Gizmo that scares you into saving

SCOTTISH Widows is taking to the road this weekend with two retirement vehicles carrying pension experts on board, as well as information, calculators and whizzy technology to help prompt people to plan better financially for when they give up work.

Its most eye-catching gizmo is Your Future Self app – where you can look in a mirror and see how you might look at the age you have enough money to retire. People aim on average for a pension of £25,000 a year, according to the company’s research. Some will get a shock to see just how old they might look when they reach this goal based on their current efforts to save – and it may prompt them to save so they can retire when they are a little more sprightly.

Scottish Widows’ Robert Cochran says: ‘A record number of people are now saving adequately for retirement, but there are still far too many who aren’t aware of how much they are saving or even if they have a pension in place at all. That’s why we’re taking to the road with our Pensions Awareness tour. This year, our Your Future Self app will help people to identify with their older self in a stark and visual way. By changing the contribution levels on the app and seeing how this changes the age at which they will retire, hopefully people will see that saving for retirement really is saving for themselves.’

The vehicles roll into Cardiff High Street today and will head for Kent’s Bluewater shopping centre next weekend followed by Bristol Cabot Circus shopping centre a week later. They will also call in at shopping centres in Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Glasgow later in the month as well as drop in at 22 workplaces across the country.