Personally, being 15 and in the process of completing my GCSEs, I have never considered the thought of saving for retirement.

Beginning my work experience with Pensions Age has abruptly made me aware of how much there is to learn about pensions, and how saving for a pension is vital throughout our lives. My eyes have been opened to how limited my knowledge is on everything that comes with pensions as well as mortgages, salaries and managing savings.

Aside from a few PSE lessons, we receive very limited amounts of financial education in school. Since it is a topic that none of us can escape from in our day to day lives, I believe there should be a much higher demand for improved and more accessible financial education in schools all over the country.

I have had the advantage of being made aware of the importance of a pension through only one day of work, however, many others do not have this advantage. It therefore does not surprise me that research shows almost half of Brits approaching retirement age have no idea about pension freedoms, or that four in 10 people are not saving for a retirement.

Despite this, I share the attitude that saving for something in the unforeseeable future with money you don’t necessarily have would be a challenging task at the best of times. I can empathize with people’s reluctance to hand over their money before even getting a chance to spend it. However, I am now beginning to understand the importance of doing this and the sizeable benefits.

Finally, with my knowledge of key terms and phrases being next to nothing, the pensions system at first appears to me as very complex. I believe this could be an element of why I have never properly thought about pensions before now; I too easily dismissed them as something that did not apply to me without even attempting to understand.

This just reinforces my point about a need for greater education in money management and the importance of saving to be introduced into schools.

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