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FOOL'S EYE VIEW
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Among the various things that have both surprised and appalled newspaper commentators over the last few days, it's that Cherie Blair revealed the family's financial details to a virtual stranger -- her best friend's boyfriend -- in the course of buying the now-celebrated flats in Bristol. It's not something we Brits generally do. As a rule, we're a secretive bunch about our finances, the only exception being house prices. The value of our home has long been a topic of conversation at dinner parties around the country probably because, for people who have a lot of equity, it seems to confer some kind of status symbol. In fact, a new survey by National Savings & Investments has just revealed that nearly a quarter of us don't even tell our partners how much money we've got saved let alone anyone else! Just over 90% of us keep our savings a secret from other members of the family. My own theory is that it's because rather too many of us don't have any savings to discuss and we're a bit embarrassed by it! If truth be told, many people would probably find that if they totted up how much they owed on credit cards and personal loans, they'd be having conversations about their debts rather than their savings and, let's be honest, that's hardly a fun subject for the dinner table. Another survey, published by Royal London this morning, says our New Year resolutions will include saving more, with 42% resolving to do so. The problem is that when their respondents were asked whether they thought they would actually save more, only 37% said they believed they would follow through with it. So 5% have given up before they've even started. Talk about being all mouth and no trousers! There have long been warnings about how little we're saving. About a third of us don't have any savings at all and, depending on what statistics you read, the rest of us are only putting aside between 4% and 6% of our disposable income for our futures. That really is an appalling state of affairs. It's a bit simplistic, I know, but if you bring it back to basics, why do people think they'll be able to live on 6% of their current income in their old age when they can't now? As a bare minimum we should be saving between 10% and 15%, more if we started late. Earlier this year, two major reports into the savings and pensions industry were published. The Sandler Review said the savings industry was too complicated and needed to be simplified, while the Pickering Report examined the problem of company pension schemes facing escalating costs. Occupational schemes are closing to new entrants in record numbers and it's through these schemes that people have traditionally been encouraged to save. The Government is finally expected to respond to the recommendations made in these reports when it publishes its Green Paper on Pensions next week. We've been told that it will come up with proposals for pension reform that will encompass the following principles: It all sounds very laudable but we'll have to wait and see what they come up with to find out if their plans are far-reaching enough. We need to be encouraged to think a little more about saving and a little less about spending, so their proposals had better be good ones. In the meantime, perhaps if we talked about the subject more openly with our families, we'd find the motivation to take action rather than make a New Year's resolution that we'll probably fail to keep.