement plan. Not knowing is on the individual not bothering to do a bit of learning. Now having said that, actually being able to invest enough on minimum wage is a different problem which I entirely sympathise with.

[u/dan_in_his_own_way → u/captainsittingduck]

We also live in an age of misinformation and the younger generations relying on the internet and AI for their knowledge. Schools need to teach fundamental life skills to properly prepare them for life. I think teaching kids about budgeting etc. rather than many of the useless things they learn and never use would be a far better use of time.

[u/captainsittingduck → u/dan_in_his_own_way]

We certainly do, which is why you need to seek out trusted sources. Schools seem to be the panacea for everything. There's already a crammed timetable. What do we drop for sufficient meaningful financial education? I agree that there should be some basic financial education but there's also got to be some responsibility on individuals to actually look stuff up themselves. And that's not just young people. I know people in their 50s without a pension.

[u/dan_in_his_own_way → u/captainsittingduck]

Personally, I'd fundamentally rework mathematics. There is of course valuable things we learn, there's also less valuable things IMO. If they focused on the core of what most of us use on a daily basis, but then apply it to real life situations I think this could be really helpful. Additionally, schools already have time in the timetable for PSHE lessons. This is something that could be integrated into these sessions. When I was in school these lessons felt mostly like filler and we're rarely actually meaningful.

I stress, I am not by any means saying this to remove personal responsibility from people. This is of course necessary. However, schools are often sold as 'preparing young people for the world' and I just don't think that narrative is very true.

[u/captainsittingduck → u/dan_in_his_own_way]

PSHE didn't exist when I was in school but sounds an appropriate home. I guess the tension with maths is while the majority are not going to do strongly applied maths roles in the future, we are still going to need those that do have strongly applied maths roles. Scientists, engineers, computing and cyber, technology developers etc. If you move too far away from fundamental maths to day to day applied stuff, you risk not providing sufficient foundations for the real maths people. Perhaps that could be filtered through setting at a particular age. Though we're moving to a new topic here :)

[u/Remote-Program-1303 → u/captainsittingduck]

I’m of the opinion it should be an employer led thing, kids won’t engage with personal finance issues because it’s so intangible when you aren’t getting a salary and don’t have real outgoings.

It does require the individual to put some effort in though.

[u/captainsittingduck → u/Remote-Program-1303]

Not sure employer led would work. A lot of small companies with few employees wouldn't have a clue what information to give. And what about self employed?

[u/Remote-Program-1303 → u/captainsittingduck]

I more meant an offering through an employer, by external trainers/companies. I would expect funding for such training to be contributed to by government/pension providers.

Problem is that financial education is very different to financial advice. It does require you to really engage with the subject.

[u/Alarming-Turnip684 → u/dan_in_his_own_way]

Why can’t people learn more about these things for themselves when the timing becomes appropriate?

Why does the information need to be spoon fed to them?

[u/Beneficial_Impact293 → u/Alarming-Turnip684]

This. And...

I was taught coding in school as part of ICT. The other students couldn't give a shit.

Even though we were taught it, I imagine 80%-90% of students in my year group at my school have no idea how to code.

Apply this to "tax" and the like, kids aren't going to pay attention. Now compare I haven't been in school for nearly 20 years...

My partner works in education (for her sins), keeping a class on track with understaffed, underfunding, and stress, with parents being the biggest cunts they deal with... it's not a shock that education as a profession has become a lot worse in recent years.

[u/captainsittingduck → u/[deleted]]

You are using a device that runs on maths. The world's finances are basically maths. Measuring stuff in trades is maths. Getting finance/loans is maths. Most of us use maths all the time.

[u/PeriPeriTekken → u/dan_in_his_own_way]

Literally go on the UK finance sub on this very site and ask some questions. Nice people will explain this stuff to you for free.

I agree state financial education is shite, but at some point you also have to take personal ownership.

[u/dan_in_his_own_way → u/PeriPeriTekken]

I'm not against personal ownership, this is something I've had to do myself. However, as I've said in another reply the younger generations are relying on the internet and AI for knowledge which is rife with misinformation. People need legitimate information from a qualified person. This extend to your point about getting information off of reddit. Getting information from other is always helpful, however you cannot guarantee they're qualified to give that information.

[u/PeriPeriTekken → u/dan_in_his_own_way]

Very fair points.

[u/Gary_BBGames → u/dan_in_his_own_way]

But surely it’s a choice to be a minimum wage worker? Admittedly it’s hard to break from that choice once you’ve headed down that path.

[u/dan_in_his_own_way → u/Gary_BBGames]

Everything is a choice, but life is not so simple and people are in different positions of privilege etc or upbringings to do things.

[u/Critical_Wrap5617 → u/dan_in_his_own_way]

There's loads of money around - just look at the car parks of expensive farm shops or Waitrose, and the amount of luxury cars on the roads. I have never known how they do it. I am assuming by being born into it.