“PENSIONS” – A TOPIC that can often be met with a glazed eye by the young professional, or with a flutter of panic by the 40-something employee.

I’m unsure why planning for sustainability and longevity regarding our finances is something that so many people close themselves off to, but there’s a common assumption that pensions and planning for retirement is something that can be put off, and off… until, well, some other time.

The CSO Quarterly National Household Survey 2015 reported the most common reason cited by people for not having a pension was not being able to afford one (39% of workers), but the situation is not that black and white because in the same report just over 22% of workers said that they had simply never got around to it.

Pensions system

However, there are other issues at play. People can be overwhelmed at the complexity of the pensions system and are unwilling or unconfident to find out where to start. While others have an element of suspicion and mistrust around pension investment and how it all works.

But the fact remains that a national ‘long finger’ has been put on this issue, in that investment in individual pension funds been diverted or procrastinated upon by many, in the private sector in particular, and the notion that ‘the government will look after me in retirement’ has sustained the public mind for so long now that, simply put, Ireland is facing somewhat of a pensions crisis in the next 20 years.

With an ageing population a growing reality, the cost of retirement provision to the State is set to increase significantly in the coming 15-20 years. The State pension was never designed with the intention of supporting the sort of lifestyles that people have in mind for their retirement – full of leisure and travel and good health to indulge in personal projects.

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