# 24 (2013) Financial Forecast

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You know you're getting old when you're worrying about the interest rates on your savings accounts. Every April I re-evaluate and move things around. Because someone has to.

I've worked out that if I can keep my ISA at a 3% rate for the rest of my working life I'll be able to retire at 62 with a marginally comfortable pension using today's prices. Which is kind of sad but clearly a necessity. But with no end to the recession in sight, finding that 3% deal is proving tricky. And that's how I know the recession is a real problem.

I didn't have a pension when I worked full time and money was the least of my worries. I spent my money, and spent and spent. And now I have a lot of catching up to do. Let that be a warning to you.

If I want to retire at around about state pension age I've only got 21 years left to muster up about £220,000 which may just keep me in food and heating if I live into my 80s. And who knows how long I'll live after that if I get that far.

Today, for the first time, a person in their 80s 

has higher living standards than someone 

working in their 20s

It's disconcerting how all through your twenties retirement is a whole other existence away. But then suddenly your thirties arrives and you think uh-huh. Real life. But those vital years do make all the difference.

Of course if you think I'm worrying now you need to read this to understand how catastrophic things could get not only for younger generations but also those approaching retirement now. The pension you might be putting away now, isn't actually there. It's being used to pay for a generation of retirees who are already there. But if fewer people are now putting away for their retirement where are current pensions coming from? The state pension may now in some cases be comparable to an early twenties income but an increasing number of pensionable age workers are now hanging in there and still working because they cannot afford to retire.

Many children are now living at home into their 40s because the costs of moving out are too prohibitive and older mothers who have held off starting a family due to careers and money concerns are being blamed for the steep rises in births in the last decade.

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I posted a link to a savings calculator above so you can find out how much work you've got to do to give yourself that comfortable retirement package you might already be dreaming of.

Of course, you might get lucky and make your millions, but if you don't this could be all you have so it's worth planning ahead to save yourself from years in poverty or an extended working life when you're older.

Sadly it won't be practical for a lot of us but be armed with the information and make informed choices wherever you can. That holiday in the sun might be just what you need right now but one week and it's gone. Put that money away and it could be paying for that retirement cruise instead.

# 23 (2013) Here's To The Medieval High Street

I am a Tesco shopper. The reason? It's cheap. It's the one place I can find all the things I need for the price I can afford. I'm not especially proud of this confession but it's the way it is. I am equally aware that had they not been there, I would have found other ways to manage my monthly budget.

The former boss of Tesco, Sir Terry Leahy, recently aired on Radio 4's Desert Island Discs. He described 'the rise of supermarkets and closure of small shops as part of progress'. He also 'called some High Streets "medieval", saying the way people lived their lives had changed'.

You could argue his statements on several points. My first comment would be that if it wasn't for the arrival and general take over of stores like Tesco, people's lives wouldn't have changed that much. It is my feeling that the UK shopper has been groomed into accepting stores like these over local independent shops by seducing them with cheap bulk offers, unhealthy time saving foods and a glutenous attitude towards eating.

You could also say that the only reason the High Street has changed is because of these ruthless multi-million pound companies moving in, not only into large industrial areas with their huge superstores but by infiltrating the high street with its smaller express outlets.

Invading the high street - Tesco took over a prime position at a key junction (source)

Lincoln itself is now riddled with them and they are clearly snatching business from other local independent stores by undercutting the competition thus starving them out of the high street and turning it into a cold and faceless shopping centre. 

On the other hand you could look at Tesco's humble beginnings and argue that here was an independent trader who had a head for business. The store began in 1919 and like many of our well known brands it started as a market stall in London's East End. 

This is the man we have to blame for Tesco. Enterpreneur WWI war veteran Jack Cohen (source)

You can also look at Tim Leahy's humble beginnings and think the same thing. The third of four sons, he grew up in a prefab on an estate in Liverpool. His father was a greyhound trainer and his mother was a nurse. His first job was at Tesco in Wandsworth, London when, as a 17 year old, so had to pay his own way through sixth form college.

Any one of the shops you see on the High Street could have become the next Tesco but it was the supermarket that showed the entrepreneurial skill to make it big. Because it changes with its customers, it gives the customer what it ultimately wants and it doesn't care how that affects the competition or its environment. Like all good businessmen, it is ruthless to the last and it can offer what it does because it has grown and is able to survive recessions and other economic disasters. The recent horse meat burger scare may have dented its profits, but Tesco won't have had to close any branches in its wake.

Tesco opened it's first store in 1929. It looks like a local independent business right (source)

Of course, if things continue as they are our high street is faced with a very bleak future. In the remaining years of our recession more small shops are going to fail. Of that there is no doubt. 

But imagine if the unthinkable happened and Tesco died out. Suddenly. In the wake of a huge economic crash. It could happen. What would be left? A High Street with very little to offer its populatiopn.  And then the enterpreneurs would be back. And so it begins again.

I miss the high street and the way it used to be. Friendly staff you recognised every time you went in to the shops. That personal service, that social experience. But for all its social past, mankind has distinctly lost its touch.

# 22 (2013) A Pint of Coke

Not drinking is now almost as expensive as having a few beers out but without the hangover. Being charged £2.50 for a pint of Coke or Pepsi has become the norm. There are pubs in Lincoln that charge less for a pint.

I'm okay with this price in the student bar we normally use. It's £2.50 for unlimited refills and we make the most of that offer.

But for £2.50 a go, when I can get 4 litres for £2.50 in Tesco, I might as well stay at home. Pubs, even in student towns are now prohibitively expensive although it you like to get tanked up on shots on a Friday night you'll probably do okay. But why would I want to do that?

Businesses are feeling the pinch. Many of them respond by putting prices up to compensate. But if they put the prices down (ie to sensible prices) wouldn't they get more customers?

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