7 Ways to Beat the Pension Crisis

This is a comprehensive and far reaching book covering a multitude of ways to save for your retirement. This title could never be accused of being un-ambitious and certainly thinks "outside the box" of traditional forms of retirement saving.

The opening chapter introduces some alarming statistics about the economic outlook for the current working population. Statistics such as "Three out of four working adults will have to survive on an income of less than 50% of their final salary (City bank)" and "Four out of ten people over the age of 50 have already been forced to delay their retirement because their pensions are inadequate (Saga)" certainly highlight the extent of the potential crisis we all face.

The book then goes on to describe various vehicles that could be used to save for your retirement more effectively. The author includes traditional savings provisions, such as:

• State Pensions
• Personal pensions
• Occupational pensions

Some of the more common alternatives like:

• Making money from property
• Using ISAs

And some fairly exotic savings vehicles, eg:

• National savings certificates
• Precipice bonds
• Traded endowment policies

The book certainly surpasses the usual "brief" of pensions guide books (ie exploring the main established routes) and concentrates on different (sometimes innovative) ways of saving throughout your life time in order to secure sufficient funds to afford a comfortable retirement. Avenues such as setting up trusts to pay for your children's education and using your spouse's tax allowance are considered from the point of view that any money saved in these ways can be put towards your retirement savings.

Taxation is discussed fairly extensively and the book could almost be regarded as a personal financial planning manual rather than a pensions text.

I would recommend this to anyone who is looking for inspiration for diversifying their retirement savings plan or wanting to investigate whether their current savings vehicles best suit their needs. It is much less suitable for somebody who is new to pensions and is looking to get a handle on the basics. As can be expected from the variety of content, there is only enough space to introduce all of the less familiar savings vehicles but it should give you plenty of ideas for further research.

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