I’m yet to see a zombie movie that portrays the most likely way that a post-apocalyptic world will play out: hungry pensioners roaming around; not yet dead, but no pension to keep them fed, looking for an arm to gnaw on. If you think I’m being disrespectful to elderly people, I’m not: that’s my future I’m talking about. Wednesday’s Royal London report, suggesting millennials need to save £260,000 for a pension, is exactly the sort of thing that could lead to me one day eating the arms of my offspring. People who don’t expect to own a home will need to pay in £445,000 to live on a basic income – up from £150,000 in 2002-03.

But Steve Webb, Royal London’s policy director, assured me on the phone that it’s not all gloom and doom. In fact the solution is so not-gloomy there’s an acronym for it, because nothing bad ever gets afforded an acronym, except the way to deal with a stroke. The acronym is Sum: “Start as quickly as you can; up your contributions when you get a pay-rise; max out on what your employer will give you by putting more in,” says Webb.

This gives me little comfort as I contemplate the average £10.5k a year I’m supposed to be forking out for the next 42 years but don’t have. Neither, I imagine, does it help the many young people who won’t own a home in their adult lives. “I have to be constantly conscious about money. If I buy a coffee, or don’t make my own lunch one day, or have something other than Super Noodles for dinner, I can’t afford a drink at the weekend,” says Eloise Fry, a student in London. Saving is the last thing on her mind – Fry scrimps on luxuries, such as washing her clothes (“I have to pay £3 for it, it just feels painful”) after moving to the capital to do a master’s in journalism and taking out a £10,000 loan.

Read more @The Guardian