Teenagers take on pensions…one year on…
It has now been more than a year since we started this whole shebang of writing a monthly blog… now we haven’t exactly lived and breathed pensions every waking minute. But we reckon hands down there’s very few teenagers that have spent more time thinking about pensions than us. Looking back, it’s fair to say; what a way we have come!
Every month it has been a steep learning curve and recently picking a subject to write about has become more and more tedious. We feel like it all comes back to the same endings no matter what we write about…
The key theme that runs through everything about pensions, the thing that it all comes back to is negativity. Regardless of where we start, what we intend to write about there is always an issue or something that needs to change, or something that has changed and people are angry about… it’s like there isn’t really a whole load of anything else!
Whether we’re talking about; saving, gender equality, technology or even the end of pensions, it is all overshadowed by an overwhelming sense of negativity (and this is what we see in the press). Mainstream pensions press rarely has anything positive to say, and this creates a sense of fear and mistrust around pensions.
Surely we can’t blame this all on the press? So what (or who) can it be blamed on? We don’t think it can be pinned down to a single group. But is it all just a misrepresentation? Is it like a butterfly effect? Does a minor change or inconvenience for a government or company turn from the flap of a butterfly’s wings into a storm on the other side of the pensions industry (world)? Does the media blow it out of proportion? Do we not know the full story? Is there another side to the same coin?
Well whilst researching for this blog, we found some interesting facts and insights. Did you know that negative news tends to “garner more attention” and more likely to be “perceived as truthful”. This all comes back to some behavioural biases, negativity (or bad news) spreads fast because as humans we have an inbuilt desire to survive and we worry about things that could pose a threat to our way of life. The media machines know this, they know that bad news sells (or gets more clicks) which means more pounds in their pocket.
So is it really all bad news or are we just missing the good news?
So pensions and negativity go together like gin and tonic (that’s what mum would say). But what does this really mean for the people that need to be saving? How does this affect pensions? Now if pensions isn’t at the forefront of your mind, but your subconscious connections are all negative news, surely this is going to be a flight not fight moment? Couple that over a prolonged period of time, with the crazy complexity of all that pension language you guys have and you are not setting a perfect starting place for long and happy savings.
But ultimately we’re not too sure on this and would love to read your views on why pensions and negativity seem so interlinked, so why not leave your thoughts in the comments.
That’s all for this month! We both agree that we’d love to write about something positive next month, so if you have any ideas or suggestions please send them our way! Till the next takeover!
