Gosling's Grouse: Safely locked away

Safely locked away

I always thought the point about savings was to put money away and not touch it until you really need to.

And when would you need to? Buying a house, retiring? Maybe the odd emergency, such as medical treatment. It did not used to include buying a car, going on holiday, getting a loft conversion, a gastric band, or having a mid-life crisis. But I appreciate we live in an environment where we expect everything now, and cheap credit has evolved to meet that demand. I raise this because it seems we are going through something of a subtle shift in how we look at long-term savings and, in particular, pensions. We have the so-called annuity revolution about to descend upon us next year and, ...