Head in the holiday sand over savings

Written by Rebecca O'Connor on 22nd Jun 2016

Would you choose to put spare cash aside for holiday, or for retirement?

For most of us, it seems the answer is holidays. Research from Moneyfarm, the online wealth manager, found that 40 per cent of people prioritise holidays over pension planning, despite a lack of cash in old age being the “biggest fear” for 42 per cent of respondents.

But as a consequence of prioritising sun over savings, we may be impoverishing ourselves in retirement.

MoneyFarm says the figures suggest that savers are choosing to “bury their heads in the sand” over saving for retirement. It blamed poor performance, unnecessary charges and a lack of transparency within the financial services industry for putting savers off from investing for retirement.

Are you a holiday or a pension saver? Leave us a comment.

Paolo Galvani, chairman and co-founder of MoneyFarm, said: “Many savers want to start planning for retirement in their 20s and 30s – but don’t know where to start. As a result, savers look at more immediate targets, such as saving for a holiday.”

MoneyFarm offers the first £10,000 invested completely fee and commission free and does not charge on savings over £1m.

Mr Galvani added: “At present, whilst they rarely dispute the benefit of professional guidance, there is a worry that there are unnecessary fees from financial advisers.”

The research found that some savers are concerned that a financial adviser’s guidance would be biased towards generating commission fees. This is a worry for 81 per cent of savers and another factor leading to savers’ reluctance to invest in the long-term, according to the survey.

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