Pensions as food?

Today I've had my eye on pensions and food after @GHLumsden posted a piece suggesting ISAs were like fish 'n' chips. He's now comparing pensions to kebabs (?! - you can view here : http://citywire.co.uk/money/how-pensions-work-and-why-theyre-like-kebabs)

Later today whilst reading the professional press I noted Andy Zanelli of Axa saying "Advising on pensions is like peeling an onion. As you peel off the skin it starts to get painful and by the time you have chopped, sliced and diced, the eyes are really stinging and full of tears"
As an IFA, I know the feeling Andy.

Axa Andy's quote reminded me of seventy-year-old Eletharias of Greece. I saw him on the news last month collecting onions from some wheelie bins.


Since the euro crisis he says he cannot afford to go the supermarket any more, so for the past few months he has started rummaging for food in dustbins. He goes out in Athens at night so that no one sees him.
"Since my pension was cut, I can't buy food so I look through the garbage," he said.
http://news.sky.com/story/20186/families-crumble-in-greeces-economic-crisis
 
Just a few days ago NEST, the new goverment designed compulsory pension thingy showed the results of a survey : Food, fun and football? ... why ‘Tomorrow is worth saving for’
The survey suggests that low confidence, rather than unwillingness, may be one of the main reasons for people not saving enough for their later lives.
http://www.nestpensions.org.uk/schemeweb/NestWeb/includes/public/news/Food-fun-and-football-NEST-asks-consumers-why-Tomorrow-is-worth-saving-for.html
The majority (71 per cent) agree they may not have put enough aside because they don't want to make the wrong decision about saving for retirement, whereas nearly half (47 per cent) agree it’s because they don’t know enough about what would be their best option.

Here's a final sobering statistic that I calculated myself. If you retired at age 60 and ate a Happy Meal 3x a day (say £3 for the McMeal) and you lived for 25 years, even without inflation, that would be over £80,000 you'd spend on food. From a taxable pension income that means a fund of £100,000!
http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/ukhome/more-food/happy-meal.html

So if you have aspirations to live happily ever after, but eat more than just happy meals, do visit your retirement planning. Perhaps even consider allowing Green Financial to assist ...